At least 1,000 households in Unity State’s Leer County received SSP 185,200 each as relief from the South Sudan Red Cross on Tuesday to buy food and other essential commodities. 

According to Ruai Bang Teny, the head of the South Sudan Red Cross Branch in the Unity State and Ruweng Administrative Area, a lump sum of SSP 185 million was distributed to 1,000 households under a project of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) since last Friday and will conclude on Wednesday.

“We are running an IFRC project and implementing it in the community. We distributed SSP 185,200,000 cash to 1,000 households so that the beneficiaries can buy food and support their lives,” he explained. “We started the distribution of cash last week and it will continue until today (Wednesday). The reason for distributing cash is to support returnees and the vulnerable and affected residents. Before coming here, we distributed money in Rubkonta County.”

Bang said that they will proceed to implement the project in the Ruweng Administrative Area.

On his part, Madet Puok, a resident of Leer town who received cash, said the beneficiaries were identified through the South Sudan Red Cross and that the money will help them buy food.

“We the beneficiaries of the cash are 1,000 households and each household received SSP 185,200. The money will help us to buy food during this time of scarcity across the seven counties of Unity State,” he stated. “I am so happy to have received cash at the right time because there is too much hunger in Leer. It is the first time for me to have such cash since they started distributing money last year.”

Another beneficiary, Both Deng, expressed gratitude and thanked the South Sudan Red Cross.
“South Sudan Red Cross is doing a great service for us the community of Leer County by distributing cash,” he said. “Purchasing food would have been too expensive for us but thanks to the organization, we can now afford it.”