The fifth group of China (Liaoning) medical personnel, serving in Gambia, participated in group haircuts and hairstyling activities recently to greet the New Year with a brand-new look, bringing home a little closer for a moment in a faraway land.

It was Dragon Heads-Raising Day, the second day of the second lunar month — a day on which getting a haircut is an important traditional Chinese folk custom.

The medical team arrived in Gambia in June 2022 and has been providing medical assistance for 256 days. They are far away from their motherland and loved ones, while facing all kinds of difficulties in serving the local population.

In 1963, China sent its first foreign aid medical team to Algeria. Over the past 60 years, some 30,000 medical personnel have been dispatched to 76 countries and regions, and 290 million patients have been treated, winning wide acclaim from the international community.

Currently, foreign aid medical teams work in 115 medical centers in 56 countries around the world, nearly half of which are in remote and difficult areas.