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Conquer Fear and Empower Ourselves | Students' Effort for COVID-19 Relief at Bard College

Hi all! I'm Caroline and I'm an Anthropology student at Bard College. Since the first week of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, my friends and I built up a volunteer team to do fundraising to help the hospitals in Hubei.


COVID-19 started in December 2019 and it was first identified in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in China. Up to Feb 21, over 75,000 people were diagnosed as patients of coronavirus disease. 2236 people died.


Since the first week of the outbreak in China, the medical supplies have been in shortage. None of the hospitals had enough reserves of medical materials. A lot of medical workers and volunteers were almost unprotected.


On Jan 23, we decided to do fundraising in order to purchase medical supplies -- such as disposable surgical masks, N95 masks, goggles, and Dupont hazmat suits -- and ship them to the hospitals in Wuhan.


We collaborated with Vassar, Colby, and Oberlin College and raised around $12,000. The most difficult step for us was actually the purchase. Our orders got canceled three times by different distributors. And we were told by one of the sales managers that we have to file an application to the federal government if we want to purchase in a large amount because we are not a U.S.-registered medical institution. Eventually, we managed to collaborate with Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association, and they helped us with the purchase, customs clearance, and shipment. 


How we collected the donator's contact info.

Screenshot by Caroline on March 24.


Members of our team are all undergraduate students. To be honest, it was so challenging that went beyond our expectation. But we didn’t give up because we know that our help was needed, even we are not that powerful in front of the institution and politics. Thanks to the help of Cleveland Clinic, we purchased 1,000 N95 masks, 200 isolation suits, 360 face shields, and 120 hazmat suits. These supplies were delivered to Huanggang Central Hospital.


The effort to coronavirus relief is long-term. For the second time, we decided to hold a benefit concert instead of only reopening our donation channel because we realized that the shortage of medical supplies wasn't the only issue. The misunderstanding, bias, and xenophobia brought by fear and the lack of information hurt people deeply as well.


Another thing we have learned during the first month of working was that the need for feminine sanitary products had been ignored. Over 50% of doctors and over 90% of nurses were female. But the official list of medical aid supplies didn't include products such as sanitary napkins, tampons, or menstrual cups. Also, after public transportation got shut down, female medical workers had a tough time to purchase these products.


Female medical workers comforting each other.

Source: Weibo @长江日报 (Changjiang Daily).


So for the second time, we collaborated with the “Firefly Plan”. It focuses on purchasing sanitary products for female medical workers in hospitals in Hubei. “Firefly Plan” was found by two feminist groups -- GirlsUp Shanghai and BIE别的女孩 -- in China so it would be more convenient for us to do the purchase and shipment.


A glance of the proposal of the "Firefly Plan".

Source: Weibo @BIE别的女孩; Screenshot by Caroline on March 24.


Poster for the benefit concert.


On February 22, we hosted “晴川回响” -- benefit concert for COVID-19 relief in Olin Auditorium at Bard College. We invited President Leon Botstein as a guest speaker to give a speech at the opening. "A virus is a virus. It does not discriminate among humans, and neither should we," said President Botstein. "Coronavirus has had devastating impacts in China. This concert is an important opportunity to be in solidarity with our Chinese students and colleagues."


President Leon Botstein addresses the audience.

Photo by Rock Huang '20


Throughout human history with infectious diseases, fear is a common phenomenon. The fear of foreign and exotic diseases would sometimes develop to fear towards otherness. When people are controlled by the fear of otherness instead of focusing on the disease itself and proper quarantine, the measures they take would be far from effective. Since the late 19th century, the infectivity and fatality of many domestic or infectious diseases have been much stronger than foreign ones. In 2018, over 200 people died of influenza in China. In the US, around 61,000 people died in 2017 and 2018.


According to a report from the World Health Organization, in the past 300 years, there was at least 10 global-scale influenza, and three of them happened in the last century. But we aren’t that afraid of it, are we? At least not as how we are afraid of the novel coronavirus. We’ve known the flu for a really long time. And we have practiced the way to deal with it medically, culturally, and cognitively.


Sibei Wang, Yuling Nan, and Arnav Shirodkar

perform "The Silk Road Camel" (丝路驼铃) by Yong Ning.

Photos by Rock Huang '20


This is a public health emergency, not an issue in terms of countries and races. As well as losing loved ones, fear, distrust, and xenophobia are the things that hurt people the deepest in a large-scale epidemic, no matter where one comes from. As young adults from China, we want you to hear our voices, instead of only relying on media and press. We don’t want more people to get hurt because of biases brought by a lack of information and fear.


I shared a story with the audience: During the SARS outbreak in 2003, I was three years old. I wasn't afraid at all as I didn’t know what happened. I got a fever during the outbreak, and my dad was freaked out. But the three-year-old me wiped his tears with my little hand and said, “Don’t worry, dad. I’ll be fine.” I wasn’t afraid because I was protected. But 17 years later, with many other young adults of my generation, we can and we want to protect the people who used to protect us.


Caroline talked about fear and conquering fear.

Photo by Rock Huang '20


Orchestra performs at the Bard Benefit Concert.

Bard Conservatory student Zongheng Zhang '21 conducts.

Photo by Rock Huang '20


We only had 10 days to organize, rehearse, and advertise for this concert, and, fortunately, we received various support within the Bard community. Since Zongheng Zhang -- one of the organizers who took charge of coordinating with the players -- sent out the email, more than 50 people replied that they were willing to participate. Eventually, we managed to have 49 players and 5 performances. 38 people participated in the orchestra. It went far beyond our expectations because the time of preparation was short and we understood that everyone has their own stuff to work on.


I. Sonata-Reminiscenza, Op.38 No.1 by Nikolai Medtner

II. "The Silk Road Camel" (丝路驼铃) by Yong Ning

III. "Nostalgia" (思乡曲) by Sicong Ma

IV. "Dun Huang" (敦煌) by Ying Jiang

V. Orchestra

  1. "Flowing Streams," by Yuankai Bao

  2. "Dialogue of Flowers," by Yuankai Bao

  3. "The Dance of Yao People," by Yuan Mao

  4. Symphony Overture No.1, by Xia Guan


There was another unexpected accident during the concert. We invited 16 Chinese students to sing a song -- 《隐形的翅膀》/ Invisible Wing -- for us and we made a video. This is a song known by every person of my generation and its lyrics empower us as young adults. But because of the poor internet connection, we only managed to play half of it and it froze on the screen. I blanked out at the moment and had no idea how to make it up. Suddenly, I heard my friends' voice from the corner of the hall: "Since we can't play the video, we, the Chinese students, decide that we are going to sing this song right now."


Suddenly all the Chinese students stood up and gathered themselves in the corner of the Olin Auditorium, including one of the players of the orchestra. We held each other's hands and sang this song together. I burst into tears standing in the crowd. Looking into the audiences' faces, I felt that the emotion was universal at the moment regardless of nationality, race, and gender. It was the solidarity that we all cherish especially during a pandemic.


Here's the original video we made:

Volunteer students sang <Invisible Wings>.

Video by Bloom Chen '21


We put the short clip of students singing the song in this video:

<Why We Held a Concert>.

Video by Bloom Chen '21


We closed our donation channel on March 9 at 12:00, and we raised $5290.82 in total. With the collaboration with the "Firefly Plan", we managed to purchase 1800 packs of sanitary napkins and 200 units of hazmat suits, and paid the delivery fee. These supplies arrived at four hospitals in Hubei successfully.


The sanitary napkins in the warehouse ready to be delivered.

Photo from the "Firefly Plan"


The sanitary napkins we donated arrived at the hospital.

Photo from the "Firefly Plan"


I want to conclude this article with a paragraph from my talk for the benefit concert: "Fear is our instinct. The way we conquer it and empower ourselves is to take responsibility, no matter how big or small. Our responsibility is to resist. When society doesn’t encourage us to build real connections, it is a kind of solidarity and resistance that we keep reaching out to each other, and build friendships. It’s not about nationality; It’s not about skin color; It’s not about gender. What matters is that we care, and we stand together. We support each other."


During the outbreak in China, despite the distance, my team members and I could still do something to help if we want. Now the number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 has kept increasing in the U.S. As the World Health Organization stated, "these are people, not numbers." I want to say that please don't be freaked out seeing the number climbing, but try to focus on the individuals around you and offer help if you can. Consideration and solidarity are in need more than ever now during this pandemic.


Hand in hand, we go through it together.

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