The 2016 Right Livelihood Laureate organisation Syria Civil Defence, better known as the White Helmets, were once globally revered for pulling survivors of bombings from the rubble during Syria’s civil war. While the airstrikes have stopped, their mission has expanded and now involves a broader, more sustained and multifaceted set of challenges: from unexploded ordnance and mass graves to fires, displacement and the slow, painful task of rebuilding.
After the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian regime and more than a decade of war and economic strangulation — the United States and the European Union have lifted their sanctions on Syria. For millions returning to the ruins of their former lives, this marks a fragile lifeline.
“We’ve been waiting for this moment,” said Ismail Alabdullah, a volunteer with the White Helmets who is at the forefront of this massive effort, and who shared with us a vivid and urgent picture of their new role — and what they need from international partners.
Millions are coming back to towns reduced to ash. Children grow up without schools. Families sleep in tents pitched beside the wreckage of what used to be home. Across Syria’s arid provinces, fires rage unchecked. Unexploded ordnance (UXO) still litters streets and fields, killing civilians long after the bombs have fallen silent.
“People are coming back to their homes, to their farmlands,” he told Right Livelihood. “UXO and mines are killing people every day.”
The White Helmets are adapting. They are training new volunteers to become firefighters, paramedics, deminers. They are responding to mass grave sites, documenting the dead, and hoping one day to establish the forensic capacity Syria so urgently needs. As Alabdullah noted, “More than half a million people are missing, and their families are still waiting to know their fate.”
The White Helmets are expanding from 3,000 to 5,000 members, and from six to 11 operational teams across the country. But those efforts won’t be enough.
“They are waiting for us to remove all the rubble from Syria,” said Alabdullah. “Anyone who knows the scale of damage and rubble in Syria knows it will take years and years — and it needs support from all our friends.”
They once rescued the living. Now they fight to preserve memory, rebuild shattered systems and prepare for a future still uncertain. Syria’s recovery is just beginning — and it cannot happen alone.
While Alabdullah expressed gratitude to past donors — “Their funding saved Syrian lives” — the needs remain urgent and ongoing.
“We are hopeful,” he added, “but we need help — and we need businesses to invest in Syria.”
