Aid organisation hit in Syria air strike has 3,000 volunteers

In a joint statement, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society (Sarc), the International Federation of Red Cross Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross condemned as an "attack on all humanity" Monday night's strikes on a Sarc warehouse and convoy at the village of Urum al-Kubra, west of Aleppo.

The head of the local Sarc sub-branch, Omar Barakat, was killed, raising the number of Sarc staff and volunteer fatalities to 54 since conflict erupted in 2011. Twelve other civilians, truck drivers and loaders, were also killed.

All UN and Red Cross aid is channelled through Sarc, making the society indispensible for the delivery of humanitarian and medical supplies as well as providing hospitals, mobile clinics, water, electricity, shelter, psychological support and other services to Syrians under attack and siege. Although the government gives permission for convoys to besieged locations, Sarc staff and volunteers negotiate convoys and other missions with both army and insurgent forces on the ground, occasionally giving rise to suspicions on one side or the other.

Sarc has computerised records on internally displaced families and provides them with aid packages, which include kitchen implements, food, soap powder and sanitary items. Sarc and the International Committee of the Red Cross also negotiated and assisted in evacuating insurgents from the Old City of Homs in May 2014 and the nearby suburb of Waer and the resort village of Zabadani last December. Civilians were evacuated from the towns of Foa and Kefraya, besieged by insurgents in Idlib province.

Formed in 1942, Sarc was admitted to the international committee of the Red Cross in 1946. Headquartered in Damascus, Sarc has 14 branches and 75 sub-branches across Syria. It has 9,000 volunteers, 3,000 of whom work regularly. Among the volunteers, only lorry drivers receive salaries; some volunteers may be paid small sums for transport from their homes to Sarc offices.

Volunteers – men and women, engineers, architects, teachers, students, housewives, and civil servants – receive 40 days of training in first aid before joining rapid response teams in ambulances and teams that go into the field. Shocked volunteers who deal with wounded and human remains following car and suicide bombings receive psychological counselling.

In 2013, Sarc received the Red Cross Red Crescent Prize for Peace and Humanity, conferred in exceptional circumstances. The ongoing conflict has been the greatest challenge in a country that has seen many emergencies since SARC was established.