Australian-born Dr. Alison Thompson and her Third Wave Volunteer first responders have been in Ukraine since the first week of the war. She has helped with the extraction of orphans, women and children and the training of civilians and soldiers in combat triage, as well as wound care.
The Ukraine war is a civilian war against a brutal bully living next door. We spent an emotional week training 100 civilian soldiers on how to save lives, and then with little tactical training, they were sent off to the front lines to fight the Russians.
A great bunch of men whose faces are now etched into our hearts. The fisherman, the farmer, the author, the welder, the builder, the baby food salesman, the PhD student and the architect. Our hearts are broken and we pray for their safety.
Along with the training sessions, we have been helping the women and children who recently escaped the Mariupol bombings get to safety, including one mother and her baby who were bombed in the Mariupol hospital and managed to escaped through many terrifying Russian checkpoints, all accusing her of kidnapping her own baby. Her other 15 and 18 year old sons are still trapped in Russian territory with no ID or way out.
In disasters, we are always on the look out for “the Gaps,” and have been delivering large tanks of water to the Nikolaev hospital as well as donating new glass and timber to repair the windows of another bombed hospital nearby. We hand delivered thousands of tourniquets and IFAK kits to soldiers heading to the front lines and everyone was so appreciative of your donations. It was like we were handing them a pot of gold.
Please continue to help Ukraine in small or large ways. We know plenty of local Ukraine nonprofits and churches you can trust and help directly – just ask us. You can also donate to Third Wave Volunteers’ Ukraine efforthere.
It’s all about love in action and everyone’s needed.
.png?width=300&height=177&name=Variation%20-%20Light%20(1).png)
