White Helmets: the power of trained volunteers | Gardenia | TEDxSkoll

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Since the Syrian civil war began, a team of 3,300 trained civilian volunteers - who used to be teachers, salesmen, cooks, and taxi drivers have saved more than 80,000 lives. With no weapons except courage, readiness, independence, and a belief in humanity over religious and political beliefs, the White Helmets are making history. Learn from Gardenia, one of the growing number of females in the White Helmets, how women in the war are making a difference, and how the group is going beyond saving people from the rubble to rebuilding infrastructure - and trust - in Syria.

My name is Gardenia.

Six years ago,
I was a student in Damascus.

Today, I am a member
of Syria civil defense

also known as the White Helmets.

The White Helmets
is a volunteer organization

made up of community first responders

who have pledged to serve their community

inside Syria with neutrality,
impartiality, and humanity.

Gardenia is not my real name,

and I'm sorry I can't show you
my face today.

White Helmets, their friends and families

are being targeted daily
inside Syria by the Syrian regime,

so I wear this helmet
for their protection.

The story of the White Helmets
begins in March 2013,

two years into the Syrian uprising.

By that time, the Syrian regime

was conducting around 50 airstrikes a day
against civilians, targets in Aleppo -

with heavy artillery and aerial attacks -

and in Daraa, Damascus,
Damascus countryside,

Hama, Homs, and Idlib.

They were using barrel bombs
to destroy marketplaces,

small businesses, hospitals,
schools, and residential neighborhoods.

This is an example

of the kind of damage
that a barrel bomb can cause.

It is difficult to convey the scale
of this terror on the ground.

The localized effect of a barrel bomb

is the same as an earthquake
measuring 8 on the Richter scale.

To give you an idea of what that means

the terrifying earthquakes
in Italy in January this year

measured around 5.7,

so imagine that, 50 times a day.

Whole buildings would collapse,

the people living and working
there would be crushed,

and any survivors would be
trapped beneath the rubble

with no prospect of being rescued.

Families, neighbors,
and civil society volunteers

would rush to help,

but without the necessary training
and equipment to help those trapped,

they were helpless.

Hundreds of people were dying each day.

In 2013, the Syrian regime
gave civilians a choice:

leave these areas or be killed.

For most of our communities,
leaving was not an option,

but nor was waiting to be killed,

so in northern Aleppo,

a group of carpenters, bakers,
builders, and taxi drivers

choose to take matters
into their own hands.

After receiving

a week of training
from an international NGO

and a small equipment pack,

they returned to the community
and began to conduct rescue operations.

Two days later, they save
a family of four from the rubble.

This was the beginning
of the White Helmets.

Four years on, we are now
over 3,200 trained community volunteers

working in 120 teams across Syria

in the areas outside
the control of the regime.

We have saved the lives
of 87,500 people ...

(Applause)

Thank you.

We have saved the lives of 87,500 people,

and by this stage of the conflict,

have more experience in responding
to bomb attacks and airstrikes

than any other organization in the world.

Our teams are trained
in a wide range of different skills.

They include community warning
and preparedness,

urban search and rescue, and firefighting,

emergency medical service,
and other technical skills

such as marking and clearing
explosive remnants of war.

Although our teams are initially set up
to provide rescue services,

we quickly realized
that our existing skills

together with the equipment
and training we received

enabled us to do much more
for our communities

than just rescuing them after an attack.

When we weren't pulling
people out of the rubble,

we could use our skills

to provide medical services,
educate the community,

reconnecting electricity, water,
and reopen roads, hospitals, and schools.

We use the equipment
we received for doing many things,

we use our fire trucks
to distribute drinking water

in areas of need,

and we used our rescue diggers
to respond to floods and snow storms.

In some cases,

we have even been able
to protect infrastructure.

For example, when the Syrian regime
used incendiary cluster bombs

to destroy the harvest in Homs
in 2016 to starve the population,

we stationed White Helmets teams
around the fields

to put out the fires and protect the crops

which were a vital source
of food for the people.

In short, the White Helmets
have become the Swiss Army knife

for community service delivery in crisis.

We have seen how much can be
achieved with how little;

that, when that investment

is made directly into the community
for the benefit of the community.

The diversity in our backgrounds
is critical to our success

and our shared training has provided us

with a common language
as well as a flexible tool kit

for delivering the needs
of the community as they evolve.

As a female member of the White Helmets,

I have experienced
the diversity firsthand.

Women have been part
of the organization since the beginning,

and we, too, are diverse.

In our ranks, we have mothers,
teachers, students, accountants,

journalists, and many other professions.

Although we remain a minority
in the organization,

our numbers are growing

helped by increasing the recognition
and unique and valuable role

that female several defenders

can play in serving their own communities.

For example,

through community awareness campaigns
and providing medical services,

we have enabled access

to otherwise close gender,
and community, and cultural groups.

We offer a unique conduit

for humanitarian
needs assessment, and engagement

far beyond Syrian civil defense,
civil defense limits.

At first, women were an anomaly,

but over time, we were accepted
by the whole communities.

We are no longer
the hidden victims of the war.

We are respected and honored

for serving our communities,
for saving lives,

and for giving hope to those in despair.

Where are we now?

Our core mission

is to save lives
and deliver essential services,

but the work of the White Helmets

has an impact far beyond
the communities we serve.

We established ambulance networks

which support local clinics
and international organizations

including Médecins Sans Frontières
and other NGOs.

White Helmets have facilitated
the delivery of humanitarian aid

and have conducted
emergency repairs in ceasefire areas

enabling the return of displaced families.

We are the main organization clearing
unexploded munitions inside Syria.

We provide daily cessation of hostilities

to the Office of the UN Special Envoy.

We document chemical weapons,

cluster bombs, and other banned weapons

which are reported
by Human Rights Watch and others.

One hundred and sixty five
of our volunteers have been killed,

and over 480 have suffered
life-changing injuries.

Our work has frequently referred to

as the most dangerous job
in the world, in this state,

in a war that has claimed

the lives of 450,000 civilians

with over 50% of families displaced.

Our greatest contribution

has not been to save 87,500 lives

but to give hope
where previously there was none.

Hope, by its nature, looks forward.

We hoped and imagined
that the conflict would end sooner,

and we would lay down our tools
and return to our normal lives.

Today, we know

that what it has happened
to our country will not be undone,

and for most of our volunteers,
there are no homes to return to.

Our vision now

is that what we have rebuilt
in the past four years

will play an essential role

in the reconstruction, recovery,
and the reconciliation of our country.

We hope that the teams
that are today using their tools

to break through the rubble,
searching for survivors,

will, in the future, use those same tools

to rebuild houses, roads,
and local community infrastructure.

One day, fighting will end.

When that happens,

the greatest challenge

is not to rebuild roads
between communities

but to rebuild trust between them.

Trust has been destroyed inside Syria,

trust in the government who claimed

it had a responsibility
to protect its civilians,

trust and the desire or ability
in the international community

to take an action on their behalf,

and trust in our fellow Syrians to behave
towards one another with humanity.

We owe our success to date

to the trust placed in us

by the desperate communities we serve.

This trust has been earned by our actions

through the legitimacy,
and representativeness,

through the credibility of our members,

and the humanitarian values they embody,

and through the clear mission
of the organization:

save lives and serve the community.

In the same way, White Helmets
have brought hope in hopelessness.

Our vision is to help restore trust
where there is none.

Every single one of us
has taken an oath to save lives

regardless of political,
religious, or sectarian affiliation.

We have rescued combatants from all sides

including regime soldiers,
Russian soldiers, Hezbollah,

opposition fighters, and even ISIS.

The devastation of war
does not distinguish between its victims,

so peace should not distinguish
between its beneficiaries.

The future needs more White Helmets,
ordinary people like us,

who, with the training, can volunteer
to rebuild the fabric of our society.

I look around at who these people will be;

most of them were children
when this war started.

At the time, they used to play soldiers;

today, they play White Helmets.

Thank you.

(Applause)

Thank you.

(Cheers)

(Applause)