Name: Who Are Syria’s White Helmets?
Uploaded: 2017-04-17T02:46:31.000Z
Duration: 4 min 17 s
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Imagine you are walking down the street in the city you’ve called home your entire

This is a scene that plays out everyday in cities across Syria.

The Civil War is currently in its fifth bloody year, and the country is virtually unrecognizable.

City streets are barren, buildings have turned to rubble... and an estimated 250,000 lives

But thousands more would have perished if it wasn’t for one group of civilians who

When bombs go off, these men and women in white helmets rescue victims caught in the

So who are these so called “White Helmets”?

The White Helmets is the unofficial name for the Syrian Civil Defence, a rescue organization

made up entirely of volunteers who operate in opposition-controlled Syria.

According to their own data, the group have rescued more than 58,000 people, including

Omran Daqneesh, the toddler who painfully reminded the world of the horrors unfolding

The task of these modern day war heroes is extremely dangerous.

To date, around 130 white helmet volunteers have been killed in the country’s relentless

One of the groups most notable losses happened in August 2015, when an airstrike killed the

White Helmet volunteer who famously rescued a baby who had been trapped under rubble for

One of the White Helmet’s biggest challenges is barrel and cluster bombs.

These explosives are full of chemicals or bits of metal that are designed to cause indiscriminate

casualties, and are against international law.

Since Russia intervened in the civil war in 2015, these attacks have become more frequent,

with some cities being hit multiple times a day.

Aside from the danger presented by barrel bombs, the white helmets also have to operate

in the presence of rival militias, the Islamic State and groups linked to al-Qaeda.

 And they’ve even rescued Syrian government officials, who are themselves often responsible

That’s because the White Helmets are by and large, a non political organization.

That is, their only goal is to “save the greatest amount of lives in the shortest amount

of time”, regardless of the ideological stance of the people they’re rescuing.

However, that’s not to say that the group stays out of the political arena.

The White Helmets have urged the international community to take action against Russia and

Syrian President Bashar al- Assad for use of illegal barrel bombs.

Though the UN argues that aside from banning them, there is little they can do to alleviate

The White Helmets have also critiqued the Western world for being too focused on defeating

terror groups than Assad, despite the fact that the Syrian regime is responsible for

And maybe that message may be finally getting through.

When the war in Syria escalated around the end of 2012, the White Helmets were relatively

Back then, they were comprised of disjointed teams of volunteers.

Today, the White Helmets, are receiving more international attention.

In 2016 the group was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and was featured in a Netflix

And thanks in part, to modest funding from individual donors, as well as the UK, Denmark,

Holland, Japan, Germany and the US, they are now a formal emergency response organization.

The White Helmets have a motto: “to save one life, is to save all of humanity”.

And as the Syria faces another failed ceasefire, the volunteers will continue what some have