Ziad Al-Atrash, Muhammed Khoudiar, Baladi News
They are the closest to death, not because they are "Martyrs" or prefer death to life, but because they took upon themselves to search for life among the rubble, barrel bombs and missiles even If the price would be their lives. Their job is to rescue and reduce the consequences of death that is being practiced by the Syrian regime and its Russian ally in Syria.
Origin and Beginnings
Since the Syrian Revolution has moved from peaceful movement to armed action, the death toll started to rise daily. The heavy bombardment by regime warplanes also contributed to expanding the space of destruction to the infrastructure of the opposition-held areas. Moreover, everyday there are dozens of injured and victims whose houses collapsed on their heads and they were in dire need of help.
As a reaction to the violence and to mitigate the impacts of bombardment, civil defense teams were formed in order to pull out the bodies of the victims and remove the rubble. They were initially primitive voluntary teams responsible for ministering, firefighting, and evacuation of buildings. Soon they developed their work and became more organized; they moved from the framework of medical work to specialization and turned to a unified body named as "Syrian Civil Defense" spreading in all the liberated Syrian governorates.
The beginning of the civil defense teams was in the early of 2013 where the first civil team was formed in "Hanano" center inside the city of Aleppo, which comprised 20 young men and started working with very simple equipment in the midst of the fierce attacks experienced by the city. Then, civil defense teams were formed in the city of Aleppo and its countryside.
Three months after forming the teams in Aleppo, the job of civil defense teams expanded to reach Idlib where many teams were formed there, the first of which was the team of Jisr Al-Shughur and Idlib, then Binnish, Khan Shaykhun and Saraqib. The idea spread to 8 more governorates: Homs, Dara'a, Damascus, Latakia, Hama, Damascus countryside, in addition to Aleppo, Idlib, who have witnessed the establishment of the humanitarian project.
Cadres and Rehabilitation
The number of civil defense members in Syria was about (2830) members distributed at (119) centers in eight provinces, as follows:
The number of centers in the province of Idlib was (27), spread over six sectors, each sector contains four to five centers, with a number of (740) members.
In the city of Aleppo, the number of centers reached (20), spread over several sectors, and the number of members were around (550).
In Damascus countryside, the number of civil defense centers was (10), with about 600 volunteers. while in Damascus, the number of centers was (7) with (168) members.
In Homs, the number of centers was (9) with (180) members. In Hama, the number of centers reached (12) comprising (267) members. In Daraa, the number of civil defense centers was (14) with (350) members.
As for Latakia, there were two centers in the Mountains of the Kurds and Turkmens, comprising about 75 members.
In the first phase of the foundation, participants received local initial training, then moved to Turkey, where cadres were trained by international organizations for search and rescue who worked on preparing trainers from the civil defense members and transferred their expertise to Syria, where 6 training centers were established in each of Aleppo, Idlib, Damascus countryside, Homs and Daraa. These centers provided many courses for the rehabilitation of cadres and the restructuring of the teams and adopted training on global curricula in the science of search, rescue and firefighting.
Rescuing and Martyrs
Civil defense has saved since its inception till today the lives of at least 50 thousand civilians, and they are still practicing the harshest and most difficult types of work, based on the principle of Quran that says: "and whoever keeps a soul alive, it is as though he kept alive all men".
Syrian civil defense teams assure that they work with "impartiality and humanity without discrimination and without owing allegiance to any political party or group ... we are working to save the largest possible number of lives and reduce injuries among people and damage to property."
Civil defense director, Ra'ed Saleh said that the members of this voluntary organization "chose the path of life to provide hope for the Syrians". This life that they work to save even at the cost of their lives.
Many of the civil defense members were killed under the barrel bombs and missiles while doing their duty. The number of martyrs among civil defense cadres exceeded (120), spread over eight provinces: (Idlib - Aleppo - Damascus – Damascus countryside - Hama - Latakia - Homs - and Daraa).
Future Plans and Appreciating the Sacrifice
In dedication to the methodology of work and development, Syrian civil defense has put a future plan to work until 2020 which was approved in the second annual meeting held in December 2015. Among the top tasks to be carried out in the future after the end of the war, is to contribute actively to the reconstruction of Syria , where all the teams have the potential to contribute to the construction in the first phase and to be responsible for the security and safety plans in buildings.
In recognition of the important and courageous role to 3 thousand people, "the Atlantic Council" during its annual conference in Bologna gave them the "the Award of Freedom". Moreover, Syrian associations along with members of the US Congress and research centers have also nominated "white helmets" for the Nobel Peace Prize for this year.