Six school boys in the Jonglei State capital Bor recently benefited from a scholarship which one UNMISS peacekeeper set up using money collected from haircuts he gave his colleagues.

When Captain Lee Jae-woo first arrived at the UNMISS base Bor six months ago, his work as a South Korean Guard Officer was clear. Soon, however, he realized he had another duty he could take on using his hair-cutting skills.

As with most military components, the Republic of Korea’s Horizontal Military Engineering Company has a strict policy that all personnel should keep a low haircut.

Capt. Lee took on his additional role with gusto and then decided to use his skills to get even more benefits for the community that he and his fellow contingent members were already serving.

As company barber, Capt. Lee started to charge one dollar per haircut and set a goal to convert all the money he would generate into a scholarship scheme for students in Bor.

At the start of this month, as the contingent prepared to leave the country, Capt. Lee had collected $600 from some 600 haircuts during his six-month deployment.

Beneficiaries of the scholarship were selected from the children of South Sudan National Police Service officers in the traffic unit, with whom the contingent had had a harmonious working relationship.

They selected six school boys with the best grades and gave them $100 each, in addition to other educational materials donated by the engineering company to support Capt. Lee’s scholarship scheme.

“I am very happy to be able to put a smile on their faces in a small way,” he said as he and his team left South Sudan. “I hope it will encourage them to continue to do well in school.”