Myanmar student facilitates medical aid in Kunming

Since 2018, an action plan has been carried out by the China Charity Federation and Fuwai Yunnan Cardiovascular Hospital (FYCH), offering free treatment to Myanmar children with congenital heart disease (CHD). It belongs to a rescue plan under the Belt and Road Initiative.

On December 4, 2019, the Kunming-based Fuwai Yunnan Cardiovascular Hospital received 8 CHD children from Myanmar, with treatment plans formulated separately for each kid. But the FYCH medical staff members are not fluent in Myanmese. 

Learning that the Yunnan hospital is in need of a Chinese-Myanmese interpreter, the Myanmar student of Aung Lai, who is on an internship at the First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, volunteered to help at once.

Born in Lashio, north Myanmar, the 25-year-old girl has ancestral roots in Tengchong, southwest Yunnan, so Aung Lai also has a Chinese name Zhao Qianqian. Dreaming of being a doctor, she began to study medicine at Kunming Medical University in 2014 and will graduate in July this year. 

At the hospital, Aung Lai bridged the language barriers between the Chinese doctors and the Myanmar children with CHD, and her patience and tender care in interpretation has won recognition from the Chinese medical staff and Myanmese parents alike. 

In the future, Aung Lai hopes to work in the border area of Dehong or Xishuangbanna in south Yunnan, where hospitals are open to patients from neighboring Myanmar. She hopes to put into practice what she learned, while facilitating medical exchanges between China and Myanmar. 

Reporting by Hu Chao (Xinhua); trans-editing by Wang Shixue