‘Digging with my bare hands’: A White Helmet’s Syria quake story

Salam al-Mahmoud, a volunteer with the White Helmets civil defence group, holds the body of a boy who died under the rubble in Bisinya, in northwest Syria [Courtesy of Salam al-Mahmoud]

Salam al-Mahmoud is a 24-year-old volunteer with the Syria Civil Defence team, also known as the White Helmets. She has been involved in search and rescue missions in the rebel-held northwest of Syria since the first day the magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Syria and Turkey last week, killing so far more than 36,000 people.

The United Nations says up to 5.3 million people in Syria may be homeless after the earthquakes. Those living in the northwest of the country have criticised the lack of aid from the United Nations and international community, as UN aid chief Martin Griffiths himself admitted the world has failed people in the territory, saying survivors there “rightly feel abandoned”.