We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alison Thompson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alison below.
Alright, Alison thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the story behind how you got your first job in field that you currently practice in.
My first full-time job in volunteering was when I rollerbladed to the world trade center on Sept 11th, 2001. I was giving first aid to someone on the street when I looked up to see a great mushroom cloud and heard the sound of 1000 freight trains all colliding and heading towards me. I ended up volunteering out of a broken bar at the base of ground zero with 8 other medical volunteers.
Eventually, Fema (the officials-in charge) came and thanked us and then told us all to leave as the professionals were- needed to take control. They repeated this mantra to us for 4 days -all while we kept on working cleaning out hundreds more firemen’s eyes. On the 5th day, they looked around to see who was looking, and then covered their badges and said “please-stay-everyone’s needed!” They had used their humanity over the antiquated aid books and they knew we needed all hands on deck.
Since then we have been in over 200 disasters around the world running large refugee camps, field hospitals, and resilience hubs, and have grown to over 30,000 first responder volunteers helping millions of people – all in the name of “everyone’s needed!”
I was very happy to learn the real rules of the world, based in resilience, compassion, and common sense, and I have the greatest job in the world getting to hug and love people.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
We are called Third Wave Volunteers, and we are first responders, medical and non-medical volunteers who go to help after natural and man-made disasters around the world. We do search and rescue, health-checks and give out solar lights, aid, water filtration, wifi, hugs, and love amongst many things, and set up resilient hubs to help communities get back on their feet.
There’s a place for everyone.
We are proud to avoid red tape and bureaucracy and get help directly into the hands of the people fast.
To join this volunteer army people can sign up on Thirdwavevolunteers.com and follow our Insta, and Facebook social media. We are currently responding to the Lahaina Maui fires in Hawaii, and businesses and companies are very welcome to join in helping with a tax-deductible donation.
“It’s easy to be in the wrong place at the wrong time but it’s Leadership to be in the wrong place at the right time.”
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
After the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed over 300,000 people in 13 countries, Third Wave Volunteers created CTEC- the first Sri Lankan Community Tsunami Early-warning-disaster Center, with a donation of five thousand dollars from Rotary Australia.
We grew to become an important disaster center along the Sri Lankan coastline protecting 1000’s villages but we just couldn’t find a way to keep raising money for CTEC’s operations and sustainability -as donors knew the tsunami was over and didn’t see the importance of a preparedness disaster center.
I have kept CTEC alive for nearly 20 years by sending my own money (redirected from my rent and food) to pay for the CTEC electricity and other needs of the center. It’s been a real struggle to keep our lights on and in the early years, I went without food to keep the center open.
CTEC gives the local Sri Lankan people piece of mind when false tsunamis and disasters are disseminated and our children’s learning museum has daily visits from SrI-Lankan schools to learn about preparedness in disasters.
We are able to show how to do all this without the money, imagine what we could do if we had some.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
When I first started responding to disasters I thought food, water, and medicines were the most important things after a disaster and then over time, I learned how logistics and communications were just as important. Third Wave Volunteers have an excellent reputation and have won many awards including the Order of Australia from Queen Elizabeth the 2nd, and The Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from President Biden in 2022.
With all this, I have still found it very hard to raise money as I am an incident commander who usually lives out in the field with little wifi. I had never really paid higher attention to raising higher money or applying for available grants.
Six years ago I had a wake-up call when I discovered a whole new world of fundraising techniques.
It started at the local bank when they had asked if Third Wave had a business account and my reply had been no and that it was a non-profit charity account. They replied that it was indeed a business account and it was at that moment that my mind switched to treating our non-profit as more of a business than a charity.
Since then we have blossomed and grown with help and larger donations.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thirdwavevolunteers.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thirdwavevolunteers
- Facebook: facebook.com/thirdwavevolunteers
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-alison-thompson-a9914929/
- Twitter: @ThirdWaveorg
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbHnlLb4NV8LzcRCE_jCDKA
- Other: Tedx talk – youtube.com/watch?v=n4gA3vD2CxE