Helmets with a helping hand.

• Author: Luxner, Larry
• Position: United Nations' White Helmets Initiative

Earthquake victims in Ecuador, refugees in Rwanda, HIV-positive Haitians, and former political prisoners in the Gaza Strip have precious little in common - except for the fact that all have been touched in some way or another by the United Nations' White Helmets Initiative.

First proposed by President Carlos Menem of Argentina in mid-1993, the innovative program has since received endorsements from sixty-five countries as well as world personalities ranging from U.S. vice president Al Gore to Mother Teresa. It is based on two UN General Assembly resolutions that call on member nations "to encourage the use of White Helmets expertise available from newly created national volunteer corps to support activities in humanitarian emergency assistance, as well as the transition from relief to rehabilitation, reconstruction, and development."

Unlike other humanitarian efforts, the White Helmets gets its financing mainly from private sources - not governments - and is based on teams of volunteers ready to act in humanitarian emergencies.

"Argentina came up with the idea in the United Nations, but our goal is that the international community will take over," said Oscar Andres de Masi, cabinet chief of the White Helmets Commission, during a recent interview in Buenos Aires. "At the moment, there's no great big corps of international civilians organized for rapid deployment in emergency or crisis situations. For now, Argentina is leading the program."

According to United Nations Volunteers headquarters in Geneva, Argentina is funding the bulk of the White Helmets Initiative's budget ($1.4 million), followed by Germany ($192,000), and other industrialized countries. Within Argentina, private sponsors include Eli Lilly Argentina, which donated $200,000 in medicines; the Agro-Chemical Industrial Chamber ($500,000), and the Armenian community in Argentina ($25,000). In addition, the Argentine government...