First to Arrive, Last to Leave: Stories from Iran’s Red Crescent Responders
Jalil, another IRCS responder, was dispatched with his team following an early-morning attack that affected a residential area. They found severely damaged buildings, injured people and families gathered at the scene.
A six-storey building had partially collapsed. The aid workers began searching the damaged apartments and found an injured woman, too afraid to move.
Jalil tried to reassure her by saying: “Don't worry, we are from the Red Crescent. We are here to help you.”
The words were simple, but in that moment, they signalled that help had arrived and calmed down the woman. She started to move, and Jalil managed to save her from the damaged building. The responders continued their work while ambulances transported the injured to the hospital.
Among those rescued was a young girl, around six or seven years old. Her mother had been sleeping besides her when the building was hit and had used her own body to protect her daughter. The mother was killed, but the child survived.
For Jalil and his colleagues, saving the child meant confronting both sides of their work: they had succeeded in getting her to safety, but could not prevent the loss of her mother.
As Jalil and his colleagues continued to carry out their rescue operation, they heard of a person trapped beneath the rubble in another part of the same area.
They were unable to remove the debris quickly without knowing what lay underneath or how the remaining structure might react. Instead, they worked carefully, removing the rubble piece by piece.
Eventually, they reached the man and brought him out alive.
But the operation also brought significant loss. Eleven people were killed at the site. Four people were rescued by Jalil’s team, while other rescue workers managed to save several more.
The numbers tell only a part of the story. The aid workers remember the people, the voices they heard, those they managed to rescue, and those they could not.
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