Deraa: Civil Defense Volunteer on Her Work with the Civil Defense and the Nobel Peace Prize Result

(Zaman al-Wasl) “My prize got to me complete,” so posted Sara al-Houraniyeh, one of the volunteers with the civil defense in Deraa, on her Facebook page in response to the news that the White Helmets of Syria did not win the Nobel Peace prize as expected. 

Sara, the daughter of Deraa al-Balad, joined the civil defense team a few years ago after her brother died before her eyes when he was shot by a sniper in 2013. 

She was unable to save him and the look in eyes remains engraved in her soul until now. Her brother’s death as a result of his wounds is the main reason she joined the civil defense. 

Towards the end of 2014, Sara volunteered with the Civil Defense body which was established towards the end of 2012, and which was called the Civil Defense later on. She received emergency paramedical training which enabled her to participate in rescuing civilians who have been bombed by the regime forces. 

Sara says this experience enabled her to help others and deal with all kinds of emergency paramedical situations regardless of how dangerous, it increased her self-confidence and her ability to help after she had been unable to help her brother, one of the people dearest to her. 

Sara recalls the moments her brother was martyred in the start of 2013 when he returned with the rest of the family from picking olives. He and her sister’s son were injured after they were targeted by a sniper from a close checkpoint. Her nephew still suffers due to his injury. She tried with her family to save them but the sniper continued to target anything that moved. 

Sara’s brother lay down among his family while they were unable to do anything due to their lack of medical experience. His mother held him while Sara held his daughter who was screaming over her father’s condition. In less than an hour, they managed with great danger to move him to a field hospital. The sniper continued to shot at the car they drove in with indescribable hatred.

Sara added, “two hours after our arrival, we were told my brother died because he lost too much blood despite the doctors’ attempts to save him. His guts had exploded and he bled out as he was shot with an explosive bullet.” She added in trembling voice, “we buried him quickly for fear his body would be detained by the al-Assad forces.” She kept a piece of the bandage with his blood on it which she carries with her where ever she goes. 

Sara, a graduate from the faculty of media, says her work with the civil defense is the closet to her heart. “Volunteering gives me a feeling of humanity, of being able, and that I and my colleagues are able to help people and relieve their suffering, and there are many other sisters in the civil defense in Deraa who have dedicated themselves to this humanitarian mission as volunteers such as Enam or Oum Faris. These women are leaders in their work in rescuing and saving souls.”

Sara mentioned the civil defense doctor Jihad al-Mouhamid, whom she referred to as the anonymous soldier and whom she described as “the spiritual father and the volunteers’ leaders in work, dedication and sacrifice, and one of the people who gave the most effort to help the civil defense in terms of formation and work.”

Sara returns to her home after a tiring day and the memory of seeing bodies and blood do not leave her, but what she fears most as she says is the thought of seeing her family among the bodies and corpses. She said she returned home one day from the civil defense center and saw one of the explosive barrels coming down upon her house, “I thought at the moment of escaping, but I decided to die with my family because I do not want to see them among the rubble or as body parts.”

As one of 22 women distributed among 15 centers in the liberated areas of Deraa, Sara works with her colleauges with high spirits and enthusiasm. Their work revolves around raising awareness among women concerning health issue, child health, safe, how to deal with the bombing, holding first aid training courses for women and offering psychological support for children. They also offer instruction for the residents of camps such as al-Chiyah, al-Ajami, and Zizoun to decrease the effect of war. 

Sara indicated that the civil defnse faces many difficulties and obstacles in Deraa and its countryside, among them weak financial possibility, lack of equipment, machines, and the increase in the price of fuel. The most significant difficulty though is the daily bombardment by the al-Assad forces which targets all the centers with all kinds of weapons. 

Regarding the Syrian civil defense not winning the Nobel Peace prize, as was expected, Sara indicated, “the white helmets did not lose anything, they won the love of the world and that this the bigger prize.”

The young volunteer continued, “it is not in western government’s interest for anything to succeed from the body of the revolution, and quite the opposite they want to portray Syrians as just Islamist terrorists and belonging to Daesh.”

She continued, “the real prize for us as volunteers in the civil defense is saving people’s lives and the rest is just additions.”