Australian Bushfires UPDATE: FEB 9th- 2020:
Please help the Australian bush fire victims and the vulnerable animals who have been badly burned- it crushes me to see my homeland like this. Australia has been burning out of control with 1000’s of fires and the rains over the past 5 days have brought much relief. The fires have killed over a billion animals.
Sept 11th is so deeply tattooed into my brain that the memories will never go away.
I will never forget rollerblading 8 miles downtown to the World Trade Center with a first aid kit helping people in the streets only to see the north tower collapse around me.
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”
