On June 3, 2018 Volcano de Fuego erupted in Guatemala spewing out a deadly mixture of ash, rock fragments, hot lava and gases rushing down the mountain sides and wiping out families and villages along its way.
Below is written by Michael Capponi- our partner and Founder of Global Empowerment Mission.
“Within 24 hours of the eruption, Global Empowerment Mission spearheaded a mission to Guatemala for a recon and aid delivery mission. We brought Lourdes Sanchez from Badges of Honor, along with our GEM executive board member Alison Thompson, founder of Third Wave Volunteers. Our first stop was at the nation’s disaster agency, Conred, where we were hosted by former Secretary of State and Minster of Economy Luis Velasquez. After our intel briefings, our #thisisacrisis teams, GEM, Third Wave Volunteers and Badges of Honor surveyed affected areas in the volcano eruptions hot-zone perimeter. We handed out over 1,500 respiratory masks on our approach to ground zero.
When we arrived at ground zero we were in awe. Hiroshima was the word that came to mind. Try and imagine that only a few days ago over 300 families lived in a village where this hell pit now lies. We spoke to neighbors who said there wasn’t any warning or time. By the time you saw the eruption particles, you became the particles. Everything melted to this. The neighbors have never seen their friends and family again. GEM purchased local aid at the Walmart in Guatemala City with our supporters’ kind donations. This saves time and ends up costing less than sending containers over. Our aid was distributed to various refugee camps on our first mission within 48 hours of the eruption. The video on NBC Nightly News highlights our first mission. Our second mission began the following Monday. We donated cash cards, from a grant from our partner #Bstrong/Delivering Good, to local communities. Bethenny Frankel joined us this week, and her generosity and stamina were incredibly beneficial.
Yesterday our #thisisacrisis teams, Third Wave Volunteers and another partner org, Motorrad Angels, set out to deliver a truck of aid to a very remote region approximately 4 towns from ground zero. This town called Chuchu, in the Escuintla region of Guatemala, was pretty much inaccessible to most teams. We were fortunate to have a team of expert bikers (with very serious equipment) escort our truck of supplies to Chuchu. When we arrived after a 5 hour journey through rugged lands and rivers, we were welcomed with such love and gratitude from the villagers.
Please see detailed pictures and videos on our GEM and Third Wave Facebook pages
Unfortunately, this situation is far from over. Yesterday, the Guatemala City International Airport was closed for a few hours as three more volcanoes erupted. One volcano spewed over 800 meters high (the equivalent of 3 Empire State Buildings). The National Volcanic Activity Detection System is ruined due to this, so the people in nearby villages will have no warning if anything happens again. GEM and Third Wave Volunteers have been on the ground in many catastrophes now. This one looks like Pompeii.” With Sincerity, Michael Capponi
2017 slammed into the USA with its destruction affecting tens of millions of people.
First with Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas, where our volunteers joined search and rescue teams in helping both humans and animals. Neighborhoods were flooded and cars and dead animals floated past us down city streets. People had fled their homes so fast that pets were left behind in their houses. We worked in the Beaumont and Vidor area and sleep on wooden church pews at the nearby Cowboy Church where lost or hurt animals were being housed. During one part of the journey an expensive yellow rescue boat couldn’t make it into a flooded area so we found a large yellow blow up rubber ducky in a nearby tree and paddled in to finish the mission.
MIAMI PEOPLES CLIMATE MARCH- OCTOBER 15TH 2015/2016/2017
Billion Women Rising Miami. link to main billion women website- http://www.onebillionrising.org/
About One Billion Rising
One Billion Rising was created by Eve Ensler : Activist, feminist, performer, activist and writer of of the ‘Vagina Monologues”.
It is the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history. The campaign, launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Read More “MISSION: V Day- Billion Women Rising- Justice”
For the past 6 years Third Wave have marched for Peace alongside students in Chicago for 6 years now.
I Am For Peace (2014) – Trailer from Perspectives Charter Schools http://www.pcsedu.org/
Read More “MISSION: Chicago – I AM PEACE March- Against Gun Violence”
Haiti -Cholera Outbreak – TO BE UPDATED SOON
We Advance Then and Today
In 2010 Lawyer Aleda Frishman, Actress Maria Bello and myself were working as volunteers at a large IDP camp in Haiti where an earthquake had killed over 300,000 people. I was running the field hospital where I was witness to many raped women, children and babies. At night while we trying to sleep, we could hear women being raped far off in the night and we felt a great anguish in not being able to do anything about it. Fast forward to later that year – the three of us teamed us with Haitian women’s activist and songstress Barbara Guillaume to create the non profit We Advance (or Nap Vanse as pronounced in Haiti. ) which was about helping women in the struggle with Gender based violence. Read More “MISSION: We Advance – Gender Based Violence -Haiti”
CTEC, the Community Tsunami Early-warning Centre, is located just outside the village of Peraliya, Thelwatta, in the Hikkaduwa region of Sri Lanka.
Following the Boxing Day tsunami in the Indian Ocean, Hikkaduwa was one of the most devastated regions in Sri Lanka. An unsuspecting Peraliya was quickly thrown into the world media spotlight as it was also the site of the world’s largest-ever train disaster when the Queen of the Seas Colombo-Galle Express train derailed there in the waves of December 26, 2004.
It is estimated that some 2,500 people died in the village while only 8 walls of 500 plus houses remained standing. False tsunami warnings occurred daily- usually given by worried villagers or a drunk and in response to the false alarm, people would panic and get hurt or killed.
A solution was needed so we co-founded CTEC –which is the first Community Tsunami Early-warning Center in Sri Lanka. the Co-founder was my trusted Sri Lankan friend Dr Novil, who had been working in our hospital. Sirens were set up around the surrounding villages and a rotation schedule of officers enabled us to be open 24 hours a day.
CTEC continues to grow and in Dec 26th 2024 it will be the 20th year anniversary of the 2004 tsunami and of CTEC. There will be major memorials and events at CTEC that day.
We have also opened a Children’s Learning Museum where students ( and tourists) can come and learn about disasters.
It is obvious that if a proper warning system were already in place, many lives would have been saved in the tsunami. An international coordinated tsunami warning system has been proposed but is still not in operation. In the meantime, the Indian Ocean region remains largely unprotected.
Our goal is to protect the Sri Lankan coastline with an Early-warning system in place and to also create a culture of preparation in case of a future disaster.
Our main ask now is funding to replace our current sirens affected by the salt air with state of the art solar rust proof sirens.
Love Dr. Alison Thompson- Co-Founder- CTEC.
In a world of growing natural and man-made disasters, EVERYONE IS NEEDED.
September 11th 2001, Katrina, 2004 Tsunami, Haiti/Nepal/China/Mexico earthquakes, Sandy Super-storm, Philippines typhoons, Chicago gun violence, Haiti/Texas/Florida/ Puerto Rico/ USVI and Dominica Hurricanes, Guatemala/ Hawaii/ Indonesia/Equador volcano eruptions and the Syrian refugee crisis- the list goes on. Soon we will have a tragedy for every date in the calendar. And with every new disaster, the old one fades away far before the recovery does. Read More “About Third Wave Volunteers”
