The phrase "avoid harming" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used in contexts where you want to express the intention of preventing harm or damage to someone or something.
Example: "We must take all necessary precautions to avoid harming the environment during our construction project."
Alternatives: "prevent causing harm" or "steer clear of harm".
"I love this tree," Cory said, adding that they always climb carefully, to avoid harming it.
Walmart says it will avoid harming any burial grounds, and has pledged $25,000 to restore the crumbling cemetery.
My parents are pseudo-hippies and always taught me that we should try and avoid harming the world and do as much good as possible.
American officials have also refused to discuss the circumstances surrounding the videotaped interview publicly to avoid harming the method in which it was obtained.
When Southern Progress built an office tower, he chose the design of an inverted pyramid to avoid harming the root systems of nearby trees.
He believes that American officials wanted him to leave the embassy as soon as possible in order to avoid harming their country's relations with China.
West quickly deduced that explaining the killer's unusual eagerness to avoid harming his victims before he killed them was the key to the murderer's mental make-up.
The most important is a widespread belief that the scope of payments would be calibrated to avoid harming the bank's solvency, thus quashing the beginnings of panic.
Indonesian lawmakers may have to put politics aside, however, if they want to avoid harming one of Asia's best-performing economies.
Major countries including the United States, Israel, and Great Britain have also declined to call the events a genocide, in order to avoid harming their relations with Turkey.
Several details of the covert effort have been omitted from this account, at the request of senior United States intelligence and administration officials, to avoid harming continuing operations.
