By Professor Dennis R. Shaughnessy
2016 was a challenging year in many ways, from continuing tragic armed conflicts around the world to natural disasters to a divisive election campaign here at home.
At the close of this memorable year, I can’t think of a better organization to reflect on than The White Helmets of Syria.
The White Helmets is the name most commonly used for the Syrian Civil Defence Organization. The organization’s volunteers are unarmed and neutral in the political conflict. They are driven by a very powerful motto, one that rings familiar to many of us: “To save one life is to save all of humanity.” Their values: “humanity, solidarity, impartiality.”
Consisting of nearly 2,900 volunteers, including 78 women, the White Helmets are volunteers who engage in search, rescue, and recovery work in the Syrian communities devastated by war. They have helped rescued men, women, and children from bombed-out buildings; provided care to the victims of war; helped to restore infrastructure like power and water systems; and worked tirelessly to reduce the suffering of thousands of innocent civilians. Nearly 75,000 people have been rescued by the White Helmets in the aftermath of bombings and 141 have been killed in these rescue efforts. They are at work right now as you read this, risking their lives to save the lives of strangers put at risk by an average of fifty bomb and mortar attacks each day.
As many of you know, my teaching often emphasizes the importance to enterprising non-profits of finding income generating activities (IGAs) to lessen their dependence on the unpredictable nature of personal generosity and charity. However, we’ve always identified the areas of crisis and conflict as an exception to the rule. The White Helmets are an extraordinary example of a charitable organization having an enormous impact while relying solely on the generosity of donors to fund their remarkable work.
While the White Helmets are a young organization with perhaps less organizational structure than many relief organizations, their combination of compassion, courage, and self-sacrifice appears at least to this writer to be unprecedented in our times. I’m inspired and encouraged by their example and hope that with more recognition, others may too be inspired.
Their work has been beautifully documented and now available on Netflix as “The White Helmets” (41 minutes). I encourage you to have a look when time permits over the holidays and consider the impact that we can all have, in small ways, to helping those who risk so much to help others.
When I think of the White Helmets and their work today, I think of the values at the core of all religions and spiritual traditions. Faith, hope, and charity come to mind from personal experience. But perhaps the value that we all share in one way or another is the inherent value of each and every human life. The White Helmets celebrate this value in all of their work.
This brief note is not intended as a political or ideological statement, but rather as an acknowledgement of the capacity we all have to do good, even in the face of destruction and senseless violence. I have relied solely on publicly available information to prepare this short note.
