Chinese doctors in Algeria make a difference

Li Li, an obstetrician gynecologist at Xiangyang Maternal and Child Health Hospital in Hubei province, has treated 20,000 patients, performed surgeries on 13,000 patients, and assisted with 6,000 deliveries in Algeria over the past seven years.

Starting in 2017, Li joined three groups of medical teams from Hubei to aid the North African country. Each group stayed for about two years.

Being busy has been the norm for Li during her aid missions. Once, during her first mission, she performed 21 surgeries in a single day.

"I was extremely tired, but when I saw patients in critical condition I couldn't help but perk up and rededicate myself to saving lives," she said.

During her second aid mission to Algeria, she met a couple and delivered their first child, a daughter, by cesarean surgery. The wife was Algerian; the husband was from Beijing. To show their gratitude, they named the infant Lili.

After completing her second mission in 2023, Li decided to stay and applied to join the 28th group of Hubei medical teams. She said the greatest happiness for her during the three medical missions is to have contributed to strengthening Sino-African friendship.

In addition to providing daily medical treatments, the Chinese medical team also volunteered to teach local women about childbirth, Li said. They also actively participated in local obstetric and gynecological technology exchanges to share advanced treatment concepts with their Algerian counterparts.

Over the years, Li said, she has seen significant improvement in local women's health awareness: "In the past, few pregnant women went to the hospital for consultation or prenatal checkups, but now most of them pay attention to their health during pregnancy and have regular checkups or communicate with doctors," she said.

As part of the medical assistance China provides to Africa, Hubei province has been dispatching medical teams to Algeria for 61 years.