Syria reweaves its identity

In the history of countries that offer models of reconciliation after long conflicts, Syria is now trying to make its mark. A good example is a grassroots rescue organization known as the White Helmets. During a severe but short flare-up of sectarian violence in early March, the group’s volunteers quickly entered the killing zone in a minority area to help any and all, conducting around 30 responses a day.

“When we go to rescue someone in need, we don’t ask them about their religion or political opinion,” said Abdulkafi Kayal, head of the group’s operations in the coastal region where the killings took place. “Our mandate is to help those in need,” he told the BBC.

A reporter from the BBC was able to join the Syrian Civil Defence, as the White Helmets are formally known, as it went about its humanitarian missions. What was clear is that such acts of equality and kindness are the necessary building blocks for a country starting over.

“We consider ourselves as an umbrella to serve all Syrians,” Mr. Kayal said.

Civil society groups like the White Helmets are proving to be far more effective at binding Syrians than the new, interim government of former rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa. While his Islamist group was able to overthrow a dictatorship nearly four months ago, it has struggled to assure Syrians that it can achieve political inclusion regardless of ethnicity or religion.

“Civil society is always closer to the people than government administrations. We know people’s needs and opinions,” Bayyan Skaf of the activist youth group Khatwa, or Step, told the Monitor's Taylor Luck. many cities, volunteers are forming local councils to meet basic needs or hosting inclusive town halls to prevent the kind of revenge attacks of March 6-10.

As the de facto first responders in violent incidents or simply a fire emergency, the White Helmets and their 3,500 volunteers are emphasizing the need for impartial organizations to provide safety and a path toward justice. 

For almost six decades while living under a dictatorship, reports The Atlantic, “Syrians have been taught to hate and fear one another.” Now local civil society groups are filling a political void, trying to keep anarchy and anger at bay. The White Helmet volunteers who rush to scenes of violence and hatred are, as Mr. Kayal said, showing that it doesn’t matter if a Syrian “is a Muslim, Sunni, Alawite, Christian, Druze or even an atheist.”

“Those families are our families.”