Red Cross honours local humanitarian volunteers

Humanitarian volunteer Prince Mushi has dedicated his life to helping others.

The volunteer from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is among a group that was celebrated by the organisation during the annual Red Cross and Red Crescent Day held in Pretoria this week.

Mushi is a treasurer of the Pretoria branch of the ICRC and said he joined the organisation as a volunteer in the late 1990s.

He said the life he led as a young boy led him to join the organisation. 

“I grew up in a small village in Limpopo and during that time, the village was very close knit. My mother was a black woman and my father a white male. I grew up living with my mother, and in that village I was the only one of my kind, no one else looked like me,” said Mushi. 

He described how the people in his village would often reference him as the small soldier because the people that looked like him where the white soldiers of the apartheid government. 

“Whenever I would play in the street or I was running in the street, they would all look at me and say, there he goes. There was one old lady that called me small soldier in Venda and would always call me like that and eventually I was known as that in the village. I knew that the only people who looked like me were the soldiers,” he said. 

Mushi said his family became protective of him. 

He said that the love he got from the village was what encouraged him to help others. He said the people did not care about his skin colour and treated him with kindness.

“I thought if these people can show so much love, regardless of my skin colour, especially during that time, then I can do the same. Then I thought I can protect someone like how they protected me,” Mushi expressed. 

Mushi said he opened his home to a lot of people who needed shelter.

“These migrants and refugees who were desperate. Sometimes they just needed someone to listen to them and I would do that,” he said.

Mushi said experience gained at the ICRC had taught him a lot and widened his perspective of people and how people should be treated.  

“Being a humanitarian all begins with being open to people, approaching people with the concept of kindness and helping them in any way that you can,” said Mushi. 

Another volunteer, Siyanda Ntshangase, 23, said she joined the ICRC following the July unrest that took place in 2021.

She said the end result of what was left behind by the unrest was something she could not forget. 

“The unrest affected the KZN very badly and people who depended heavily on food and essentials from shops nearby had to travel much further for these items as everything was destroyed. Homes were destroyed and everyone now had to share what little they had.

“It was a very sad sight to witness.” 

She said things only got worse when the province experienced floods. 

“I personally donated clothes to the victims,” said Ntshangase. 

She said the most important thing she has taken from her time in ICRC,was that Ubuntu was very important. 

“To be able to help and to give is something people don’t really understand. You need to have a heart to be able to help people without it you cannot lend a helping hand. Being a volunteer and a humanitarian is about the love you give helping others,” Ntshangase said. 

Jules Amoti, the head of the Red Cross department of Pretoria said he had been with the organisation for two decades.

“Being from the DRC, a country affected by armed conflict, and this is why I joined the ICRC. When I came to the ICRC it was my dedication to the humanitarian work but also to help my communities affected by the armed conflict as ICRC was one of the organisations working in the areas and drove me to say, ‘let me provide my services to the communities’, and the ICRC provided me with the means and supported these kinds of ambitions,” Amoti shared. 

Amoti said with the ICRC he had travelled to war-torn countries including Sudan, Palestine, Chad and Central African Republic.

He said he noticed similar trends in the countries he went to. 

“Most areas or villages trapped did not have basic services. It was difficult for children to go to school, either because of the violence in the place or the constant lack of supplies or infrastructure for them to be taught.

“Having access to clean water, health services was a problem for the communities. You’re dealing with different groups, different countries, different governments but it’s always the same thing,” said Amoti. 

mashalek@sowetan.co.za