Myanmar workers join anti-coronavirus battle

Myanmar worker Ma Su May starts her daily work in a Chinese factory measuring the body temperatures of her colleagues and handing out masks.
She works for an electronic component company in the city of Ruili in southwest China's Yunnan Province. The city on the China-Myanmar border hosts more than 30,000 registered Myanmar workers.

Since the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, many companies in the Ruili Industrial Park where Ma Su May works have established teams comprising both Chinese and Myanmar employees to update other workers on the latest information about the virus control.

Ma Su May and 44 other workers from the park have volunteered to conduct temperature checks and inform their colleagues of the virus prevention and control knowledge.

"We remind our co-workers to wash hands and disinfect after work," she said. "We also hold lectures to teach them knowledge about virus prevention and control, such as how to wear face masks properly."

Ma Su May is one of the many Myanmar workers who have joined in Ruili's anti-coronavirus battle as a growing number of companies and factories in the city resume operation.

Tan Min, director of the management committee of the industrial Park, said the volunteer teams have contributed a lot to the production resumption and control of the virus in the park, Tan said.

This year's Spring Festival holiday has also been a memorable experience for Nan Mya Mya Win, also from Myanmar, as she has been taking part in the government-led campaign to prevent and control the virus.

She works for a local cultural center, teaching the Chinese language to the Myanmar workers in Ruili and the Myanmar language to the locals.

Since the outbreak, the 37-year-old teacher has helped translate government publications and news into the Myanmar language and has starred in five short videos about epidemic prevention, including videos on how to properly wash hands and wear masks.

Theses videos have been played on the screens at Ruili's border control office, and relevant news in the Myanmar language has also been broadcast over the local radio.

"When the virus first broke out, few Myanmar workers in Ruili wore face masks. They all put on the masks after the videos were aired," she added.

"My families in Myanmar urged me to return home when they heard about the outbreak. But I decided to stay because I have a lot of Myanmar students here," she said. "If I had left, they would have felt very uneasy."

Editor: John Li