--- description: Raed Saleh is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Mustafa Abu Faisal wrote about the leader of the White Helmets. title: Raed Saleh by Mustafa Abu Faisal: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcf4f4e9ad1a75687/6988c33ca988cae86b6bbc96/time-100-2017-raed-saleh.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 19, 2017 # Raed Saleh by Mustafa Abu Faisal  Photograph by Etienne Laurent—EPA On Oct. 24, 2016, I was sitting and drinking tea with my friends in front of a shop in my hometown of Khan Sheikhoun, Syria, when we heard the roar of a warplane. We thought the raid was far away, but it wasn’t. There was an explosion, and for a moment, I was unconscious. I thought that I was dead. Suddenly, I came back to life—only to realize I was trapped under rubble. Then I heard the voices. “Anybody there?” they shouted. “Anybody here?” Those cries, it turned out, came from members of the Syrian Civil Defense, the volunteer rescue group also known as the White Helmets that is led by Raed Saleh. Within minutes, they had climbed into the rubble and pulled me out. I had injuries to my eye, head, abdomen, chest and hand. But I survived, thank God. Attacks like these are a fact of life in Syria. But when they come, the White Helmets are ready to respond. They have risked their lives to save tens of thousands of others’—including mine. _Faisal is a 23-year-old charity worker who lives in Syria’s Idlib province_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736289/raed-saleh/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736289/raed-saleh/"},"headline":"Raed Saleh","datePublished":"2017-04-19T17:36:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:25.459Z","description":"Raed Saleh is on the TIME 100 2017 list. Mustafa Abu Faisal wrote about the leader of the White Helmets.","url":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736289/raed-saleh/","keywords":["TIME 100"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcf4f4e9ad1a75687/6988c33ca988cae86b6bbc96/time-100-2017-raed-saleh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcf4f4e9ad1a75687/6988c33ca988cae86b6bbc96/time-100-2017-raed-saleh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736289/raed-saleh/","name":"Raed Saleh"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See All the TIME 100 Honorees in One Minute","description":"The TIME 100 honorees include actors, musicians, politicians, business leaders, activists and scientists, and together make a portrait of influence in 2017.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zZCdrcRA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-04-20T10:30:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zZCdrcRA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736289/raed-saleh/","duration":"PT56S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/2017-time-100/4736289/raed-saleh/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```