The Sinovas' Chinese Mothers

By Hu Yifeng
[Algeria] Kouka Gueddim

In the beautiful North African country of Algeria on the Mediterranean coast, a generation of over 10,000 young people has a distinction. They are called Sinovas by the local people, meaning “Chinese”. Delivered by Chinese doctors and medical staff, these young people are a living example of the work of the Chinese medical teams sent to Algeria as part of the Chinese government’s assistance to the country.

Every Sinova has a “Chinese mother”. Xu Changzhen, a maternity expert from Huanggang City, Hubei Province in central China, is one of the mothers. When Xu walks in the street in Algeria, women come to her running, pulling their children with them. “Mama Xu, do you remember this child?” they ask her. “You delivered this Sinova to the world. Just look at how tall the kid has grown since then!”

Since 1993, Xu has served on the medical assistance teams four times. With her teams she has treated more than 32,000 people in obstetrics and gynecology outpatient departments and more than 68,000 in inpatient and maternity wards. She has performed more than 15,000 operations, saved 780 critically ill patients and performed deliveries in tens of thousands of difficult births. With her impressive medical skills and kind nature, she has won the hearts of Algerians as their “Chinese mother”.


Algeria’s Notre Dame

A Display of Friendship

Xu was born in a family of doctors. Her father, brother and sister-in-law graduated from Norman Bethune University of Medical Science. Influenced by them, as a child she was determined to be a doctor like Norman Bethune, the gifted Canadian surgeon who came to China and treated wounded soldiers and villagers during the war. In 1993, when the Huanggang City People’s Hospital where she worked was asked to send a medical team to Algeria, she signed up unhesitatingly, especially as she knew French, which is widely spoken in Algeria.

The memory of her first day in Algeria remains vivid in her mind. Just arriving in the country after a long trip, she was about to go to the station where the Chinese doctors were staying, and it was night. At that moment, a pregnant woman was brought in, suffering from acute oxygen shortage due to severe bleeding and other complications. For Xu, treating an emergency patient was the first priority. Shoving her luggage to one side, she immediately went into the operating room.

The woman’s face was white and her lips were trembling. Xu began to operate on the patient immediately to deliver the baby and stop the bleeding. When it was over, Xu was exhausted, sweating all over.

But the ordeal was not over yet. The baby was not breathing and its heartbeat started getting weaker and weaker.


Xu Changzhen (third right) and local doctors

The operating room was very badly equipped, lacking essential items such as suction catheters to clear the airways of newborn babies and help them breathe. Without hesitation, Xu began to give the newborn mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, ignoring the amniotic fluid covering the little body.

The local doctors were amazed, grateful and full of admiration. Gradually, the baby’s little face turned rosy, it began to breathe and then finally gave a lusty cry. The doctors watching the whole process began applauding.

On her very first day in Algeria, Xu acquired a new name – Mama Xu.

In 2000, the Huanggang City People’s Hospital received an invitation from Algeria again, asking specifically for Xu. Considering the poor local conditions in Algeria, her family was opposed to it, but Xu would not listen to them. This time she was deputed to the Mascara Provincial Hospital. When her former patients heard that she was back many of them flocked to see her, though it meant traveling from afar.

Among them one was Sabrina, who once had a tumor in her uterus. She had come for treatment during Xu’s first stint in Algeria but couldn’t have an operation at that time. On Xu’s second trip, she came again. By then, her condition had deteriorated. Xu arranged her surgery and the tumor was removed. It meant she could have a child. A few months later, the young woman came to see Xu again, this time with her fiancé in tow, to invite her to their wedding. At the wedding, the two women hugged each other, crying in joy.

In 2007, many patients went to the Chinese Embassy in Algeria and asked for “Mama Xu” to come back. The third time Xu was invited to Algeria, it was the Mascara Provincial Hospital once again. One day, she received a patient who was bleeding profusely after having given birth. Her heartbeat and breathing seemed to stop and her pupils became dilated. Xu admitted her immediately for heart and lung recovery treatment. With her vast experience and considerable medical skills, Xu succeeded in pulling the woman back from the verge of death and the ECG screen began to register her heartbeat. Due to the amazing recovery, whenever the locals talk about “Mama Xu”, they always add the epithet “the miracle doctor” before her name. To them, she is not just a doctor, but a ministering angel who nurses people back to a healthy life.


A view of Algiers, the Algerian capital

In 2010, Xu went to Algeria for the fourth time. This time she volunteered to work in Saïda, the remotest province. She and her other team members started working even before they got over their jet lag. On the day of their arrival, they treated three critically ill women and three newborns to the appreciation of the local doctors.

At the Saïda Women and Children’s Hospital, the Chinese doctors were very busy. Almost every month, some of the doctors would have aching shoulders and waists and their wrists would hurt due to their intense workloads. In addition, they worked long night shifts and suffered from severe insomnia. However, they were gratified when with their efforts maternal mortality at the hospital dropped dramatically, and the neonatal mortality rate declined.

Healing Help

China’s medical assistance to Algeria dates back to the 1960s.

In 1962, after Algeria gained independence, the foreign doctors stationed there left en masse and there was a severe shortage of doctors and medicine. Algeria asked other countries for medical assistance.

The Chinese government was the first to respond and sent a medical team as part of China’s foreign assistance in early 1963. This was the first medical assistance team sent by China and the first foreign medical team in Algeria after its independence.

It took the 24-member medical team more than two months to reach Saïda in Algeria, dubbed the “gate of the desert”. The local people lived in poverty and the medical facilities were poor. When the locals heard the Chinese doctors had come, they were beside themselves with excitement. The team started working on the day they arrived. The Chinese doctors soon gained the trust and respect of the locals with their sense of responsibility, readiness to work long hours and not minding the poor medical conditions. They lived and ate just like the local staff. Some patients preferred to travel hundreds of kilometers from other provinces to get treated by the Chinese doctors.

For more than 50 years, the Chinese doctors have helped improve medical treatment in Algeria, giving their unstinting time and even their lives.

Zeng Junzhen laid down her life in Algeria in the line of duty. The 39-year-old ophthalmologist from the Second Hospital of Wuhan City developed acute jaundice resulting in liver atrophy. The disease develops rapidly and has a high mortality rate. Despite the doctors’ efforts, she was beyond cure. In her last letter to her family, she wrote: “Dear mother, dear sister, I feel honored to sacrifice my life while participating in the foreign medical assistance team. Don’t be sad for me.”


China’s first medical assistance team is assigned to the Saïda Provincial Hospital in Algeria.

In May 2012, when Djamel Ould Abbès, then Minister of Health of Algeria, received a representative from the Chinese medical team, he said emotionally, “The Chinese medical team members are our most reliable friends. You always accomplish your missions and are outstanding messengers from China!”

Oriental Love Without Borders

For over half a century, Chinese doctors have been sent to other parts of the world, team after team, treating patients abroad without complaint or regret.

Dr. Mei Jinhua is one of them. In June 2015, a 26-year-old high-risk patient was brought to the Tiaret Maternity Hospital in Algeria. She had high blood pressure and uterine rupture. Though only in the 31st week of pregnancy, she was already in labor.

Treating a critical patient is like fighting a war and the delivery room becomes a battlefield. After careful examination, Dr. Mei wondered whether to do a natural delivery or a cesarean section. If she tried the first, the patient’s uterus might fully rupture while with the latter might cause major bleeding and the uterus might have to be removed.

After clinical observations and discussions among the team, the doctors finally chose the latter. The woman was carrying quadruplets. One of them was in the anterior position and would be easy to bring out but the rest were in the difficult transverse lie position, which would make it difficult to deliver them. Dr. Mei conducted the operation under great pressure and eventually delivered two healthy boys and two healthy girls.

They were the first quadruplets, two boys and two girls, delivered safely in that area. The mother was also in a stable condition. When she woke up and received the news, she wept in joy. Her family and the local hospital staff showered the Chinese doctors with praise.


Local media reports on the first case of the quadruplets (two boys and two girls) in the locality

In the 1960s, Zhou Enlai, then premier of China’s State Council, once said: “The Chinese medical team will leave sooner or later. Our most important task is to train local medical teams that will never leave.” The Chinese government has been putting this principle into practice. In addition to dispatching medical teams, the Chinese and the Algerian governments have also promoted cooperation between their hospitals and launched the “China-Algeria Maternity Center” project to help Algeria turn out more outstanding doctors and benefit more people.

Today, the teams of Chinese mothers are growing. Generations of Chinese medical personnel have been to Algeria to improve the medical conditions there and have won Algerians’ praise.

In 2013, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of China’s medical missions to Africa, the Algerian postal department issued a set of commemorative stamps. They were designed by Algerians and printed in China. The stamps convey the sentiment that the “Chinese messengers” have brought care, light and hope to the patients on the African continent.


Stamps commemorating the 50th anniversary of Chinese medical missions to Algeria and other parts of Africa

In the past, when the ancient Silk Road was a vital transport artery, caravans carrying goods traversed the deserts and spread from the East to the West, promoting common prosperity. Teams today still travel across the deserts. These are the Chinese doctors who go to every corner of the earth, wherever they are needed. They don’t ask for returns, working tirelessly and creating legends of universal fellowship on foreign soil.

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Project Overview

The first Chinese medical team was sent to Algeria in 1963. By May 2019, China had sent 26 batches, involving 3,426 shifts.

The teams set up medical centers in Saïda, Mascara, Relizane, Médéa, Guelma, Adrar and other provinces, treated outpatients 23.7 million times and inpatients more than 2.2 million times. They have performed 1.65 million operations and delivered 1.6 million Algerian babies.