A year into the Syrian uprising, with the world community reluctant to intervene, one international group has taken a direct and risky role in Syria — even taking part in the high-profile rescue of Western journalists from the besieged city of Homs.

Avaaz, a global online pressure group based in New York, has given crucial support to the uprising and the Syrian activist networks that aim to topple the regime of President Bashar Assad.

"We focus on what no one else is doing," says Wissam Tarif, a well-respected Lebanese human rights activist who joined Avaaz this year and heads the group's operation in Beirut, Lebanon.

Medicines In, Images Out

Since the early days of the revolt, Avaaz has provided Syrian activists with recording gear and the training to use it.

"There was a need for 'citizen journalists,' we provided the training," says Tarif. "When no one was doing the 'death count,' we built a network."

There was a need for 'citizen journalists,' we provided the training. When no one was doing the 'death count,' we built a network.

Activist Wissam Tarif, on Avaaz's efforts in Syria

Many media organizations, as well as United Nations officials, rely on these casualty figures to track the violence inside the country.

Avaaz says it has delivered $1.3 million in medical supplies through an underground supply route to clandestine neighborhood clinics in Syria.

Thousands wounded during demonstrations dare not seek help in government hospitals for fear that shrapnel and bullets wounds betray them as activists to Syria's secret police.

"They are the only NGO [nongovernmental organization] who will get involved in smuggling," says Shakeeb Jabri, a Syrian activist in Lebanon, who regards Avaaz as essential for keeping the makeshift clinics operational. "So they have been doing good work. The rest can just get the medicine here [to Lebanon] and not get involved in the delivery."

In its latest online fundraising campaign, "Smuggle Hope Into Syria," the group's website asks for contributions to continue the smuggling operation: "As embassies close, medical agencies withdraw and journalists pull out, Avaaz has the only network that is both smuggling medial equipment and journalists in and images and information out."

'In Synch' With The Arab Uprisings

Avaaz, which means "voice" in various languages, describes itself as a "global web movement to bring people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere."

Founded in 2007, the group is modeled on MoveOn.org, an American advocacy group. Avaaz's website claims to set priorities "through polls of its 13 million members."

I am not questioning [Avaaz's] motives. But lives are at stake. Are they the right entity to do it? Is an NGO the right outlet?

Randa Slim, an analyst specializing in the Syrian opposition

Avaaz has given a voice to Burmese monks and supported a campaign to uphold the EU ban on genetically modified crops. The Arab uprisings gave Avaaz a larger international profile, using donations of $1.5 million to supply high-tech phones and satellite modems to activists from Libya to Syria, according to its website.

"They are in sync with what has defined the Arab uprisings," says a Western analyst who asked not to be named. "They flooded the place with [satellite] phones and computers, and they have their own contacts with the Western media and connect the two."

Much of the drive for this new kind of activism that expands the traditional role of nongovernmental organizations comes from founder and current president, Ricken Patel, a 35-year-old Oxford and Harvard-educated Canadian. Patel has done his share of work for NGOs in war-torn countries, from Sierra Leone to Afghanistan.