Red Cross Volunteerism In Refugee Camps Shining Amidst Looming Crisis

Nyathak Chiok Dak, 45, is a South Sudanese refugee in Jewii camp of Gambella Region in Ethiopia. She crossed Ethiopian boarder with her two children in March 2014 following the conflict erupted in the youngest African nation, South Sudan. Before she was transferred to Jewii Camp, some 23 kms away from the regional capital, Gambella, in May, 2015, Nyathak Chiok Dak and other refugees were sheltered in the Leitchour camp. Since the Leitchour Camp was prone to flooding, we had to be relocated to the Jewii camp, said Mrs. Dak. In Jewii Camp the Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS) and its partners have set up a Red Cross Center in which humanitarian services and integrated health and hygiene promoters trainings are given for volunteers drawn from the refugee community. Mrs. Dak is one of the 40 South Sudanese refugees who were taking part in an integrated health and hygiene promoters training which was held from August 4-12, 2015 at the Jewii refugee camp. She is now one of the Red Cross volunteer striving to protect the refugee community in the camp from the most prevalent diseases such as malaria, diarrheal diseases and upper respiratory infections. I didnt even know the term volunteerism before I came to the refugee camp, said Mrs. Dak. Now I have been selected by the community to provide voluntary humanitarian service and education. I deliver a house-to-house message for my fellow people to protect themselves and their children from diseases, she added. Mrs. Dak and other health promotion volunteers reached 8,079 people (2,588 households) by using house-to-house visit method from Dec 2014 to the end of June 2015. Ato Negussie Sisay, Ambulance and First Aid Officer in ERCS said that through training, the volunteers are empowered to deal with some of their serious health threats. The training given for nine days geared towards preventing any epidemic that may break out in the new refugee camp, he added. Ato Abdella Suleiman, one of the trainers, shows the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) volunteer trainees, how to prevent diseases simply by washing their hands properly and keeping their habitat clean. Here, we primarily focus on preventing diseases in the camp through hygiene promotion and environmental cleaning campaigns, Ato Abdella noted. As a reflection of the training, the volunteers demonstrated hand washing practices and inspected the sanitation of latrines and the usage of mosquito nets in the refugee camp. In a similar development, the Society, in cooperation with the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA), International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), provides ambulance, first aid and community services at entry points and in the refugee camps. According to official sources, as of August 5, 2015 the number of South Sudanese refugees sheltering in Ethiopia is 282,429. Out of this, Jewii Camp accommodated 41,139 refugees. In a bid to respond to the looming humanitarian crisis, ERCS and IFRC have launched an emergency appeal in December 2014 and allocated CHF 570,575.