Your letter is a symbol of the hope and solidarity that the world so badly needs in its fight against this global pandemic, Gauden Galea told Wuhan students in a hand-written letter.
Galea, a doctor originally from Żebbuġ, serves as the World Health Organization's representative in China.
He has been learning Chinese in his spare time, but when he received a letter from a student at Xuguang Middle School in Wuhan, the epicentre of the COVID-19 epidemic in China, he insisted he would reply in Chinese.
According to the English-language Beijing news channel CGTN, the student sent a letter to Galea on May 5, calling on young people all around the world to join hands to help others in need.
[attach id=875465 size="large" align="left" type="image"]Galea replies to Wuhan students. Screenshot via WHO's Weibo account[/attach]
"The world is so huge, but no one is an isolated island and the virus is the common enemy of all mankind," the student wrote.
“My classmates and I have a common dream to contribute to a better world."
The students pledged to donate money to the WHO after selling recyclable items such as bottles, the news outlet reported.
The WHO released Galea’s handwritten four-page reply via its official Weibo account.
Galea was appointed WHO’s representative to China in April of 2018, after being posted in Fiji and Switzerland, among others.