Afghan alumni from Chinese colleges nation-rebuilding war-ravaged homeland

Imran Zakeria, an associate professor at the Regional Research Center of the Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan, talks during an interview with Xinhua in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 9, 2023. For decades, and especially since the pull-out of the U.S. army in August 2021, numerous batches of Afghan students traveled to neighboring China for higher education. (Photo by Sabawoon/Xinhua)

With a master's degree in civil engineering Obtained from the Southeast University in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, Abasin Danis returned to his native land in Afghanistan five years ago and became a project manager under the Ministry of Public Works.

For decades, and especially since the pull-out of the U.S. army in August 2021, numerous batches of Afghan students traveled to neighboring China for higher education.

Now, Danis, 36, mainly participates in planning and reconstructing roads all over Afghanistan, most of which were bombed beyond recognition during the two-decade-long war.

To date, almost everything needs restoring in the war-ridden country, and many Afghans who used to study in China, like Danis, are active in all walks of life, joining the like-minded to nation-rebuild with the expertise they acknowledged in China, whereby they also help enhance the friendly relationship between the countries.

Danis said that studying in China guided his life in the right direction and threw a light on his career making. "The linking roads between the districts of the provinces, as well as the national highways between provinces and the capital, play an important role in building the infrastructure of the country, and it also has a direct impact on people's life and the GDP of the country," he said.

"I had an amazing academic and social environment in China and got a lot of love, respect and assistance from Chinese people during my stay from 2016 to 2018," he added.

Imran Zakeria, an associate professor at the Regional Research Center of the Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan, said he went to different provincial-level regions of China seven times from 2015 to 2017 for academic exchanges.

Those experiences encouraged Zakeria to apply for a master's degree at a Chinese university. Sponsored by the China Scholarship Council in 2018, he chose Central China Normal University based in Wuhan City to study international relations.

Zakeria was also among one of the overseas students who stayed in Wuhan during the outbreak of the COVID-19 cluster early in 2020.

"I want to say that I'm extremely thankful for the university officials, and especially the international office... They provided us with doctors as well, and even like some students, they were in isolation, but they have also been provided with psychological doctors as well," Zakeria said while recalling the hardships he went through with Chinese friends.

Receiving an interview with Xinhua outside his office, Zakeria said his connections to China propelled him to focus on studies of Chinese politics and policies. He is also active in public diplomacy and contributing to the exchanges between authorities and the people of Afghanistan and China.

For Khalil Ahmad Hijrat, a cardiologist and Health Director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, the country's major charity, life in China comprised most of his youth.

In 2007, Hijrat began his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Nanjing Medical University and Southeast University, successively. He is now still a Ph.D. student at Southeast University, though the epidemic postponed his study.

"The Health Directorate of the Afghan Red Crescent Society has around 225 health facilities... We have 36 routine immunization teams working for polio eradication. We have 65 emergency mobile health teams working in Afghanistan in case we have a disaster, so for the management of the disaster in the health field, we work there," said Hijrat.

Once working as a resident doctor at the Zhongnan Hospital of Southeast University, he highly commended the high-end technology and quality medical education in Chinese hospitals and medical schools.

As a heart surgeon, Hijrat also focuses on diagnosing and treating congenital heart diseases in children. According to Hijrat, his department is currently responsible for eight medical projects, the most important of which is saving children with such conditions.

"Until now, we have registered around 26,000 patients, and around 13,000 patients have been operated (for heart surgeries) inside and outside the country," he said, adding that the charity is the only organization in Afghanistan that receives all children with congenital heart diseases free of charge.

Hijrat told Xinhua that he had yet to decide when to return to China to continue his study. He explained that he was working around the clock in Afghanistan, and crowds were waiting for assistance and aid from many willing to devote themselves to nation-rebuilding like him.