Kerala - Kochi   

Youth Red Cross to expand its activities in colleges

The Youth Red Cross in colleges in Ernakulam district is yet to become active, as there is little incentive for the scheme. Voluntary work, without grace marks for it, is less attractive. However, the district unit of the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) is determined to get the youth to join the work.

Most of the colleges have a Youth Red Cross unit, but not many activities are taken up by these units. K.V. Bijoy, district coordinator of the Youth Red Cross, said Cochin College and Aquinas College are the most active units.

While it depends on the programme directors in each college to get the students to participate in work taken up by the Youth Red Cross, Mr. Bijoy believes that the work should be given to a lecturer, who would be able to spend more time on this kind of work.

Mr. Bijoy said talks had been held to provide incentives to students to become Youth Red Cross volunteers. Some kind of provision is likely to come up soon, he said.

Harry Cletus, coordinator for the Youth Red Cross and Disaster Management Cell at St. Albert's College, said the students could be motivated to join the volunteer work without incentives too. "We had started the unit in the college two years ago when we could not provide proper help to the victims of a bus accident in front of the college."

There are 33 colleges under the Directorate of Collegiate Education in the district. Of these, only 18 colleges have a Youth Red Cross unit. "We plan to conduct a camp when there are 20 units in the district. There is also a plan to select five volunteers from 12 colleges and train them in first aid course, so that they would be a support group for the district IRCS."

A unit of Youth Red Cross will have a membership of 30-50 students. If there are more than 50 members, there would be two units. Each unit can take up various programmes such as development of health habits, creating awareness on health and hygiene, measures to check environmental pollution; extend help to the physically and mentally challenged, etc.

Shyama Rajagopal

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