Actions of Solidarity
Back to Actions of SolidarityOn the early morning of 2 February 2020 in Jingzhou of Hubei, four secretaries from the local commission of Communist Youth League were waiting anxiously for a batch of much-needed in-kind donations at a pre-agreed location. When the truck arrived, they immediately counted the supplies and confirmed receipt. Soon, with support from of the local Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the test kits were sent to No.1 People’s Hospital of Jingzhou, one of those fighting at the forefront against coronavirus. On the same day, in Tianmen and Suizhou of Hubei, two other batches of medical supplies were also received by local hospitals each at their local highway’s toll booth.
It took only five days for HSBC China and its partners to get the first batch of supplies delivered to beneficiary hospitals. With joint efforts and coordination, RMB 2 million worth of in-kind donations including 10,000 surgical masks, 273,000 gloves, 4,000 protective gowns and 5,000 test kits were successfully received by frontline cities including Jingzhou, Tianmen, Suizhou and Macheng.
Given the logistic overload during the Spring Festival, our corporate customers who made the donation of medical supplies arranged for delivery by their own employees to make sure everything is well received. Despite the inconveniences and even risks caused by quarantine upon their return from Hubei, our mission-driven customers still went ahead without any hesitation.
While Wuhan, the provincial capital, was the focus of attention for many, its neighboring cities and counties were relatively under-supported by anti-viral donations and thus faced an even more severe shortage of medical supplies. With that in mind, HSBC China immediately decided to make a donation of RMB 5 million to China Social Welfare Foundation, our long-standing local charity partner, in support of Hubei. Out of that, RMB 3 million was to be used for purchasing more medical supplies and test kits for hospitals and charity organizations in Hubei’s lower-tier cities including Jingzhou, Tianmen, Suizhou and Macheng.
With the help of China Social Welfare Foundation, we got in touch with local hospitals, governments and charity organizations of Jingzhou, Suizhou, Tianmen and Macheng and learned about the types and amounts of medical supplies in need. After that, by leveraging HSBC’s network and customer resources, we were soon able to have needed medical supplies delivered to needy hands at full speed.
At the same time, HSBC Rural Banking renewed its loan servicing options for hard-hit individuals and businesses to help them get through the tough period and launched priority services for customers involved in prevention and control efforts against coronavirus. Our rural banking colleagues across Hubei also took proactive actions in cooperation with local governments and charity organizations to deliver and distribute supplies to local hospitals in a bid to win this “war without gun smoke” together.