Vietnamese officer presents hand-made face masks to MINUSCA staff

In his commendation, Lieutenant General Daniel Traore wrote that the good deed of the Vietnamese female officer shows the core value of the United Nations and she deserves to be an ambassador for Vietnam.

Lieutenant General Daniel Traore (centre) honors good deed of Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thi Lien (1st from left)

Earlier, Lien rented a sewing machine and made 400 face masks for some people in District 3 of Bangui and the staff of MINUSCA Headquarters, as she knew that most of the people there could not afford to make face masks to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lien shared that in March, she came to the thought that if the COVID-19 spread to the Central African Republic, the risk of cross infection in the African country would be very high. Most of the local people are not used to wearing face masks and they are uncomfortable with seeing people wearing them.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thi Lien (centre) receives the certificate of merit.

Thinking that the Government of the Central African Republic would sooner or later apply the rule on face mask wearing, Lien came to the idea to make face masks for locals and her colleagues at MINUSCA. She then chose cloth with patterns suitable with the local people’s fashion to produce the face masks.

After after she finishedmaking the face masks, Lien presented them to the staff of the peacekeeping mission on April 30, just four days before the Central African Republic started to require the wearing of face masks officially.

Lien rent a sewing machine and made 400 face marks for some people in District 3 of Bangui and the staff of MINUSCA Headquarters

Lieutenant General Deniel Traore, on behalf of MINUSCA, stressed that the deed of the officer of the Vietnam People’s Army is precious as it is now high time for the local people and staff of MINUSCA to wear face masks to prevent the spread of the pandemic.

Wearing face masks is one of the measures that have so far helped Vietnam effectively prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the community.

Translated by Huu Duong