December 14, 2016

What you can do for Aleppo right now

located:	Syria
editor:	Vanessa Ellingham

Today our hearts are aching for Aleppo.

It feels like a new low, hearing of civilians being executed by their own government's military, women committing suicide to avoid being raped, children being caught in the crossfire, and Syrians tweeting their final moments out to the world, begging to be saved.

While the notion of Aleppo's siege may have ramped up in urgency, hurting for Syria is nothing new. I personally have been writing about Syria - the civil war, Assad, ISIS, Russia, refugees, - and aching for its people right here at Fairplanet for three years. Today I feel fatigued.

We can talk and write and march and protest, but what will actually help?

Our governments continue to avoid getting stuck in, the UN is chained to its own powerlessness, global citizens continue to post on Facebook, hoping to reach a new person with influence. It's easy to feel overwhelmed and turn away. But there is one very powerful thing that most of us can do that will make an immediate difference. And that's donate.

There is no more urgent way to effect change in this crisis than a donation to White Helmets, the Syrian volunteers who have saved tens of thousands of lives in the civil war.Some argue that they have a political bias, advocating for regime change. But they are also the first responders, the ones on the ground making the ultimate sacrifice to save lives, and right now that's what matters most.

You can donate on their website.

One international, non-partisan organisation still active on the ground in Aleppo is Doctors Without Borders. This medical relief organisation provides supplies, equipment and, where it is still possible, medical personnel. You can donate on their website.

Those are two places you can make a real, tangible difference in what has become a senseless crisis.