How to Help Victims of the Gas Attack in Syria
It's happened again.
There are horrific reports of another banned chemical weapon attack (possibly both chlorine and sarin gas) by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the rebel-held town of Douma, just outside Damascus.
At least 50 civilians have died, 12 of them children. According to the World Health Organization, more than 500 people have been treated for symptoms.
*Note: While we think they are important to see to more fully understand the impact on Syrian civilians, we have chosen not to publish graphic photos of the attack here. You'll find horrifying images on the Twitter feed of Bana Alabed, the 8-year old girl who with her mother wrote Dear World: A Syrian Girl's Story of War and Plea for Peace.
How to help the victims in Douma
Learn more about the attack from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which has just announced a fact-finding mission to Douma.
Read this Vox explainer about "how Syria's civil war became America's problem" and watch the Academy Award-winning documentary short The White Helmets.
Contact Syria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Bashar Ja’afari, at 212.661.1313 or syria.pr@outlook.com (yes, that's really the email address) to register your outrage.
Call on the US government to put more pressure on the Assad regime (and its ally Russia), enforce sanctions, defend the chemical weapons ban treaty, and welcome Syrian refugees to the United States. You can call the White House comment line at 202.456.1111 and your member of Congress at 202.224.3121.
Support groups working in Syria for an end to the crisis, including The White Helmets, Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, Syrian American Medical Society, Islamic Relief USA, United Nations High Commission for Refugees, and many others listed here.
Support the US-based groups working to welcome Syrian refugees, including the International Refugee Assistance Project and United Against the Muslim Ban.
