Foreigners living in south China's Hainan province are joining in the battle against the COVID-19 outbreak.

Lara is an English teacher from South Africa who works in Haikou, capital of the province. Inspired by the news that a man had given his extra mask to an elderly woman who could not take a bus because she did not have one, she wrote an English poem "Unmasked" and recorded a video to go along with it.

She hoped that through her video, more people would learn that in this special time fighting the epidemic, people must first take care of and protect themselves so as to better take care of others.

David Chon, founder of the Chimac restaurant and pub, held a free mask distribution event in Haikou. With the help of some friends, he bought about 6,000 masks from South Korea and handed them out to people in the city.

David asked volunteers to teach recipients how to use the masks properly, adding that "We all have to do what we can do in order to stop the virus spreading, and defeat the disease."

Sarah, an English teacher, was one of the volunteers at the event. She said she loved Hainan, and especially its people, explaining that she joined the event because she wanted everyone in the province to be safe.

Marian Rosenberg, from the United States, has been working and living in Hainan for 14 years. For her, Hainan is her second home. After the novel coronavirus outbreak, she felt obliged to give updates on the development of the epidemic and local governments' prevention measures to foreign friends in Hainan, even when she was in Thailand for a holiday.

Marian started the regular updates while she was waiting for flights or trains. Every day, she translated at least 10 Chinese news articles about the epidemic in the province into English, and sometimes she translated more than 20 articles a day.

"During recent special moments, China has shown the world its strong sense of responsibility and solidarity. This is the point that it should be proudest of and praised for," Lara said.