Alina, right, comforts another volunteer as they continue their 12 hours shift in, Thursday, July 30, 2020. As local hospitals were overwhelmed by the pandemic, civil society organisations helped convert restaurants and hotels into temporary hospitals. Most volunteers in these temporary hospitals were staffed by non-medical workers with no prior experience in the medical field. Alina almost quit after seeing doctors trying to save the life of a patient. Many volunteers were afraid of catching the virus themselves but Alina persisted; the recovered patients gave her motivation to continue her volunteering work.
Yam G-Jun, a photojournalist currently based in Kyrgyzstan, was a former contract photographer for the Associated Press, covering local and international news stories in Kuala Lumpur and Chicago. He holds a B.A. from Columbia College Chicago and is an alumnus of the New York Times Student Journalism Institute. His work has been published by The New York Times, The Associated Press, Smithsonian Magazine, and Chicago Tribune, to name a few. He was awarded first place in the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest People Category 2019, the Studs Terkel Scholarship for his work in Pilsen, the Illinois College Press Association Spot News Photo of the Year, and has exhibited his work in various group shows in New York state, Chicago and Malaysia.