This gesture is based on the promising collaboration between the two universities, which are already working on initiatives of exchange for the time after the pandemic.

The fruitful partnership was celebrated last year, when a delegation from the Chinese Zhejiang University of Science and Technology visited Chile and the Araucanía Region to sign a Cooperation Agreement with the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO).

The meeting allowed to strengthen the partnership, through conversations between Fengmin Wu, the chair; academic representatives; Xu Bu, the ambassador of the People's Republic of China in Chile; Eduardo Hebel, the rector of UFRO; and several vice-rectors, deans and directors of the UFRO nuclei.

Now, the Chinese university sent a donation to UFRO, consisting of one thousand face masks, in order to contribute to the prevention of the spread of coronavirus. In this regard, the rector of UFRO, Eduardo Hebel, has shown his appreciation in a letter: “The difficult moments the world is facing due to COVID-19 do also have an impact on Chile and our city. However, little by little, we are making progress and the city of Temuco is slowly starting with the different phases of deconfinement.”

The use of a mask is extremely important, warns Dr. Hebel, “and this donation is a significant contribution, thanks to which our employees are going to be able to carry out their work safely, and complying with the safety and health protocols established by the authorities”.

In fact, the masks were handed over to the Risk Prevention Unit at UFRO, which has been working voluntarily in accordance with the safety regulations since the first case of Covid-19 was found in Temuco. Dr. Lorena Vieli, the director of the International Affairs Office at UFRO, highly appreciates this gesture of the Chinese Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, because “this donation reflects our solid partnership with this university and we hope that we are soon going to be able to award two scholarships for graduate students, offered by Zhejiang University”.

Written by: UFRO Communications Office