November, 12 2012 (BOR) – Nearly 100 students from Alliance High School have voluntarily joined South Sudan Red Cross society in Bor, the capital of Jonglei State.

Students from Alliance High School, in a group photo at the Jonglei Red Cross office in Bor, November 4, 2012 (ST)

According to the director of Red Cross Society in Bor, David Gai, the new volunteers will undergo training to understand the principles of neutrality and impartiality, which are integral to the Red Cross, before they participate in any area of disaster management.

“After we recruit they will be able to serve their communities through the knowledge they gain from us”, he said.

Gai gave accounts of the areas in Jonglei where their organization given assistance to people, including those wounded in Pigi County two years ago when the the late rebel leader George Athor attacked civilians. More recently, the Director also said that the SSRC had provided medical care to the victims of attacks from David Yauyau’s rebels in Pibor County.

Jonglei State Director of the Red Cross, David Gai in his office in Bor, November 4, 2012 (ST)

“In 2010, and the beginning of this year our volunteers were able to help the communities in collecting the wounded people in Pigi and Pibor counties”, he said.

The SSRC has also helped to evacuate flood-displaced people in some places in Jonglei State, Gai said.

The Director of Alliance High School, Peter Majak Duot explained that the students and teachers had decided to volunteer for the Rec Cross to help address some of the major problems in Jonglei State.

“The initiative of joining South Sudan Red Cross started in this school not only the students but haft of the teachers in this school have joined Red Cross so everybody is willing to join because south Sudan is facing a lot of problem in term of disaster management,” Duot said.

The Red Cross are planning to go and help the people affected by floods in Akobo County “and that [is] why they need to have more volunteers”, Duot said.

(ST)