Responders turn cooks to support relief efforts

Ma Hua, an emergency responder from Lhasa, Xizang autonomous region, typically handles air transfers of critically ill patients and provides basic medical care. But in mudslide-stricken Gyirong county, he took on a very different role: cooking three meals a day for medical staff, truck drivers and other rescue workers.

After arriving in Gyirong, Shigatse city, following the Aug 26 mudslide, Ma and his team found that there was limited demand for air ambulance services. Instead, they learned that a catering vehicle deployed by the Red Cross Society of Xizang Autonomous Region needed extra hands in the kitchen.

"I used to work as a cook and have supported disaster relief in that role before," Ma said from the Xizang 999 Emergency Rescue Center. "So our team quickly got in touch with the Red Cross and shifted roles."

The catering vehicle, parked at a hospital where local medical staff and doctors dispatched from other regions are working, began providing three free meals a day on Sunday and has so far served more than 1,500 portions.

Tseyang, deputy director of the Xizang Red Cross Society's relief and rescue department, said the hospital's kitchen was relatively small and had only one cook. Following the devastating mudslide, regional and national authorities dispatched medical aid teams, including emergency care specialists, orthopedists and psychologists, to help provide medical treatment and mental health support.

"We Red Cross workers, along with seven emergency responders like Ma, have worked together to ensure adequate meal supplies for them and ease the burden on the hospital," she said.

Demand varies from day to day, Tseyang said. The kitchen has been operating at full capacity, with extra portions packed into food containers for distribution to those in need.

At around 1:30 pm on Wednesday, Tseyang and two coworkers loaded dozens of servings of freshly cooked dishes onto a vehicle and set out to find truck drivers, loaders and sanitation workers resting on the streets.

One driver, who had transported rocks and gabions to the hardest-hit Gyirong Port, said that although he had already eaten lunch, the meals offered by the Red Cross looked so appealing that he gladly shared them with other drivers taking a break at the curbside.

"They do manual labor and burn a lot of energy, so they really need the extra food," Tseyang said.

For Qi Youpeng, another medical worker from the Xizang 999 Emergency Rescue Center, helping in the kitchen was also a departure from his usual role. He typically provides first aid during rescue missions, including after the magnitude-6.2 earthquake that struck Jishishan county in Gansu province in December 2023.

Now, he washes and chops vegetables and helps prepare meals aboard the catering vehicle.

"I'll go wherever I'm needed and I am willing to help in any way," he said.

Contact the writers at wangxiaoyu@chinadaily.com.cn