Kikwit, Zaire -- AS THE SUN HIT its mid-day zenith, a mustard-colored truck slowly made its way up a dirt road just outside the city to a hilltop where a 15-foot-deep trench, 20 feet long by 10 feet wide, awaited.

Standing on the truckbed were seven figures dressed uniformly in white hard hats, goggles, heavy-duty bioprotection masks, emerald green long-sleeved gowns, long and thick yellow rubber gloves, plastic aprons and industrial-strength black galoshes.

Soon, the truck was close enough so that an observer could see the Croix Rouge on each of their helmets, identifying them as members of the local Red Cross. And, finally, their cargo became evident -- six cadavers wrapped in white.

The burial trip observed by a reporter last week has been made daily by Red Cross volunteers for many weeks in a row -- volunteers who, when the outbreak began, made similar trips without protective gear, without real knowledge of the disease they were dealing with and against the wishes of many of the families of the victims they gathered.

Nonetheless, the volunteers work on, mindful, their leaders say, of both the community's inability to completely understand this curse that has come over the city and of the need for modern responses to a fightening virus.

"These people are volunteers doing this of their own free will," said Kadiata Vunga, who serves as secretary-general for the local Red Cross, whose office is a converted schoolroom. "No one from government has told them to do this. They are willing to die for others."

And, indeed, they have died.

As of May 26, four of 98 Red Cross volunteers assigned to cadaver removal have died. Still, local officials say, another 350 Kikwit residents remain on a volunteer waiting list, willing to relieve physically and emotionally exhausted crew members.

The Kikwit government cannot pay the Red Cross volunteers and it hasn't the resources to perform the tasks of delivering the ailing to the hospital and the dead to their graves, according to the city's mayor, Ignace Gata Mavita said.

"The government has nothing. I mean, literally, nothing," Mavita said. "And it is impossible for us to help everybody. That's why we have issued a call to other countries to help us. Our people are suffering, and we have no money to assist them. As I am in charge of the city, I have said to everyone to spread information about the disease so that people can understand, pay attention and follow the advice of the doctors. It is difficult in such a milieu where we don't have radio, TV or telephones. We just have to go house-to-house to spread the word."

And that responsibility also has fallen to the Croix Rouge volunteers.

At 7 each morning, team leaders of the Croix Rouge volunteers gather in a college classroom and, seated at cramped student desks, go over the list of reported bodies that need to be picked up, neighborhoods that should be targeted for Ebola education and other plans for the day.

When a reporter asks members of the group why they have been willing to take on such risks, the answers are immediate, voiced with certain conviction.

"It is God's will," several say at once.

"We have no government," one man points out. "If we don't do it, who will? The people of Kikwit must take the situation in hand; nobody else will."

"I am honored to accept these reponsibilities," says another. I am prepared to die, if that is the Lord's will."

Meanwhile, officials said that as of May 26, they had received very little help from the international community in keeping their efforts going.

"Some members of Croix Rouge have given their cars and bicycles to help the effort," Vunga said, while others pay out of their own pockets for the gasoline needed to propel Red Cross trucks on their grim missions.

"We receive help from no one," Vunga said. "If the Red Cross of America can see our situation here -- we are suffering a lot. We need money and resources. They should see the conditions we are working under."

On Friday, an official with the International Federation of the Red Cross said that their group had begun sending money into the area to help feed Red Cross volunteers.

Reidar Schaanning, desk officer for the federation's Central Africa efforts, said that money was sent out last Tuesday and that more protective clothing and money is on the way. He said he spoke with American Red Cross representatives on Friday, and they promised to send more protective equipment as well as $10,000 in U.S. currency.

The agreement will be finalized this week, he said.