Third Wave Volunteers

TEDX TALK link- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4gA3vD2CxE

Dr. Alison Thompson is a full time humanitarian volunteer running large refugee camps, field hospitals and resilience hubs in major disasters around the world for the past 22 years. Thompsons work started as a first responder on Sept 11th 2001 in New York. 

In 2012 Thompson was appointed the first official Ambassador to the Haitian Ministry of Environment focusing on reforestation, clean water and sustainable energy. Thompson represented Haiti at the COP 22 UN Climate meetings in Marrakesh where she was later helped Haiti ratify the Paris Agreement in Parliament. 

In 2010 she was awarded the 'Order of Australia', the highest civilian medal given by Queen Elizabeth the 2nd for her service contributions to mankind.

Thompsons’ message is “everyone’s needed” from the Syrian crisis to the Venezuelan borders she has developed a network of 30,000 Third Wave volunteers responders coordinating direct aid for disasters.  

The coronavirus pandemic has left mammoth gaps in protecting our front line first responders with critical life saving PPE. Third Wave volunteer women in white PPE program scans the country for gaps in PPE and donates masks with a delivery of love via our 1000s of volunteers working in hospitals nationwide. We are GIS mapping the N95 Mask journey to 50 states including NYPD, NY hospitals, Rikers' prison, LAFD, Navajo tribes, disabled & women abuse centers, food pantries/homeless and underserved communities and 1,000's more locations including Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Bahamas. To date we have sent out over 500,000 N95 masks and want to continue this mission with our long lists of gaps. This project  grassroots level to save lives by getting PPE directly into the hands of our first responders to elevate our healthcare providers and to create equity within the pandemic response. 

The Problem: There is a lack of PPE nationwide and worldwide to protect 100,000's of first responders and health providers. If we cannot protect them they will get sick in large numbers and the whole health care system will collapse followed by large numbers of deaths. 

We have identified a world shortage and are focusing on USA, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Bahamas and Peru where our solar projects are in place. Billions of people have been affected by this pandemic and we have long excel lists of PPE needs and locations nationwide. Other problems contributing to this growing pandemic problem around USA has been due to lack of leadership from the very top. Third Wave Volunteers have filled in the leadership gaps with public PSA's and community outreach to keep the public informed of the growing threat. 

Due to the dangerous conditions our first responders are working under with low PPE we have created a nationwide grassroots movement of nurses and doctors  (including fire rescue, police, homeless and disabled centers, Navajo tribes, women abuse centers and prisons, nursing homes and underserved communities. ) Our volunteers scan their home states for PPE needs and report back in a google doc and soon after receive masks to hand deliver to the front lines. We buy FDA approved N95 masks and other PPE then donate nationwide. For accountability we are GIS mapping the mask drive which is helping to save 1000's of lives daily. We also have 100s of photos of the first responders and communities receiving their masks.  

Our project serves health providers and first responders working in hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, fire and police, Navajo tribes, disabled & women abuse centers, food pantries/homeless and underserved communities nationwide. In Florida we work closely with the underserved and homeless communities of Little Haiti and Liberty City and work with Mac town disabled homes and local food pantries to make sure they are protected in their work. When people receive their masks they usually send us a photo and are overwhelmed with joy. Many responders have told us they had been so scared using their only N95 mask for over a month at work and that the new masks were the best present they had ever received in their lives. Our project immediately addresses first responders direct needs along with giving mental health relief. 

Third Wave Volunteers are about filling in the gaps using innovative solutions. One of the most important problems in the world is the lack of PPE for first responders. Dr Thompson had the foreshadow to scan the world and obtain large amounts of PPE to donate out to the front lines from her garage. Thompson stepped up with her experienced leadership in mass disasters creating public PSA's and daily educational social media posts seen by 100,000's of people nationwide. Third Wave responders also focuses on elevating the disabled, the homeless and underserved communities with free CERT (community emergency response training.) 

With 22 years experience in disasters and preparedness I had been tracking the Coronavirus since December and knew PPE would be a challenge. I put the word out on social media for spare PPE and volunteers (along with all sorts of people) would drive to my house late at night to donate or sell me PPE. I would feel like a space alien going outside in full PPE to see what they had to offer from their car trunks and then the next day I would race to UPS to send PPE to the frontlines. The mission is called "the Women in White N95 mask drive & the operation grew as larger donors came aboard and we moved from my home garage into a larger neighbors garage. UPS came on as our sponsor and volunteers help pack and send N95 masks nationwide. The 'Women in White' is a play on the Men in Black movies but here we are fighting a real invisible alien virus. July 4th the women in white nurses came out of their hospitals to hand out masks to large groups of people congregating without masks. " 

After years of working around the world in all the largest disasters I have learned that everyone is needed -from handing out water to giving people solar lights or hugs. Our missions have been less about talk and all about Love in Action. We have touched millions of lives throughout our volunteer work and our hope is to inspire new generations with the call to service.  On the shores of Lesvos, Greece a Syrian refugee and a volunteer meet- no walls, no discrimination - one race. Sometimes a hug would last 5 long minutes and others only 30 seconds but in those moments were the most pure form of unconditional love I have ever known and we spread this feeling to the world. Third Wave has over 30,000 first responder volunteers working in this pandemic so it is close to our hearts as frontline responders. 14 of our young nurses and doctors have died from Covid-19 which drives us to work faster knowing we may lose more lives daily. 

As a mass incident commander working in the largest disasters around the world for the past 22 years I have helped plan and deliver 100's of containers worth of millions of dollars in aid with the help of our 1000's of volunteers. We never make promises but we always complete our missions. We have learned to move swiftly around red tape to get help directly to the people in need and that to be successful we are stronger working together working at the grassroots level. We have had numerous successful missions all documented on our thirdwavevolunteers.com website and have received many awards ;The 'Order of Australia' from Queen Elizabeth the 2nd the Paul Harris award from Rotary, the Dr. Martin Luther King humanitarian award to the 'Commanders Award' from General Trombitas and the 82nd Airborne. We are very capable of solving problems and completing tasks set before us. We now have a direct line to PPE in a Miami warehouse. This N95 mask mission must move forward as a critical project to be included. 

Dealing with obtaining PPE for the frontline has been very difficult to navigate with all the challenges put upon us from traders driving up mask prices, to fake masks, to when the US Govt. began changing the FDA rules on N95 masks weekly. Manufacturers were asked to recall their masks & change all the packaging setting back mask deliveries for weeks. With a billion people worldwide with stay at home orders and every hospital in every town in need of PPE the system became overloaded and backed up in warehouses with no room on air cargo planes and fuel prices rising. Carriers from UPS, FED EX and DHL warehouses overflowed with billions of boxes of masks with little staff to keep up with demand. The US Govt. started seizing larger shipments of masks coming into the states so we quickly shifted gears and we redirected over 200,000 masks to 1,000s of addresses in smaller amounts  sent directly to nurses and doctors homes. Each week there are new laws set in place that negate the hard work done the week before but so far we have always been one step ahead of the curve.

For the past 22 years I have led missions and projects all over the world including student peace marches against gun-violence in Chicago to leading teams of rescuers of Syrian refugees in the Argean sea. With more room allocated I have many heartfelt stories to share.

One of the hardest times to lead was during Hurricane Irma where I had planned to meet 100s of volunteers and organizations after the storm in a local warehouse to start assessing damage and to help with aid. That day I had a 5 foot surge of water to our house and the back out destroyed my computer with 1000's of volunteer contact names and I tore my archilles  (ankle) so I was rushed to hospital for an xray, some morphine and a large boot for my foot. I arrived back at the warehouse a few hours later ready to lead. Never give up and the mountains will move. 

What makes our work innovative is that we work with 1000's of volunteers and other similar grassroots orgs who move fast and around red tape to get N95 masks to the front line. We care about the PPE reaching the right people and we don't just blindly send out masks and PPE to hospitals where they are getting lost or stolen or given to admins who are locking them up and only providing nurses one N95 mask for the month. We make sure each N95 mask reaches it target.

A lot of work and history has gone into creating this successful grassroots movement of health providers.  

Florida is the current epicenter of the Coronavirus outbreak and we are working around the clock fighting Covid- 19  with cases rising by 10,000 daily. I don't have much time to type out all these longer answers to the questions as I am running a large operation. 

The Need is for N95 masks and PPE to protect first responders. It has been proven by leading world experts that wearing masks helps to stop the spread  of Covid-19  and the N95 masks are needed for the safety of our health providers.

If they don't get masks their health will be compromised and without health care workers the whole system will fail.

The mask drive is an immediate action to help save lives.