Award the Syrian White Helmets the Nobel Peace Prize

A common instinctual response during an airstrike is to flee - seek shelter, protect yourself and your loved ones, and hope it ends soon. The White Helmets, a group of 3,000 humanitarian volunteers in Syria, do the opposite.

A group of former students, engineers, carpenters and other working class people has dedicated their lives to saving the lives of others. After the dust has settled from a collapsed school building or devastated hospital ward, the White Helmets spend days cleaning up the mess and digging injured people out of the rubble. They tirelessly seek to help others, earning a stipend of just $150 per month.

The Syrian conflict has caused hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths. More than 11 million have been displaced from their homes. Bombs have become commonplace, and a beautiful Middle Eastern nation has now been war-torn for over four years. The entire nation has seen repeated violence for years, but cities like Aleppo are at particularly high risk. Roughly 300,000 people in Aleppo are exposed to endless airstrikes every day. The White Helmets know this - and they put their life on the line to protect innocent civilians.

Despite being well aware of the depth and complexity of the conflict, the White Helmets simply do what they can, where they can. They are a beautiful example of peace and civility in a conflict that has severely lacked both of those virtues. Sign this petition to tell the Norwegian Nobel Committee: The White Helmets deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.