Vietnamese in Prague mobilise
As pandemic shifts to Europe, community comes forward to help
VIETNAMESE citizens living in the Czech Republic have united in an initiative to give back to the community during the Covid-19 pandemic.
They have given away thousands of homemade face masks, provided food to frontliners and organised fundraisers to help tackle the pandemic.
As the country was waiting, the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic was preparing for the pandemic to arrive. Hearing about the outbreak from their families in Vietnam, they were instructed to take precautions – such as installing glass barriers in grocery stores to avoid direct contact with customers, purchasing hand sanitiser or wearing face masks.
Early on, Vietnamese wearing face masks in the Czech Republic could encounter social stigmatisation and xenophobia.
However, when the epicentre of the pandemic shifted from Asia to Europe, wearing a face mask in all public places became mandatory.
There was a lack of face masks in the country, with people on the front lines such as doctors, nurses and law enforcement personnel facing a shortage of supplies.
The Vietnamese community took this as an opportunity to give back to the country which has become their second home, joining a nationwide initiative to manufacture face masks at home and distribute them to those in need.
Within days, the Czech Vietnamese were able to deliver thousands of cloth face masks to hospitals, retirement homes, and police stations across the country.
In many Vietnamese grocery stores, free face masks and gloves are offered to customers.
The help does not end there, with countless Vietnamese-owned stores across the country providing free coffee, drinks and snacks for all personnel working on the front lines.
To make the servicemen and servicewomen aware of this, they mark their door with a big red heart – a symbol that is self-explanatory.
Vietnamese restaurants offer free delivery and Nguyen Hong Dang, 27, is one of many who participated.
His beverage distribution company provided drinks to the leading Prague hospital dealing with the highest number of cases, as well as the police.
“We just wanted to provide to those working endless hours on the front lines. It is very important for them to stay sufficiently hydrated or regain energy,” he told the Vietnamese Embassy in Prague.
While it’s mostly about spontaneous initiatives of friends and families, there is some level of coordination – whether it’s on a community level, through social media, local associations of Vietnamese or NGOs – such as Lam Cha Me CZ (Being Parents in Czech).
The latter group was the first to respond to an urgent call for face masks from one of Prague’s hospitals and organised a group of women to sew them.
Another great example of Vietnamese compassion is donations to municipalities or the case of the city of Ustinad Labem – one of the first cities to record Covid-19 cases in the country – where the local Vietnamese association called for a fundraiser to purchase a lung ventilator for the city hospital – a crucial machine to tackle the virus.
We just wanted to provide to those working endless hours on the front lines. It is very important for them to stay sufficiently hydrated or regain energy.
Nguyen Hong Dang