Updates (5)
May 18th 2022.
Ukraine update: The civilian war.
Third Wave Volunteer teams have had an emotional four months training and watching local fishermen, farmers, baby food salesmen, lawyers, PHD students and IT specialists be given a uniform and a gun and sent to the front lines of the Ukraine war. Our team has been training 100 civilian men in combat triage (every 3 days) on how to save lives in the red zone.
Each soldiers face is etched into our hearts as they head away from us to the nearby front lines. They all have families and many of these men won’t return.
We also teach medical triage and CPR to the volunteer aid workers in the underground bomb shelters of Odessa. The training has now spread to other shelters and cities, in train the trainer programs.
We continue to help extract orphans, women and children to the safety of the borders. This month we cared for mothers and children escaping the terrifying Mariupol bombings. They came to stay in our Odessa apartments where we provided comfort and LOVE and helped them get to the safety of the borders. We slip the mothers some cash for their journey and exchange cell phone numbers.
One mother and her baby were in the Mariupol hospital when it was bombed and had to escape through Russian checkpoints where she was accused of kidnapping her own baby. Last week they made it to the safety of Romania. Another mother with ten children has been staying in our apartments and today they leave for a home in Germany. These little wins fill our hearts in service to others and in Ukraine we are reminded of your kindness in your donnations in helping us be able to help them.
We are always on the look-out for the gaps and have been supporting the Mykolaev hospital with large tanks of fresh water as the Russians destroyed the water systems in all the surrounding towns. The hospital needs a large sustainable water filter system. Another smaller hospital nearby had all their windows shattered in a blast so we paid for glass and timber to help them get it back in action.
In a continued effort we are helping support orphanages and their caretakers at the border of Moldova/Ukraine and supporting and redirecting outside help to three aid distribution centers inside Ukraine, one in Moldova and two in Romania.
We also support the Grace church in Odessa whose 400 person congregation, and their well-known choir, are fighting on the front lines and the church is feeding them daily along with other civilian troops.
Although the Russians out-number the Ukraine fighters by 10-1 the spirit of the Ukraine people holds strong and they are feeling everyone’s love and support pouring in from all over the world.
Our largest gift we have to give the Ukraine people is LOVE.
We hug a lot of people and those moments, where a volunteer and refugee meet, no walls-one race- are the most pure form of unconditional love we have ever felt. Their hugs are for you donors as well.
Love Dr Alison. Xxx
Yesterday missiles landed near our apt in Odessa wounding many and killing 8 people ( one was a 3 month old baby )
We are training civilians and military in medical triage and we're able to deliver all your donations of tourniquets and medical to the front lines - the soldiers were thrilled and say thankyou for your donations - we hand deliver all our aid so the important aid gets into the right hands and we care that you trust us with your donations. In the next few days we will spent your money on huge water tanks to deliver to Mykolaev hospital as the Russians have taken out the water system and they are drinking from very dirty wells - please keep the donations coming so we can do our important work 🧚♂️🌸🌿🇺🇦❤️🩹
Ukraine update: April 2nd 2022.
Thankyou to all our DONORS!! YOU are our family!!
We have loud rockets going over our heads but its not the 4th of July.
TOURNIQUETS ARE THE HIGHEST NEED-
The highest needs in Ukraine right now are torniquets, hemostat, chest seals and IFAK kits. We have located a place in Lviv who make 1500 tourniquets a day and have ordered our first 3000 tourniquets and hope to continue orders of 1500 daily. We have had many meetings with the ukraine war commanders and mecial directors of the military hopsitals and mobile clinics and all are requesting tourniquets.
Donations are also being spent on medicines, orphans, orphan caretakers, finishing the building of an orphange, rentel home for two special needs cerebal palsy boys for the next 6 months and their parents and many more desperate cases.
Today we donated 5000$ to Grace Church in Odessa Ukriane who have 400 in their congregation- the elderly, women and children have left to other countries and the congregation of men have been given a uniform and a gun and sent to fight on the front lines. They don't know how to use a gun nor have any medical background so third wave volunteers have been training military, coastguard and civilians in combar medical triage, tourniquet, wound care, CPR, decompression etc.
We are still working with EXITUS on the extraction of the special needs orphans- its been a hard journey and we cannot discuss details due to the high security risk to our teams on the inside.
Another 14 year old special needs girl orphan was extracted to the border a few days ago- we wont give up -no matter how long it takes to get them.
LOVE Dr. Alison Thompson - Founder- Third Wave Volunteers.
special needs families struggling in his time of war.
Teaching triage and medical skills such as CPR, wound care, torniquets etc in underground bomb shelters.
long days and long hours in the bomb shelters.
an Instagram artist drew one of our triage photos.
Thankyou Sam Medical for the stop the bleed kits.
Naomi fills everyone with love and high spirits- she even leads yoga for us with calm music while rockets fly over our heads.
March 30, 2022
I’m trying to find stalled time to sit down and write this letter -a letter to the world about what we see on the ground in Ukraine during this criminal invasion - I’ll start by talking about love and love in action and how if we can commit to truly loving other humans , the whole world becomes our country. Making our way to different cities we go through checkpoint upon checkpoint where military soldiers wonder if we are spies or helpers - most of them are every day people from farmers to shop owners to businessmen who now have a uniform and a gun that they’ve never used before- Their checkpooint faces are serious and stoic and we smile for a little bit longer till they grin and turn away to hide it.
- some of the cities we arrive in are not touched by Russian bombs and people are going about their life as best they can by walking their dog or making a trip to the Black Sea to see some beauty but by 8 pm everyone’s tucked inside their homes where we can hear loud artillery fire outside our safe walls - and we wonder if the Russians are close.
We’ve been helping extract orphans to safety and train civilians and military in medical triage with simple methods from CPR and wound care and how to place a tourniquet around your arm in case it’s blown off - they concentrate because they know that could be them tomorrow or the day after- another three hour nights sleep we get up and we push on because we know there’s more people to reach and time is running out-
City after city we see the innocent people -the 90 year old woman shuffling through the street - the childrens laughter is gone and the ones remaining live like rats in the belly of the underground shelters praying to survive another night- we see evidence of the whole world helping with aid flowing through to many different cities and the people are so thankful they hug us and they tell us to tell the outside world that they see you helping.
Our motto has always been that everyone is needed and now I see it truly in action because everyone who remains in country is a volunteer and everyone is needed.
Back home in America and Australia and all over the world school children are baking cookies to raise money for the war effort and that is great for humanity. I know it’s been so rough for so many with the Covid pandemic the past two years - we also lost 16 of our young nurses to Covid and it’s been shattering to feel all the hatred rising throughout the world but hang in there because humanity is strong and love wins in the end and hope is on the way!
Amen.
Amazing day in ukraine teaching combat medics: triage, cpr, tourniquet, wound care, decompression and many more skills to ukraine military, coastguard, territorial defence and volunteer civilians who have had no medical training at all - we also discussed a possible chemical attack over the next weeks.
MARCH 22, 2022 Ukraine UPDATE:
Third Wave volunteers with our partners EXITUS
In-country: our Ukrainian ambulances are up and running and Adrian and our teams are evacuating and delivering aid requests.
We are still working on our original list of orphans and are so very close to getting most of them out. Some of their orphanages are desperate and in one brave attempt, one of our teams will be headed to Kherson to bring aid and partially evacuate this orphanage. I am so proud of the bravery, tenacity and sleepless work and ground coverage of Exitus, Third Wave and our many partners and what we are doing inside Ukraine.
Romania/Moldova:
We now have a children’s make-shift home with 36 orphans. We have two previous nannies from our Ukrainian MMUs that will be coming in to help manage this home. We have established an MMU running out of Stefan Voda to surrounding areas to provide medical aid and relief to the 300 orphans that we now have placed in host families. We are committed to taking care of this vulnerable population.
In Moldova we have established a distribution center for aid and have the only running line of distribution into Odessa region and are supplying the border with massive aid efforts, including food and medical care, and being the go-to for unaccompanied minors.
30 miles from the Romanian border inside Ukraine Third Wave met with the governor and war commander in charge of aid and have established a route for our large pallets of medical aid (which also includes the top need of 100s of bleeding control kits , tourniquets and hemostat donated by SAM MEDICAL to make its way to the front lines over the next few days.
Our Pediatric medical teams also worked the shelters at the Romanian and Moldova borders giving support to the endless lines of refugee women and children.
Inside Ukraine Third Wave have helped set up an underground movement in Kiev with our friends from New York / Ukraine who are helping our teams and partner NGO”s and friends able to evacuate more women and children to safe houses while navigating through the Ukrainian barricades with up to date passwords And Intel.
Exitus has solidified partnerships with the Moldovan government and Romanian to help provide infrastructure and support to maintain communities while taking on vulnerable people.
We are providing food, oxygen, fuel, transportation, medical care, housing, jobs, safety, orphan care, and infrastructure support. This is what it means to integrate into exploitation communities, see their needs, and meet them where they are at.
Collectively with our ground teams, Salam, and local friends, we have helped evacuate 1000's of people. No, that is not an exaggeration. I will post the most up to date report today with numbers.
We are two weeks in.
We see you. We hear you. We came for you.
We miss our families- but we can always go home - they can’t
Thank you to all our donors we cannot do the work without your important partnership.
Love Dr. Alison Thompson
March 14th-
NOTE: Intel is not in real time and locations in Ukraine are left off to protect our teams on the ground from being intercepted by the Russians.
Things have begun to move faster as its been hard to reach our special needs orphans trapped in bombed cities with now Russian occupation.
Six more orphans were just extracted and we are sending buses to get 350 kids out of (-----) as I type.
Yesterday we met with the Ukaine war commander at the main humanitarian aid station in Ukraine and have established a good route for our medicines to flow through to reach the wounded in the front lines.
Thankyou all for your support and donations we really can not do this without you - You are all LOVED and are part of this great Third Wave Volunteers team.
"Everyone's Needed!"
Love Dr. Alison Thompson
Founder- Third Wave Volunteers.
We are giving out these great solar lights to the women and children. Part of your donations go towards the lights which are 11$ each.
Dr. JOHN from California- everyone's turning up to help!
Working alongside local Romanian NGO- Fight for Freedom.
Mike Luem is in the background in a Ukraine aid hub that feeds aid to the front lines. He is an L.A sheriff and SAR rescue expert.
Jack Osborne is also with us he has is a very hard working, humble and intelligent man- awe worked together in Haiti in 2010.
Jack can be my wingman any day!!
The face of the Ukraine children being forced to flee the war and leave their homes behind.
We have met the Ukraine commander in charge of getting the humanitarian aid to the people and wounded in the front lines and have established a route for our medical aid to flow to the front lines.
LOVE Dr. Alison -
THE COMMANDER OF AID DISTRIBUTION SAID THEIR BIGGEST NEED are stop the bleed TOURNIQUETS.
Imagine saying goodbye to your dad knowing you may never see him again. I know many people reading this have been through this in their past history.
FEB 20th 2022: Ukraine Update:
The whole world is coming togther against PUTIN to say "NO you can't just invade another country and that there are some basic rules of the world!!"
Third Wave Volunteer nurses have joined with Exitus (another very experienced US non-profit) who have been extracting and aiding vulnerable and exploited orphans from Ukraine since 2014 with a great track record and system in place.
There are over 1000 special needs orphans stuck in Ukriane who have adoptive American parents waiting for them to take them to local US hospitals. There are 23 orphans ready to exit now. We have the full paperwork, dossiers, approvals, special ops, intel etc
Most of the children are medically fragile experiencing withdrawal symptoms, trauma from physical, mental and sexual abuse- most have feeding tubes and need meds every 2 hours and need to be carried.
Key details have been left out to protect all our teams while they carry out these dangerous operations.
LOVE Dr. Alison Thompson - Founder- Third Wave Volunteers
Mental health BBQ days with face makeup, music and every day fun things amongst a violent war where this area in Kherson gets hits with over 100 missiles a day ( and night) 
Mental health BBQ days with face makeup, and every day fun things amongst a violent war where this area in Kherson gets hits with over 100 missiles a day ( and night). 
UKRAINE - June 27th 2023- UPDATE: Reaching the front line Ukraine villagers of Komyshany, Zymivnyk, Pryozerne and Inhulets.
Third Wave Volunteers continue to feed the front line villages of Ukraine, and most recently this past weekend in the villages mentioned above that were destroyed by the Kakhovka dam explosions.
Daily the Ukraine soldiers are pushing back the Russian troops revealing deep suffering in the Ukraine villages- under cruel Russian rule for the past year.
Empty flooded houses. See the water lines?
This photo below is what is left of this important dam in Kherson that feed 100s of villages\and its people, livestock, hospitals, food farms, food suppliers, energy plants etc
Some villages told us when the Russians captured their village they came to the door and announced that they run the village now and they gave them cans of dog food to use as their food. The atrocities from raping 90 year old women and young boys to cutting off the genitals of soldiers is horrific, but true -verified personally by myself and our teams who have spoken directly to Ukraine villagers.
This is a genocide no matter what the Russian spin cycle tells his people.
This weekend we had a huge food package delivery along with fresh cherries and goods to last a month. See the photos below. There are so many kids living on the front lines who have experienced over 100 missiles a day for over a year now.
Thank you to Canada Steve- a very brave man leading the food teams to the most desperate villages - he also sets up BBQ and cooks for over 1000 people daily. Thank you to our angel girls Vika and Alice and to everyone helping with this critical dangerous job in Ukraine.
Within the next ten days we will be taking 2000 large food kits all the way along the front lines- the packages are being created now -
Anyone who would like to donate for food or gas money please indicate on your donation, and your name will also be mentioned on the banner in front of the distribution in each village. We have 2 refrigeration trucks ready to go.
Thank you to BOSTEEZ Kumar, Natalia, Levi, Susan, Taima, Gilbert, Robert G.C, Karen Louise, and to all our donors large and small- 20$ is like 200$ in Ukraine it goes a long way to help people. We don't take salaries.
Love Dr. Alison Thompson- Founder/CEO- Third Wave Volunteers.
June 7th - 2023- Update:
Please continue to donate towards the deep suffering in Ukraine.
Third Wave Volunteers have been very active in the Ukraine war for the past 14 months getting food to the front line recaptured villages. These villages are full of very young kids, and we are also focusing on mental health with BBQs, face painting, music and upbeat programs for the children.
Two days ago the Russians blew up the large Kakhovka dam in Kherson whose water fed into so many communities including the surface water for irrigation, energy sources and a nuclear plant.
So many communities have flooded and there are so many people and livestock and all sorts of animals drowning as I type this update. The Zoo is destroyed and I can't imagine all those animals stuck in their cages drowning.
The flood scene in Ukraine is horrific and we have volunteers on the ground in Kherson cooking for the flood victims, and others out on rescues where 80 settlements are at risk.
"Russia has detonated a bomb of mass environmental destruction," Zelenskyy said in a statement, calling it "the largest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades."
He blamed the Kremlin, describing Putin's regime as "the most dangerous terrorist in the world."
Some notes below: