中国医疗队在南苏丹的十年

Alex Bakiet, who speaks Chinese fluently, is the president of Wau Teaching Hospital in South Sudan.

He said when the Chinese medical team first came to Wau ten years ago, he was still a volunteer. That's when he came into contact with his Chinese counterparts.

Though the Wau Teaching Hospital is the largest in the state of Western Bahr el Ghazal, it still lacks doctors and advanced equipment.

Bakiet said as soon as the Chinese medical team arrived, they came to check their equipment and repaired the only CDFI, Ultrasound machine in the hospital.

"They come to the hospital and saw the equipment was not functioning. They did their best to repair the equipment so as to work well. When they have more drugs they will also bring them to the hospital. So our relationship, our hospital with the Chinese team, I can say, it is brother-to-brother relationship. It is not official. Whenever we ask, they are ready to help."

Apart from technical support, Zhao Shengxian, commissar of the Chinese medical team, said they also help train local medical workers.

"We use our spare time to give training lessons at their hospital. Or they send their doctors and nurses to do internships at our hospital for one week or even one month. We teach them so that they can improve."

The hospital set up by the Chinese medical team has provided treatment for many local residents.

Steven has been living in a refugee camp in Wau for two years. He said everyone in the refugee camp is grateful to the Chinese medical team.

"Chinese are really helping us. Many women are used to deliver day and night and they used to be taken there. Many babies were born in the Chinese hospital. Now two teams have finished their mission and we get this third team now. Chinese are really helping us. Whenever we call them, they respond our call. They are doing good for us."

The hospital set up by the Chinese medical team is the highest medical institute in the West Sector of the UN Mission in South Sudan, which became independent of Sudan in 2011 after years of civil war.

The medicines in greatest demand include anti-malaria drugs, such as artemisinin which was discovered by the Chinese Nobel laureate Tu Youyou.

China deployed a 700-member battalion for peacekeeping mission to South Sudan earlier this year, which include three infantry companies and one supply company.