The Oscar awarded to a documentary about the daily lives of volunteers of a Syrian search and rescue group called the White Helmets shows people care about its mission to help civilians caught in Syria’s civil war, the group said on Monday.

“I am absolutely delighted that we won an Oscar — it shows us that people care about us and the people we serve,” said Khaled Khatib, a volunteer and cinematographer on the film, which won an Oscar for best documentary short at Sunday’s award ceremony.

“We are honoured that The White Helmets film has received an Oscar,” Raed Saleh, head of the Syria Civil Defence, said in a statement posted on Twitter early on Monday. “But we are not happy to do what we do. We abhor the reality we live in,” he added.

But members of the White Helmets could not attend the awards ceremony in Los Angeles because of passport issues and air strikes in Syria, the group said in a statement.

“We hope this film and the attention helps move the world to stop the bloodshed in Syria,” Saleh said.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2017