This summer, five-year-old Syrian boy, Omran Daqneesh, became famous. Someone filmed him sitting in quiet bewilderment in a hospital in the Syrian city of Aleppo covered in the dust of a Russian airstrike that had just destroyed his home and killed his 10-year-old brother. The pictures went around the world.
For those of us who follow every twist and turn of this tragic conflict, such images are not new. That week alone we had seen the fires of illegal incendiary weapons burning in hollowed-out streets; a baby born of a mother whose belly was perforated with shrapnel from a bomb; the corpses of dust covered children who were not ‘lucky’ like Omran.
But for some reason, he touched people as none of the others had. He became a symbol, a heart-breaking reminder to many that the war in Syria still grinds brutally on.
I am a filmmaker and journalist, one of those mournful souls who has followed this uprising from its beginning, when hundreds of ordinary Syrians marched each week for freedom from political tyranny and each week were brutally gunned down by government soldiers – the equivalent of ten Bloody Sundays every week.
For a long time now, my Facebook page has stopped being a scrapbook of sun-drenched holiday snaps and transformed into a gallery of horror, with daily updates of the merciless violence unleashed by the Syrian regime and its Russian allies against innocent people like Omran. Cluster bombs, incendiary bombs, vacuum bombs, hospitals and doctors deliberately targeted – all by one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, supposedly the guardians of international law.
Sometimes I think I should stop my posts, fearing these dark pictures only turn people away. People get angry when their sleep is disturbed.
But the reaction to Omran’s picture gave me new hope. For the first time I was inundated with messages from people asking what they could do to help people in Syria.
That’s an incredible thing. All too often, the media portrays society as apathetic, self-centred, at the service of individual desires while the planet slides into hell around them. In my ten years making documentaries, I’ve found the opposite to be the case. People want to do something, and often the media is more focussed on the big dramatic headline than explaining what people can actually do to help.
I’d like to rectify that now.
Someone once said, wherever you see terrible things in the news, look for the helpers. No matter how bad the situation, there’s always people trying to help. That’s as true in Syria as it is in the world at large. Here are some of them; they could all use your support.
1. The White Helmets
Recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, this group of volunteers day risk their lives every day to pull victims of Russia and the Syrian regime's indiscriminate aerial bombing out of the rubble of their homes. I have watched hours of footage of them in action: their bravery and spirit of self-sacrifice is astonishing.
The fantastic UK charity HELP REFUGEES also has a fund to buy these guys an ambulance, after the one they previously donated was destroyed in a Russian airstrike. Support that appeal here (they are also very active on social media so like their Facebook page for useful news and updates on Syria and the refugee crisis.)
2.The Syrian-American Medical Society
Another extraordinarily altruistic organisation whose volunteer medics travel from the US to offer care for civilians inside Syria, including Aleppo, as well as in refugee camps in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. One of their inspirational volunteers is Dr Samer Attar whose testimony to the UN Security Council went round the world.
3. The Syria Campaign
In my view, it's not enough to limit our efforts to humanitarian relief. We need to be actively campaigning to stop the slaughter, to hold war criminals to account and pile pressure on Putin and Assad, two men, two human beings who are directly responsible for this carnage.
The best organisation I have encountered myself that is trying to achieve some of those aims is the Syria Campaign.
They have set what should be clearly identifiable, achievable goals to help: from lifting the sieges of opposition areas, to enforcing a No-Fly Zone. Sign their petitions, join their mailing lists and get more people behind the cause.
There are other excellent groups to support including:
Please, choose one. Do something. And keep watching the news, keep writing, tweeting, sharing about what's going on in Syria. Putin and Assad are banking on us getting bored, turning away, so they can continue to kill with impunity. Let them know that we won’t.
We may not be able to stop the bombs; we cannot end the war. But we can send a message: that the people of Syria are not alone. We will not forget them. We will keep fighting for justice for them.
Every one of us has the power to be a helper too.
You might also be interested in:
Brock Turner's Release Leads To These Moving Sexual Assault Awareness Campaigns
How Iranian Women Are Using Facebook To Protest Against The Compulsory Hijab
Follow Edward on Twitter @watts_edward
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.