The Executive of the Association for Barbados-China Friendship (ABCF) associates themselves with friends and well-wishers of China in assuring members of the Chinese community of our full support at this time of widespread concern about the Novel Coronavirus. We are grateful for the measures that the Government of the People's Republic of China has taken to contain the virus within China. We are full of admiration for the extraordinary speed and decisiveness with which quarantines have been implemented, new specialised hospitals have been built, supplies of food and medicines have been mobilized, and support services have been put in place. The World Health Organisation has commended the Chinese authorities on the wealth and pertinence of the information made publicly available. The medical authorities and all related agencies in China are in active collaboration with a global network of scientists from leading medical centres in the US, Europe and around the world, in a race against time to find treatments and vaccines for the new virus.
Comprehensive, up-to-the-minute information on developments with respect to the Novel Coronavirus is available to Barbadians from the China Global Television Network (CGTN), to be found (in English) on MCTV Channel 209, and on Youtube. CGTN's programmes include a daily news conference from Hubei Province, the epicentre of the virus; data and informed discussion by panels of leading experts from all around the world; and live reports from Wuhan and other locations in China and abroad. There are videos of new hospitals being built and equipped, interviews with medical staff on the frontline of the fight against the epidemic and other real time coverage of life in China and how it has been affected by the crisis. Information on the virus is also available on the website and Facebook page of the Chinese Embassy in Barbados.
The ABCF mission is to build a deeper understanding between the Chinese people and Barbadians and Caribbean people from all walks of life. The association’s focus is on personal experiences, people-to-people contact, cultural exchanges and exchanges of ideas, and the facilitation of travel, business and study. From the outset we aim to learn from and build on the experiences of the Caribbean and China, and to develop mutual understandings and support that will be to the benefit of both sides.
