Chinese naval hospital ship, Peace Ark completed its first visit to Africa in 2017, when it visited seven African countries, including Djibouti, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Congo (Brazzaville), Angola, Mozambique, and Tanzania, and provided high-quality humanitarian medical services to local people, which has been highly praised by African countries and its people.
Apudikai’s father may stay forever grateful to the effort that the Chinese naval hospital ship made to save his child, after Chinese surgeons Ji Shizhao and Yan Xiaohui successfully performed a surgery for Apudikai, a 9-year-old Djibouti boy, after an electric shock injury.
Another family in Sierra Leone named their newborn baby “Peace” on last year’s World Peace Day after a Chinese obstetrician saved the mother with gestational diabetes and her baby, who was the sixth baby born on the naval hospital ship. Ernest Bai Koroma, the incumbent President of Sierra Leone, visited baby “Peace” and the mother and said: “China will always be the most reliable friend of Sierra Leone and I hope the Peace Ark will come over again.”
Tanzania’s President John Magufuli also complimented the Peace Ark’s peaceful mission as a genuine brotherhood, as the Chinese side selflessly provided free medical treatment and medicine to African people.
In Mozambique, a total of 9,881 patients received humanitarian medical services aboard the Peace Ark, with can handle a maximum of 1,796 receptions per day. Both figures set a record for the naval hospital’s humanitarian mission and made Peace Ark a “boat of hope” in the hearts of local people.
Adikandembo, a Gabonese doctor who had studied traditional Chinese medicine in China, jointly treated patients with his Chinese teacher Li Weihong when the Peace Ark was at Gabon. Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba cordially met the teacher and student and praised them as a meaningful example of China-African friendship and cooperation. Bongo also awarded 11 Chinese naval hospital officers with honorary medals.
During the African tour of humanitarian assistance, Peace Ark also visited local schools and orphanages to conduct health examinations and programs to help improve the health of local children.
“Peace Ark’s arrival is the most precious gift for African children,” said Mogumio, a dean of Tanzanian Kurasini Orphanage.
(Source: People’s Daily)
