Official website of the UN Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth

A 35-year-old courier in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province, has been recognized by the United Nations on a “10 leaders who can inspire you to change the world” list due to his volunteer work to feed and transport medical professionals during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the city.

Starting from Chinese New Year in January 2020, Wang Yong, an ordinary courier, decided to organize a team and offer free shuttle rides for medical staff from Jinyintan Hospital, the first Wuhan hospital to focus on the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Wang Yong and his team reached out to car rental enterprises to join the service and called on bicycle sharing enterprises to put bicycles around the hospital to make short commutes easier.

Wang Yong, a 35-year-old courier in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province. (Photo/cjn.cn)

They also established a free standby distribution network for emergency meals after going door to door to restaurants, convincing them to provide meals for medical staff and taxi drivers. A total of 15,000 meals were delivered to over 7,800 medical staff and front-line personnel. A meal supply and distribution system using self-raised funds was also set up to offer medical staff instant noodles and water.

Wang mobilized volunteers to purchase urgently needed items such as down jackets, nurse shoes and toiletries, and coordinated the purchase, delivery and distribution of medical supplies such as masks, shoe covers, ultraviolet lights, and so on. “If I can do anything, I must do something,” Wang said.

Wang was one of the young people who are “working hard to keep up our collective momentum and progress” and “have made a world of difference”, said the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, voicing hope that their stories could inspire and motivate people to push for “a full recovery that we can fully enjoy”. 

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