We Are Waiting for Feedback on Stranded Ugandan Students: Chinese Ambassador Zheng

The Chinese Ambassador to Uganda, Zheng Zhu Qiang says they are still waiting for response from his home government on the request of parents of Ugandan students to evacuate their children stuck in his country because of the corona virus outbreak.

Several Ugandans especially students have been quarantined to avoid contracting the contagious virus, which broke out in December last year. The virus was first identified in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, China. On Thursday morning, parents whose children numbering up to 105 children are still locked down in Wuhan decried the slow response by the Ugandan Government.

While addressing parents at Rock Gardens at Speke Hotel in Kampala, parents said ever since Government promised to urgently rescue the students in China with up to US$ 60,000 (approximately 222.5m Shillings) nothing has been done. However, Zheng Zhu Qiang says he is aware about the concerns of parents of the Ugandans students trapped in Wuhan.

Zheng explains that he had a meeting with parents and families of the affected students at the Embassy on Saturday where he carefully listened to their demands. According to Zheng, there are only 81 Ugandan students in Wuhan, since others had left, before the virus outbreak.

Ambassador Zheng said he shared the latest information during his meeting with parents and received their “concerns, difficulties as well as under-supply and anxieties.”

“We took down their requests one by one and immediately sent them back to China, hoping a quickest feedback, so that we will soon have a follow-up invitation for them to come again to the Embassy,” said Ambassador Zheng at Makerere University on Thursday.

Adding that; “We are doing this to share with you that we are with you in thick and thin, sunny or rainy, spring or winter.” As a sign of solidarity, Makerere University has donated 4,000 surgical masks to China’s Xiangtan University, the main collaborating university where more than 60 Ugandans mostly from Makerere are studying.

“I was deeply touched to learn that early this week Professor Barnabas Nawangwe flagged off a batch of surgical masks donated by Makerere University to Xiangtan University. This is an epitome of the solidarity between Ugandan people and Chinese people,” said Ambassador Zheng.

Adding that; “On behalf of the People’s Republic of China, please allow me to express our heartfelt appreciation to you, and through you, to the people and government of the Republic of Uganda, for your deep understanding, strong support and solidarity extended to us.”

URN.