【SAMOAOBSERVER】Guangdong Friendship Delegation bringing medical assistance to Samoa
Edited by: Liu Nian
Professor Weirong Chen, Deputy Director of ZOC, SYSU, checks the eyes for a Samoan patient during their November 21 to 22 visit in 2016.
A delegation from the Peoples Republic of China is visiting Samoa on 13-17 July.
The delegation is headed by Mme. Luo Juan, Vice Chairlady of the People's Congress of Guangdong Province. It is a Friendship Delegation bringing medical help for the people of Samoa.
In the group there are three Ophthalmology (eye) doctors and one nurse to provide free cataract surgery to Samoan patients at the Apia National Hospital in Moto’otua.
There will be a handover ceremony of medical equipment and medicine at 8:30am on Saturday 15 July on the 3rd floor boardroom of N.H.S.
This will be followed by a review of eye patients who will have had surgeries on Friday, 14 July, by undoing their dressings.
The Chinese Embassy is inviting the media to cover the ceremony and to report on how the patients will have fared after the surgeries.
Members of the visiting Guangdong Medical Delegation are:
1. Ms. CHEN Weirong
Zhongshan Ophthalmology Center, Sun Yat-sen University
Deputy Director, Professor
2. Ms. ZHANG Xinyu
Zhongshan Ophthalmology Center, Sun Yat-sen University
Associate Professor
3. Mr. LIU Bin
Zhongshan Ophthalmology Center, Sun Yat-sen University
Associate Consultant Ophthalmologist
4. Ms. CHEN Aihuan
Zhongshan Ophthalmology Center, Sun Yat-sen University
Nurse-in-charge
Related report:
[Samoa Observer] Free surgery, equipment from Guangdong Province
M.P.M.C. - A team of eye specialists from the Guangdong Province in the People’s Republic of China are in the country to donate equipment for the National Health services and conducting free eye surgery for the people of Samoa.
More than 20 eye specialists have provided surgery for local residents and so far 31 patients have completed successful operations with more scheduled for Monday.
This is on top of new medical equipment donated to the National Health Services Eye Clinic.
The visit is part of the city sisterhood agreement inked in 2015 between the Samoa Government and the Huizhou Municipal Government, Guandong Province in the People’s Republic.
In 2015, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi signed the sisterhood pact with Huizhou City’s Mayor Mai Jianomeng to formalise the sisterhood pact between Huizhou from the People’s Republic of China and Apia, Samoa.
The six Memorandum of Understandings (M.O.U.) inked includes a multi-functional park with a Cultural & Art Center that will serve as a library, opera house, artistic exhibition hall and recreational zone.
The other five other Memorandums of Understanding were signed and sealed this week between the two sister cities.
They include scholarships and medical equipment for the Ministries of Education and Health respectively.
Within the next three to five years, Huizhou will provide and install an electronic platform for each of the 23 public colleges in the country. That project has started.
Three computer labs are included.
Huizhou will also fund scholarships for Samoan students for the next three years to the tune of $200,000 tala a year.
During the three year period, 30 students with excellent academic performance and another 30 from economically disadvantaged families will be awarded scholarships.
Last but not least, the Huizhou Hualuogeng Secondary School has established a sister-school pact with Samoa with Samoa College.
Tentative plans include a students and teacher exchange programme between the two schools.
As for Health, Huizhou is also committed to gift the National Hospital at Moto’otua with a portable x-ray machine, a color full digital ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The equipment is valued at over $1 million tala.
