(Photo by Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office via Flickr/CC BY 2.0 DEED)
Note: The interview with Majd Khalaf was conducted in November 2025, before recent unrest in Aleppo.
In the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, as relentless bombings by the Syrian government and its allies hit civilian areas across the country, local communities created emergency response systems to carry out rescue operations. The Syria Civil Defence, commonly known as the White Helmets, emerged as a grassroots effort in response to military attacks on civilian areas.
In 2013, volunteer groups – particularly those operating outside of government-controlled areas – created a network, and the structure of the White Helmets began to form. In 2014, 70 team leaders gathered in southern Turkey for an official founding meeting, where the slogan “to save a life is to save all of humanity” was adopted alongside a Charter of Principles that ties their mission to fundamental aspects of international humanitarian law.
One of the White Helmets co-founders Majd Khalaf’s journey started at the very beginning. Before former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal repression of pro-democracy protests launched the country into civil war, Majd was a young man studying engineering at university.
Photo Provided by Majd Khalaf
Like many other men and women who would volunteer with the organization, he was driven to action by a sense of responsibility to the community when he saw that “everything was collapsing.”
The White Helmets
Khalaf describes the early days of the organizations as ones where:
There were no clear institutions, no organized support, and not even proper equipment for response. We were just small, scattered groups united by one human instinct: How can we save more lives? In June 2013, there was a day I will never forget. Heavy bombing by the Assad regime struck Salqin, in the Idlib countryside, causing total destruction. I remember staying there, digging through the rubble with my friends, searching for anyone who might still be alive. Two children stood beside me, asking again and again if I had found their mother. We had no tools, no machines — only our hands and our determination.
For ten long hours, we kept digging. Finally, we reached their mother and rushed her to the hospital. That moment changed me. It gave me a profound motivation to continue, to dedicate myself fully to this volunteer work with [what would become] the White Helmets, and to keep working day and night to save more lives.
Photo Provided by Majd Khalaf
As the Syria Civil Defence grew, Syrians began to recognize the group by the distinctive white helmets the unarmed volunteers wore during the often dangerous rescue missions. From 2015 to 2020, the White Helmets built partnerships with international NGOS such as the Turkish Red Crescent and received funding from a myriad of government agencies, including the US State Department, the United Kingdom, and Global Affairs Canada.
As their capacity grew, the organization expanded beyond direct emergency response to incorporate systematic changes in communities desperately needing public services. In one of these efforts, the group developed a Community Awareness Program to provide community education on topics ranging from the risks of drug use and child labour to first aid, infectious and chronic disease management, fire safety, and landmine awareness.
In more recent years, the organization has also provided more essential emergency services for communities where no other authority was willing or able to serve that role. Rescuing a child who fell into a well while playing in Aleppo. Fighting forest fires devastating agricultural land in Idlib’s countryside. And, when devastating earthquakes struck Syria and Turkey in 2023, the White Helmets extracted survivors from collapsed buildings.
The White Helmets estimate that they have saved more than 128,000 civilians since their founding. The danger of these missions has caused over 300 White Helmets volunteers to lose their lives while doing this work. Internal reporting indicates that over half of these casualties were the result of targeted “double-tap” strikes – a strategy undertaken by Assad and Russian forces where a deliberately timed second round of bombardment hits emergency responders.
Bearing Witness
While the White Helmets provided emergency services within the communities, the organization faced a targeted disinformation and harassment campaign by Assad’s ally, Russia. A 2017 report by The Syria Campaign states that this disinformation campaign was aimed at discrediting the White Helmets as they operate in parts of Syria with limited media access.
Videos and photos captured via helmet-mounted cameras have provided crucial evidence of bombings and chemical weapons attacks by the Assad regime. This media has been featured in news reports around the world, and has been submitted to the United Nations Security Council, the US Congress, and other parliamentary bodies worldwide.
Despite the targeted disinformation campaign, the White Helmets’ continued commitment to their core humanitarian principles of neutrality, independence, and impartiality has been central to their success both internationally and domestically. This has allowed them to build trust in Syria by virtue of their humanitarian commitments. In a fragmented conflict environment, humanitarian neutrality was not only an important ethical stance but a practical necessity for their operation.
A New Chapter of Essential Services
In May 2025, just over six months after the rapid fall of the Assad regime, The Syria Civil Defense held its 10th annual General Assembly. For the first time, it was held within the country, in Damascus. After “extensive deliberations” the assembly voted in favour of integrating the Syria Civil Defense into the transitional Syrian government, primarily under the new Ministry of Emergency Disaster Management.
Two months before the meeting, Raed Al-Saleh, the President and General Manager of the Syria Civil Defense, had announced his resignation from the organization. He had been appointed the new Minister of Environment, Emergencies, and Disaster Management by transitional president Ahmad al-Sharaa.
In an online post addressed to fellow Syrians, al-Saleh wrote:
The White Helmets have been a success story that we have written together. Today, I continue this path within a specialized national framework, where emergency and disaster response become an essential part of building Syria’s future. Our message remains the same, and our goal has always been—and will always be—the people and the homeland.
Al-Saleh’s statement highlights the important question of the transitional government’s capacity to provide essential services to the country’s population. Within the country, infrastructure is heavily damaged, the economy has suffered from years of sanctions, and the UNHCR estimates that 70% of the population requires humanitarian assistance. As a way to make the most out of limited resources, bringing the White Helmets under the new government’s authority is a logical choice.
Their new mission is not without its challenges. The White Helmets are now stretching to serve over 20 million Syrians across the country, when they previously served around 5 million in the opposition-controlled northwest. They have also faced budget cuts as USAID, one of their primary funders, has been dismantled by the Trump administration.
Building Trust Across Divides
However, there is another challenge looming large over both the transitional government and the White Helmets. Sectarian divisions and distrust between communities are high in Syria, stoked by the former regime and shaped by years of violence and displacement. Since the transitional government took power, there have been high-profile periods of fighting inflamed by religious, political, and ethnic tensions in Suwayda, Latakia, Tartous, and most recently, with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces(SDF) in the north.
These tensions are driven in part by fears among minority groups as Syria undergoes a fragile process of national identity reconstruction. In this context, institutions affiliated with the transitional government play a role in perceptions of the state’s inclusivity and trustworthiness.
In the past year, the White Helmets have conducted rescue missions amid the outbreak of conflict in Suwayda. Critically, they have also provided ongoing support in the search for mass graves and other human remains left behind by the fallen regime. According to the Syrian Network of Human Rights, there are over 177,000 missing people, including at least 4,546 children, as a result of Assad’s wide-scale policy of forced disappearances.
During the conflict, the White Helmets operated as an independent, non-political organization, guided by the principles of neutrality and impartiality. Their separation from political parties and armed groups allowed them to earn trust across fragmented communities and to respond to emergencies without direct association with any governing authority.
Rebuilding trust between communities once divided by lines of conflict is a challenge facing not only the White Helmets, but Syrians across the country. In an address marking the first anniversary of the fall of the Assad regime, transitional President Ahmad al-Sharaa called for the “unification of efforts by all citizens” to build a strong, stable and inclusive Syria.
The integration of the White Helmets into the state may signal a new model of cooperation between government and civil society, one that emphasizes consolidation and coordination. For other Syrian civil society organizations, however, this shift also raises questions about the pressures they may face in a changed political environment, where access, resources, and influence could increasingly depend on connection to the state rather than independence from it.
Syrian Civil Society at a Crossroads
The strength of Syrian civil society is undeniably an important factor in the country’s rebuilding. This may be one of its strongest assets in realizing al-Sharaa’s stated vision of an inclusive, democratic society. Despite severe oppression and instability during the civil war, Syrians both in the country and in the diaspora continued the activism emblematic of the initial pro-democracy protests in 2011-2012.
As millions of Syrians return home from displacement, civil society organizations like the White Helmets are uniquely positioned to rebuild trust, support in documentation of lived experience, and foster accountability. The White Helmets’ evolution from a grassroots, community-based, independent organization to a state institution offers an early test of whether such trust can be preserved within institutional government structures.
After six decades of dictatorship, 14 years of civil war, and an uncertain year free from the Assad regime, Khalaf’s message is one of hope for future possibilities. He respects the decision by the General Assembly to dissolve the organization and transition into the new Syrian Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management, and is confident that those who continue in the organization “will continue to save lives with the same dedication and values we have upheld over the years.”
Photo Provided by Majd Khalaf
Khalaf has seen the entire evolution of the Syrian Civil Defence, from the original founding meeting to its dissolution. He believes that:
The “White Helmets” [was] never just an organization. They were an expression of a people’s will—a people who refused to be buried under the rubble of war and instead rose up to carry others toward life. From the beginning until today, we have faced immense challenges and turning points, from moments of heartbreak to peaks of achievement.
When asked what he would say to the international community and to those who are watching Syria’s transition, he emphasized the scale of hardship as well as the people’s resilience:
The people of Syria have endured unimaginable suffering over the past years under the Assad regime, yet they remain resilient, hopeful, and determined to rebuild their country with their own hands. Today, over 90% of Syrians live below the poverty line, facing daily struggles to secure basic necessities. Those still living in Syria need sustained support to recover from the years of war imposed on them by the Assad regime, to rebuild their homes and infrastructure.
Edited by Chelsea Bean and Isaac Code
