Before and after February 13th, the peak value of new coronavirus infected pneumonia patients appeared in Hubei Province, and since then, the number of new cases continued to decrease. On March 8th, 41 new cases were added in 31 provinces and autonomous regions except for Hubei Province. The number of new confirmed cases in the vast majority of provinces has been reduced to zero, and a few areas have been controlled in single digits. The overall situation has improved, which makes everyone feel relieved.
These days, the trucks full of beehives and Hubei beekeepers are driving home day and night. They are either on the way back to their hometown or preparing to return by truck. It is gratifying that they can finally catch up with the flowering season before a large number of golden rape flowers bloom in their hometown!
In this early spring, from the restlessness in the process of blocking, to the frustration in finding help from everywhere, to the helpless and sadness in the process of repeatedly facing difficulties, to the ecstasy in the last journey home, nearly 1,000 Hubei resident bee farmers who are staying in other places were having an unforgettable memory. Similarly, the members of CBCGDF’s Combating Epidemic and Rehabilitation Working Team who have been with these bee farmers these days.
【Call for help: we can’t hold on any longer. Can you help us find a way?】
On the evening of February 26th, a strange phone call came in, and the number showed that it was in Jingmen, Hubei Province.
In those days, as a member of CBCGDF’s Combating Epidemic and Rehabilitation Working Team, we have been carrying out intensive communication to help northern Xinjiang’s bee farmers return to the spring breeding farm. At this time, although the central government and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and other departments have repeatedly stressed that when epidemic prevention and control is well done, they should actively prepare for cultivation in spring, the overall situation of epidemic prevention and control in China is still tightening, and the roads between provinces, cities, and counties in the province, even between villages are still not available at that time.
At the other end of the phone, a bee-farmer who came from Shayang County, Jingmen City, Hubei Province, introduced that he went to Chuxiong Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province from Hubei Province in December last year, and now Yunnan’s flowering period has come to an end. Bees have no honey to collect and can only rely on bee farmers to buy sugar to maintain their lives. “When I’m going to Sichuan, Sichuan won’t let me go; when I want to return to Hubei, Hubei won’t let me in. I just have to buy a ton of sugar, and it’s gone in less than a week. The bees can’t hold on any longer. I saw from the Internet that you are helping the bee farmers in northern Xinjiang, so I also want to ask if you can help me too?”
The phone call is from Ms. Liu. Her bee farm is relatively large. There are more than 500 boxes of bees dying, so they are more anxious than other bee farmers. As for bee farmers, when they go to Yunnan for bee breeding in winter, their investment is tens of thousands of yuan. If they can’t catch up with the flowering season in spring, they are likely to lose their lives and the whole family will have no way to live. Through detailed understanding with Ms. Liu, we know that there are many Hubei native bee farmers in the same situation as her, as she knows, there are hundreds of them. Therefore, Ms. Liu suggested to set up a group chat and work out a solution together.
CBCGDF’s Combating Epidemic and Rehabilitation Working Team also attached great importance to this. After the internal meeting, a working team was specially established to assist the detained Hubei bee farmers to return home. The working team was soon established, and the bee farmers with the same difficulties continually joined in. The number of people in the group soon approached hundreds. Their difficulties are basically the same.
There is a bee farmer in Sichuan, after being transferred from Yunnan to Mianyang County in Sichuan Province, he handled all the documents on the day of his arrival. However, when he planned to move to another venue, he received a notice from the local town government and police station, asking him to only produce and live in the designated area within the next 21 days, strictly prohibit contact with outsiders, and strictly prohibit the sale of the products (honey) produced. “This really makes me desperate…”, he said.
【Two official letters, countless phone conversations and even quarrels behind】
Because of the early experience of helping bee farmers in northern Xinjiang, as a national social organization, CBCGDF has two main ways to help bee farmers to return home: first, through Weibo and WeChat, recording and openly appealing to the society for support from every bee farmer story in trouble; second, writing official letters to the epidemic prevention headquarters of Hubei Province to truthfully reflect the situation and asking for their support. During those days, CBCGDF’s staffs were on the phone call day and night to communicate with different parties.
Hubei is the key area of national epidemic prevention. Therefore, Hubei’s epidemic control is strict and definitely reasonable. However, for the bee farmers who can't catch up with the flower season and the bees are dead one after another, the season can’t afford to wait. Every day is an ordeal.
How many bee farmers are trapped outside? How many cases of bees are waiting to be carried away? What documents are needed for returning? Which department can issue a health certificate? Is the health certificate based on three days or seven days? Do drivers need a health certificate? After the trucks arrive in Hubei, can they leave immediately? Does the driver need to be quarantined in Hubei for 14 days? Where do the drivers get the vehicle passes? How does the village issue the acceptance certificate?
Through WeChat group chat and telephone communication, the staffs of CBCGDF’s Combating Epidemic and Rehabilitation Working Team have to answer and help solve numerous problems every day. At the same time, the online statistics of all the information of Hubei resident bee farmers were carried out. The staff first designed a more convenient psychoanalysis form, but the bee farmers do not know how to use it; later they had to use a more complicated excel form, and then there were still bee farmers in the group asking: how to fill-in? And bee farmers still have lots of problems and questions for staff to help.
On February 26th, CBCGDF sent the first letter to the epidemic prevention headquarters of Hubei Province, asking them to urgently assist the remaining bee farmers to return home, give them green channels, and allow them to be quarantined in their bee farms. Especially after communicating with the Hubei Provincial Department of Transportation, their staff replied: Hubei Provincial Department of Transportation Document No. 82 has made it clear that bee farmers can return, but they need to apply for an electronic pass. CBCGDF’s staff said that many bee farmers are not very able to use mobile phones to handle. The staff of the Hubei Provincial Department of Transportation expressed great understanding, and they stressed that: bee farmers can directly return after they have completed the health certificate of the place of departure and the receipt certificate, and the accompanying person should be controlled within two people. He said he was willing to coordinate if someone stopped bee farmers on their way back.
After this communication, some Hubei native bee farmers who have completed the health certificate and the acceptance certificate have begun their happy return journey, and Ms. Liu and other bee farmers who started out first have rushed back to their hometown. CBCGDF’s staff thought it was all right for the remaining 200 stranded bee farmers to return home. Unexpectedly, the next day, the bee farmers in other areas once again reflected that the local village cadres did not implement the provisions of the government documents, they just did not seal the acceptance certificate of the bee farmers. There are a large number of bee farmers in these areas, some of them are as many as 50 households and nearly 10,000 - 20,000 cases of bees, while the others are as few as 6 - 7 households and 2,000 cases of bees. On March 4th, CBCGDF sent another letter to the epidemic prevention headquarters of Hubei Province, asking them to help solve the problem immediately.
In the repeated telephone communication with relevant departments, everyone could not help quarreling twice. When CBCGDF called the epidemic prevention headquarters of Jingshan County to ask them what procedures do bee farmers need to go through to return. However, the operator of the other party was very perfunctory and asked bee farmers to find relevant information on the Internet. Finally, the other party changed a staff member. After communicating again, the staff of CBCGDF finally helped the bee farmers find relevant documents and procedures.
Another time, CBCGDF’s staff communicated with the anti-epidemic headquarters of Shishou City and reported that the local government would not issue a certificate to the bee farmers as soon as possible. The other party said that they could not answer without receiving the notice, and then another leader came to communicate and said that they would listen to the instructions of the municipal government, and would not recommend the bee farmers to return. Such a fruitless cycle has happened more than once, so CBCGDF’s could not help but quarrel with the staff of the other party.
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/11582.html
By / Xue Tongtong