‘Remember that and pray for us’
A White Helmet volunteer’s plea from under the bombs in Ghouta.
“You are used to receiving updates, reports and statistics from me from Eastern Ghouta. Well the military campaign is still happening and Russian and regime airstrikes continue.
I receive very similar questions on the situation today. Every reporter, activist, civilian and myself who has access to communications with the world outside continues to answer those questions. Those questions are about areas such as Douma and others, areas that are not being targeted, etc. The only thing we have to say today is that we are all children of Ghouta.
With every single day that passes we lose a person dear to us, another soul that leaves us, a soul that has lived through the seven-year siege with us, seven years that no person who lives outside of Ghouta can imagine experiencing for even a single moment.
We are talking about more than 900 martyrs, thousands of explosives, barrel bombs, missiles, cluster bombs, chemical attacks, phosphorus weapons, Napalm, you name it… It’s all being used to target Eastern Ghouta.
What is happening is a genocide against everyone. I am speaking in the name of Ghouta, not in the name of one city only. I am speaking in the name of Ghouta. Whoever is able to get humanitarian convoys through humanitarian passages, is able to stop the bloodshed, which is killing women and children before anyone else. They are able to support the White Helmets in their work extracting women and children from under the rubble. We have not been able to reach areas targeted in the town of Hammouria. They could do anything.
It’s been more than 22 days since the campaign started.
Everyone is condemning. Well, thank you.
Everyone is expressing discontent. Well thank you very much! We are indebted.
But I want you to know one small thing, we don’t even have graves now. No places to bury our children, our dead ones. Entire families are stuck under the rubble.
White Helmets are killed, they are injured, they are losing their capabilities. They still exist. White Helmets are still working. They still put themselves in danger to save a small child.
I have one thing to plead from you. One last thing. It’s my last plead.
If anyone is able, if anyone has family, a friend, even someone you have known for five minutes, just call them. Just ask them how they are doing. Ask them if they need any help. Because they may not be there tomorrow. You may not be able to speak with them again tomorrow.
Just hear the cries, the voice of children, of women. I really wish that every person outside Ghouta supports the children in Ghouta. Support us with anything. Not necessarily with money. We don’t really need money. This is the land we were brought up from, and we need nothing else. We don’t need anything, just pray for us.
This is a message from a young married man who has children and family, a family whose safety concerns him, just like each one of you outside Ghouta feels about their families.
So just remember me, remember this moment.
At some moment, you will rest your head on your pillow to sleep, happy and with a peace of mind, remember then that there are people stuck under the rubble and we can’t retrieve them, remember that and pray for us.”
This message was originally published as an audio message on Wednesday 14th March on the personal Facebook page of Bayan, a White Helmet volunteer in Ghouta. It has been edited and shortened for clarity.
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