Profile:Luo Ting is secretary of the Party Committee and director of the Gulou Huayuan Community, Gulou District, Xuzhou City. She has majored in Elder Services and Management at the Xuzhou Learning Centre of the Jiangsu branch of the Open University of China (OUC) since September 2019. In June 2020, she was named an “Excellent Communist Party Member of Jiangsu Province” by the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

At a meeting commending role models in the country's fight against Covid-19 in September 2020, she was named a “National Excellent Communist Party Member” by the Central Committee of the CPC, and an “Outstanding Individual in the National Fight Against Covid-19” by the Central Committee of the CPC, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission.

National Excellent Communist Party Member
Certificate

Outstanding Individual in the National Fight Against Covid-19
Honourary Certificate

Luo Ting is called “prime minister of the alley” by the residents of her community. This year, the outbreak of Covid-19 changed many lives, hers included. Two days before the Spring Festival, she and her colleagues were suddenly notified of the emergency by the neighbourhood Party Work Committee. Thinking back on her experience in fighting SARS 17 years earlier, she steeled her nerves, realizing that another major test was at hand.

Placing the “community family” over her personal one

Gulou Huayuan Community, where Luo Ting works, is an old residential district with relocated residents of various incomes and professions. It includes many rental units and a fluctuating population, making it difficult to manage. There are 2,344 households of 5,244 residents living in 53 buildings, with 20% of them old or infirm.

The epidemic has been fought at the community level. Luo Ting immediately launched into warlike preparations, called together community staff right away to discuss management, screening, and other tasks. It was nearly midnight when she returned home, and her husband had had no sleep because of his worries for her. Upon learning what was happening, he offered to ask colleagues for help buying supplies for the community.

Early the next morning, they both set to work dealing with the new situation. At 11:00 that night, after a day of hard work, she received a call from the traffic police: her husband had been in a car accident, and taken to the hospital. She and her daughter spent more than five hours waiting anxiously outside the operating room, but his injuries were so serious that he had to be transferred to intensive care immediately.

At 7:00 am, after a sleepless night, she found herself facing a host of WeChat messages related to the epidemic. Torn between dealing with them and staying with her husband, she made the wrenching decision to leave the hospital and allow relatives and friends to care for him.
Upon returning, Luo Ting immediately ordered the secondary entrances of each residential area closed, leaving only one gate open. About 1,000 copies of leaflets were printed for distribution at the gates, and everyone was too busy to rest, or even to eat.

3:00 pm was the visiting hour at the intensive-care unit, and Luo Ting hurried back to the hospital. Her husband was still unconscious, and the doctor told her that things were not looking good; he would need a second operation immediately. Her heart was in her mouth. At the same time, the neighbourhood was informed that Wuhan had announced a lockdown, and an emergency meeting was being convened. As Luo Ting was torn with anxiety, and unable to decide what to do, her daughter put her arms around her and said, “Mom, go where you’re needed. The doctors are in charge here, and I’ll stay with Dad.” Grateful to have such a sensible daughter, Luo Ting couldn’t hold back her tears.

On 28 January, Gulou District had its first confirmed case, and quick action was needed. It was almost impossible for the 6 staff to keep up. Meanwhile, the news from the hospital continued to be bad. Luo Ting resolved, however, to stick with her responsibilities. She knew the community, and the community knew her, which made her indispensable for influencing it appropriately. From then on, she worked every day from 7:00 am until as late as midnight. Outside the hospital and the community, nothing mattered in her life.

Persistence, and a tearful farewell

Every day was a whirlwind of door-to-door visits, monitoring, checkpoints and disinfections. About 100 people and close contacts who had returned to Xuzhou from Hubei, Wenzhou, and other areas, and 56 households, had to be quarantined. Meanwhile, her husband was still in a coma. The pressure was unrelenting, but she had to stay strong, working for the community while clinging to hope. In the end, however, her worst fears were realised.

At 4:00 pm on 13 February, while she was on duty, her cell phone rang. It was the hospital, asking her to come quickly. Luo Ting was filled with dread as she made her way, and at the hospital found her husband, who had been with her half her life, lying dead on a gurney at the door of the intensive-care unit. Luo Ting had never thought it would come to this. She felt as if her sky had collapsed, and did not know how she could bear it.

In spite of everything, she dried her tears, made the funeral arrangements, and returned to her post. She worked harder than ever in hope of forgetting her grief, and to keep families in the community from losing loved ones of their own.

Dedicated to community service work

Looking back now, Luo Ting remembers gratefully the senior Party members who volunteered for the most dangerous watches. All Party members in the community, over 200 volunteers, along with 25 who submitted applications to join the Party, and the rest of the residents joined forces to help in the fight. Through their efforts, Luo Ting's district was the first to be recognised as low-risk, and there was no confirmed case in the community that Luo worked for.

On 8 April 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping praised the workers in Wuhan’s Donghu Xincheng Community for their fearless and unrelenting efforts in fighting the epidemic; a praise that could have been meant for all the 4 million community workers nationwide who put themselves in harm’s way. Luo Ting has been left with no regrets, and wants to share the credit with all 5,244 residents of her community. She would also like to say to her beloved husband: “If there is an afterlife, I hope to still share weal and woe with you, our family, and our country there!”

Lifelong learning contributes to community building

Luo Ting believes grassroots community cadres should keep pace with social developments. She entered the Elder Services and Management programme at the Xuzhou Learning Centre of the OUC’s Jiangsu branch not only out of personal interest but also to become more proficient in her work. Elder care is related to livelihoods and families overall. In the Gulou Huayuan Community, for example, over 20 percent of residents are old or infirm. The “prime minister of the alley” thinks day and night about how to serve the families in the community, respond to their most urgent needs, and help give them the better life they yearn for.

Since beginning her studies last September, Luo Ting has had to balance them against her heavy work in the community, and has conscientiously studied Xi Jinping’s thought on “socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era”. She is always determined to find time to study, never hesitates to ask her teachers for help, and whether in face-to-face tutorials, online, or in independent study, always makes an effort to learn thoroughly and put her learning to practical use.

As the community leader, she has set up a "1 + N" platform-based mechanism for Party members to assist households with services such as collecting garbage, whitewashing corridors, renovating roads, and planning parking spaces, giving the community a major upgrade, and leading to it being chosen as a model for the construction of harmonious communities in Jiangsu Province. Luo Ting shows in words and deeds the true qualities of a Party member who is loyal and responsible, and serves the people whole-heartedly.

By OUC News Network