Latest / WHAT I'VE LEARNT / What I've Learnt - Dr Alison Thompson OAM (2023)

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What I've Learnt - Dr Alison Thompson OAM (2023) · WHAT I'VE LEARNT

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: From the recent battlefields of Ukraine to the refugee camps of Greece and Syria, Dr.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Allison Thompson has spent more than two decades helping those when they need it the most.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And as the tragedy in Turkey unfolds, with more than 20,000 deaths and thousands more impacted by the devastating earthquake, Dr.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Allison's team is on the ground to assist, providing much-needed resources to save lives.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is her gift, a tribe of global volunteers that can be activated whenever and wherever the crisis strikes.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: From her early life as a high school teacher, Alison has dedicated her life to, as she puts it, being in the wrong place at the right time.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking on when she knew this was her path in life, Alison says being on the ground and helping during the 9-11 disaster was the moment that changed her life.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Dr.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thompson has received the US Presidential Lifetime Service Award, an award usually reserved for US citizens alone.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Her work with organisation Third Wave Volunteers brings people from all over the world together to help one another.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: So Dr.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Allison joins me from Miami before she embarks on a war zone in Ukraine, followed by an urgent visit to Turkey.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: She's an extraordinary Australian and she's here to share her stories from her incredible life and what drives her to run toward danger when everybody runs the other way.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Alison, it's so lovely to see you again.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, there's a lot going on in the world, and you are our go-to for the what I've learned listeners to hear about what is going on in the world and how you're doing what you can to assist.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So talk to me about where you're at at the moment, particularly with the Turkey earthquake and then the Ukraine, which you and I had planned to talk about before all of this, you know, a horrible tragedy had occurred.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that you've got meetings, you know, with doctors, etc.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: coming up, or you had some last night.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe talk to me a little bit about where you're at and what's happening.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: With the disasters, correct?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, correct.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the world's imploding and so many disasters.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: We used to get one big one a year, but now it's just every day there's one somewhere.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: And we're still in the Ukraine war.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: We're very busy um delivering food to those front lines, and we're in many other disasters at Haiti and Bahamas and still in Southwest Florida.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: But we're in Ukraine, um, sorry, the Turkey disaster.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Now that was a really horrific earthquake.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's at about 20,000 dead right now.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: But it probably will rise over 50, 80, 80,000.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's so many Syrian refugees that are in that area.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: And the worst part about it is there's always the second deaths that come because there's over 60,000 injuries.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: So the second deaths come when this is this the people are freezing to death because it's minus zero degrees, it's icy, it's snowing, it's raining, it's such hard conditions that even when you try to pick things up, you know, our our people on the ground, it's just that you can't, your hands are so frozen.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really complicated.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so on the border of you know, um, southern Turkey and Syria, which is a real problem because of the rebels have such and they haven't had much aid, they've only had uh I think one aid truck come through with the UN because um, you know, the leaders in Syria want all the aid to go through Damascus and they'll never see it down um up in the north.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it's complicated, and uh, thousands of Syrian refugees who'd already fled to Turkey and were living there, they were killed.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: So it's very complicated over there right now, and it's um it's just a real, real horrific tragedy.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's horrific.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, I just read this morning we've had two people from Melbourne who were visiting Turkey who were part of or were victims of the earthquake, which is which is really, really sad.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I think also there's sort of this, uh as you mentioned, um then the fundamental infrastructure was already at breaking point.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was already, I mean, you know, the refugee camps and yeah.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, so and all the infrastructure of the buildings were was already pretty tenuous, am I right?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was they're very old buildings, not up to scratch, you know, and that area, like with the Syrian side, you know, they've been extreme poverty as it is, and they have cholera outbreaks, very large cholera outbreak before that.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just going to be worse.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: But also that area, you know, I worked a lot with the Syrian refugees in in Turkey and Greece, and that area is very dangerous for kidnappings, you know.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a bit worried about lady or women aid workers right now because ISIS, Al-Qaeda, you've got all the terrorist groups all in that area, you know, it's a very corrupt area as well.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, it's it's difficult.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's just difficult for everyone, especially with the aid, because I don't really trust it.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen aid pile up in airports and get wet and people selling it out the back door in Haiti and Sri Lanka.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I know this country is known for that too.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it's gonna get really tricky.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: But it is tricky.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it is tricky.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so talk to me about your team and what your so so logistically, how does it work in with your third wave volunteers?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you basically have a little tribe of people you can call on.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes we have 10,000 if it's in New York, Sunny disaster, or we just had 5,000 uh out in Southwest Florida.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: But I can't take thousands on planes, you know, that far across the world.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: So we have a small team there, experts uh in what they do, you know, they jump out of helicopters on strings and all this sort of stuff.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: So they're there, it's really hard.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: There's no communications, you know, even the sat phones, it's difficult because the power is taken out.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, they're you know, they're in darkness and the cold.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really hard to communicate.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: But when when I can get on with them, that you know, they give me intel.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: I spoke to the Israeli military today and they gave me a lot of intel.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: I can't say a lot of the stuff.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of aid groups, you know, there's about 70 countries offering help.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, Australia has sending over big, a lot of rescuers and 22 tons or whatever of aid in that, which is amazing.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: But the Syrian side's not getting any help, you know.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's just had one UN aid truck and that was tense.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't even food and all that.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, usually we deploy these are these are experts at doing that, and then we follow up behind with projects.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: So after after they finish, I would be usually be with them, but I have a um a speaking engagement, so I can't go yet.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but we'll be planning to go, yeah.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: You will go across, or yeah, we'll head over there.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: We're raising money now.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: So um we have solar lights on the ground and we'll be taking more solar lights because there's no electricity, which is a real need.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: And and light is um it reduces rapes.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, in Haiti, whenever the lights would go down, the rapes in the hospital would go at 80%, would go up.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: So light is really important.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Rapes in the hospitals.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Are you telling me that when people are field hospital and whenever the big solar lights would be down, um, the rapes would go up 80% because it's in the darkness.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's 90,000 refugees.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's what just an example in Haiti.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: So we're really committed to lighting up the world and and raising money for the solar lights.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think I showed you them last time.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, they're um brilliant.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: But it is they're very, yeah, they're great, those lights, because you actually talked about, and you've just given us another example of how critical they are.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the thought that when people uh, you know, there's light that they won't attack is is just so it isn't just sort of incredible.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so fundamental and and somewhat tribal, it's really quite strange that that that you know, wait for darkness, literally.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, so in this situation, you've obviously got cold, you've got inability to access.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you manage who you send in there and and what are the actual logistics of that?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say um you the earthquake occurs.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: What's the first thing?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Can you step us through how you who do you know how to tap?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: How do you make sure that like as you mentioned, there were some doctors you were meeting with about strategy?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, what how do you oh what is your process for every disaster?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: So we have a bracket.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we have a we have a full uh rescue team that goes into the disasters, we have an all-female team, but I chose um some other experienced male uh rescuers to send in, and they just we get planned, we go, you know, and you land.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I always have I have a lot of contacts in Turkey, always have contacts in all these countries.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: So we get ahead, we get details, they'll meet us at a Dana airport or and then lead us in, or there's always a way to do it, but um, it's just it's hard to explain the the algorithm because it's completely different in every different country.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, yes, that would make sense, but depending on the need for the focus on rescuing people first, and that's what's happening right now.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we found people two to three weeks out in Haiti in the 2004 tsunami and all that.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm very surprised to see that um some intel that they started knocking down a lot of the buildings uh with bulldozers, and this is still in the air in the the time gap where you can still find people alive, and they are finding people every day.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: They found in Syria uh a baby still attached to its mother with the pilgrims.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it's so much intel.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just it's a bit bizarre that they're starting to knock down some of those, and there's a lot of they say political things behind that, but I'm not going to get into that because it could put our volunteers in danger.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I understand.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but there's always all that stuff going on, and we just focus on people and rescuing people and loving people.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: So, usually in a disaster, if I can be more broader, it's we do the search and rescue and then medical, and then the non-medical people help with food and solar lights and water filtration, and it just builds like that.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's a bit hard to send too many over there, but we're trying to get people that we know and volunteers that live in those regions.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: And there's I've got a lot of Turkish friends here who are giving us so much intel as well.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of work to be done, and but it's really, really horrific.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a horrific disaster.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And do you feel that the that your the global support, it's it would appear, as you say, there's a lot of countries that have stepped up.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, do you feel that that this is going to be, you know, we talked about when you were obviously at 9-11 and you saw what happened there and you ended up staying eight months and being very, you know, involved.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: It went on for a long time and uh even beyond that.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think this is something, as you mentioned, they're trying to knock down the buildings?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Is that for safety, or you're not sure?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: But you you want to, you know, I'm interested in whether they will, you know.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: There's certain areas that didn't vote for the government, you know.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: And interesting areas aren't getting a uh yeah, there's a lot of different things.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's interesting because the sanctions, and US has sanctions against Syria, but they've they've dropped it to be able to do that.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: I saw that into that area, so that's interesting.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's this is always a lot of chaos going on.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um and politics don't disappear, is what you're saying.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Is that there's not politics overlay all the time, it's not like that dissipates.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: There's not enough trucks in the area, there's no gas down there.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: That happens in every disaster.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: They can't get the trucks, you can't get petrol.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I started saying gas in America, but petrol, I still say petrol too.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: You're an Aussie at heart, yeah.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they need hand warmers, they need like phone charges, you know, they're they're desperate for phone charges because there's no way to get, you know, charge your phone and that.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: And they really need shovels, simple shovels, because you're digging in there, they keep breaking, you know, so simple things, but then tense, you know, because people are sleeping out of the street around little fires because there's nowhere for them to stay.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just so much need.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm really worried about the aid because I know how that works in all of these countries.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it backs up and people send it and send it, but it doesn't always make it to the people.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's why, where about if we send aid or we we take it with us and we hand deliver it to them and say we love you, and here it is, but we don't just send it off in containers because we know it gets sold out the back door.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm very concerned about that aid not reaching.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's a very important distinction, and I think that's really smart.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: So you make sure that you actually hand it over to the people that need it, but you only have a limited amount of people on the ground because of access.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Is that right at the moment?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: No, um, not so much that.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it costs a lot of money to send people halfway around the world.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're always careful about donors' money and everything, and uh, yeah, that's just that's the most important part.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: But we do have a lot of other um groups that we're we're all working together.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: We always do that.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of small grassroots, so I I know a lot on the ground there.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we're just all working together, but we'll see how it builds.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: And which we still don't know how long we'll stay.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it depends because there's a lot of rules and and the president has a lot of restrictions and things that are going to be putting in place.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it's kumbaya now, and it's always kumbayah for the first month or so, but then it gets crazy, you know, jealousies and anger and the stages of grieving because you know, so many people have died.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it gets really complicated.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll just see how it goes.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: We just go day by day right now.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: So if people listening want to contribute, those items that you actually talked about, what are the logistics of actually really donating and funding is the is the critical element, I gather, because I know you've sent me a link, but but it you know, the things that you outlined shovels, tents, basic items.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Buying those in Australia and sending it over because it's expensive to put in containers and it's probably not going to get there.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we're we focus on the solar lights and things that we can do, and we usually actually buy your country to support economy in that because there are big cities that that have things that you can buy, but I'm sure they're I mean I'm sure they're getting low by now.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: But uh we concentrate on things we can bring, like you know, water filtration, solar light, and things like that.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: The tents is really, really important, but um, that's a bit complicated for us.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you need big containers, and so uh USAID and Australian aid and all that sort of stuff would be best to help with that.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And are you working closely with the Australian government at all?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because obviously you're an Aussie at heart, but you've got a lot of contacts in the US and in fact globally.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: So not in this one yet.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's only just five days, it's early, and we have to focus on our mission, and it's yeah, it's just getting in there, no red tape bureaucracy.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: And usually when you work with governments, it takes months and months and long to get traction.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: So private, private, as you mentioned, um, private philanthropy or par people who step up and can give.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's how it works.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Grassroots, you get in there, like even all the citizens are racing down there, driving like 12 hours with sandwiches and standing, giving out tea and everything.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really that's why we're third-wave volunteers, it's about everyone's needed, you know, handing out water.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be a super brain, hand out water, give us a someone a hug, they need heating stoves.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Or we're just standing there, you know, doing something.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's always something for everyone to do, and just not not to get in the way, but it is very dangerous down there as well.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: So you just have to be careful.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's always about safety first.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we tell everyone.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because if we don't survive, no one else, we can't save anybody.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to be just on the ball and and really professional about it when you're doing the actual rescues.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's something that to be honest, you've really mastered because you've done a lot of these, unfortunately, but also fortunately, you've been present.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, I was just saying, seeing some of the photos they're sending me and things, it reminded me of September 11th back in 2001.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Just just the the spaghetti steel corrugated iron and everything.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I was looking at these rescues and I'm like, that looked exactly like it was from September 11th, you know, 2001 in New York.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: But it's it's so after a while, it it kind of all does look the same, you know, all the earthquakes, tsunami, and disasters.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure, yeah, because it's it's really just about complete decimation and destruction.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so, really, your mission is to ensure that you get the right people on the ground and that you access the well, I suppose those simple things, like whether it's water, tents, shovels, or as at those brilliant lights that I know that you featured in our last interview.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, the power of light is really interesting, the way that you've actually that's become quite symbolic of what you do, as well as literally.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't it fun to light up the world, light up the dark areas?
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: We have so much love in our hearts and love to give to everyone, and that's what we focus on.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: But we just, it's so important that the aid gets to the people.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: I can't say that enough because I just see it sitting around in warehouses and being sold.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we have to get that right, you know.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: We have to.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: You still have this wonderful energy and this, I suppose I would call it optimism or a sense of even though you've seen so much trauma and tragedy, how do you hold on to that?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: And how I mean, that's something that you and I have talked about before, but in this situation, it's actually, I suppose, essential in order to be effective.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you go, there's no point you going sort of down and and depressing and under the under the radar because of what's that gonna do?
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: So is that something you've just honed, or do you think you're naturally like that?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: Naturally, or if it just over all these years happened, but it's like there's always so much good in the world as well, and humanity comes together after this, and on the ground, it's like utopia, and enemies are working together.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: There's Russians working if you Ukrainian soldiers over there, and there's like you know, everyone just comes together and it's just a beautiful feeling, and that doesn't last too long, but for when it lasts, it's beautiful, and we just wish the whole world could be like that on a normal day.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so we we we get that that fills us up, you know, the love and the hugging and everybody working together, it just it just it's magic, you know, and the universe opens up and people start helping from all directions, and you don't do it because of that, but when you do it purely like that, you know, it that the better stuff stays in your heart, and all the bad stuff, you know, you push that aside and you keep present, but uh, but when you fill it with the love, because the world is full of love and hate, we wouldn't survive, we wouldn't be around if it was just all hate.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: So there are good people out there, and we see it in these zones, giving it everything they have, not sleeping for days, trying to find people alive.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how we keep up the hope.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to me about what's happening in the Ukraine as well, because I know that initially when you and I had scheduled this interview, it was to focus on Ukraine.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Unbeknown to us, the Turkey earthquake obviously had happened, which is why we wanted to touch on it.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: But with Ukraine, what's your take on that?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's obviously a drawn-out war zone, so it's a much it's a different strategy, I'm assuming.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because it's gonna go on for a long time.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, the Russians have half a million troops around all those borders now, and that's really scary.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of soldiers have been writing to me telling me they're ready for that big battle.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm hoping the tanks and everything arrive in time.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: I just keep praying that it will end, but it's it's not good.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, every day 100 missiles get sent off into residential buildings and hospitals and schools.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we just stay on with them.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: We send them, we're still raising money for that.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: We send them about two to four thousand a week, and then all our local Ukrainian team, they go get food and they take it to the front lines, and now they're taking food to the disabled, um, all the disabled people in the front line areas where the Russians have pulled back.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just it's still ongoing, it's a very dangerous mission.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I just know any day now, you know, I might get that call that some of our people may have died.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we just had a few Americans that died.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I don't think they've had any Australians, but yeah, it's it's just I it's hard to it's hard to say which way it's gonna go.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: I just know Putin's not gonna give up and it's just so dangerous.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there are you know hints that the they've been talking about after they take Ukraine, they want to take Poland, you know, but we we just can't let that happen.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, after Hitler we said never again, we we just have to get this guy because so many people in Russia are good people and they're against the war, and he's he's just a maniac.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, those two disasters are very different because one is so sort of sudden, the other is this drawn.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I saw Zelensky went to the UK and he's been he's been out to the world to say we need to find, we need now they're getting much more military support globally.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know from Australia and and the UK.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, but when you say you sent two to four thousand, is that people you just mentioned?
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, dollars.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because we've got yeah, in Odessa, um, it's not far from the front lines, and it's two hours, but we can go to these big supermarkets and we we're feeding the economy because it's tanked.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: There's everybody's so you know, because of the war, all the jobs have stopped.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: So we fill it up with this van and then and then we usually head out to the front.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, that's what we've been doing.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: And the only difference between all the disasters, it's pretty similar, the buildings in rubble and everything, and the pain of the people, but you know, but but at least in Ukraine, I mean, sorry, Turkey, because so many disasters.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Turkey, we don't have missiles aiming at us and things like that.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a little bit super a little bit.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I understand that.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so now you were talking about your team in Ukraine.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: So their main mission is to, as you say, provide food, but also you talked about giving out lights and making sure that there's also they give comfort.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, talk to me about the hugs and the, you know, you send the the women, you were saying with the little hats with the can you talk to that too?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because I love that one of the things that you offer, as well as physical aid, which is clear, is an emotional.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we give them love, you know.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: We just, you know, they're nervous at first.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the the Ukrainians uh and because the Russians have been there for quite a while, and they're nervous and that, but when they realize I just have open arms and I just walk towards them, and I just start cuddling them, and then they just start crying in our arms, and it's so rewarding just to hug another human across the other side of the world that's in so much pain, and that's enough.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they they say you came all the way from the other side of the world to help us, even if you had nothing to help with.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: So the solar lights, you know, we're lighting up the very dark areas and the front lines because there's no power, electricity, or anything, it's freezing over there as well.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then um All sorts of different types of A, like different medicines, but we also get tires up to the front lines because everyone's using their own cars, but there's um they're all being blown up or they or they just need, you know, that they got punctures because the roads are so bad with potholes.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: So tires, all sorts of different things.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: It just depends what the need is, a sonogram, you know, at a field hospital frontline field hospital or whatever.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we've done so many different types of things, as well as doing the training, you know, continuing the TCCC training, which is really about if you get blown up in the red zone, about how to get this person out of there without dying, you know.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: So so we concentrate on that too.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: But um and how is that so just elaborating on that?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: What is that training?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Is that for your volunteers, you mean?
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: No, we train the uh um the Ukrainian soldiers.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, right, okay.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: Accountants and lawyers and farmers and fishermen, they get a gun and a uniform and they get sent to the front front line four days later.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: So we we worked out, we were you know, really in the early days of last year when it first started, that we gotta train these people just to work out how to survive, you know.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: So we focus on that.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: We get thou trained thousands and thousands of soldiers.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: We would get every few, every four days, we get another hundred soldiers, you know.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: So, but they're really thankful and they all keep in touch now that they're all up in the front lines, and then I hear daily which ones died and which ones didn't didn't.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: So we're just still we we're committed to Ukraine and um and we'll still continue that.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: And the people training them, is that your team training them?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Or do you bring experts?
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: Usually myself, I'm trained to teach, and um we have a whole bunch of nurses and paramedics, and we've all the ladies have been teaching the guys, and um, we don't put up with any S, you know, we're like tough and we're like make them run, and we're always running with them when we do the root rounds, and we're in the front running, and and they get a little upset when they can't catch us because we're girls, you know what I mean?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: But um we do all the work just as hard as they do, you know.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's amazing.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: So talk to me about it.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: What about your own fear or sense of safety?
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: You don't seem to reflect on that often, and yet that would be obviously the first, I suppose it's quite human to go, you know, you run as we talked about.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in my intro, I mentioned you run towards danger, and you seem to be reasonably fearless in and you don't allow fear to define you.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we put we slip out those four letters of fear, we fill it with love.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I believe in a higher power.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I have a pray that I'll be okay.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not naive or stupid, you know.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: We have protection and we have security and we have drills of way to approach a village with the cars running so we can escape quicker.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: There's all, you know, there's strategy and everything.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't put volunteers in direct danger like that, but they've all all the volunteers have committed on their own to they take full responsibility for their life, you know.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I I don't know, I just feel at peace, you know.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think because I'm an old lady now.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: You don't look like an old lady.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I just feel at peace about it.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's my time to die, then it's my time.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've already had a brilliant life.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't really know much to say about that, but um and how does it does your husband?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: I know your husband's very supportive, but at the end of the day, he's no one's gonna stop you anyway.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: From I can see this is how you have all you've been like this forever.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: So how is he?
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Does he worry about you?
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um well he when we first got married, not you know, about seven years ago, he wouldn't let me go to Kapani.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to fight with the Kurdish female fighters, you know, against ISIS.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, No, you know, you go there, we're getting divorced.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I I really said, okay, I understand that.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I love him and wanted to be with him, but he's been really good.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: I thought he would be, you know, very upset about me going or try to stop me from going to Ukraine, but he hasn't.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: He's been very peaceful about it and very good.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm very surprised about that.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: I think he just sees what I do out the field, and I think he trusts me that way, or I don't tell him everything and and all about the danger.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: We just really don't talk about it.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we come back from the war and we just concentrate on us and being present.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm really surprised about that, you know.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: But that says something about the man you've you've chosen to be with, because I don't think you would be a happy or you wouldn't be you if you didn't do what you're doing.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that says something about yeah, it's that balance.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I I love that that the way you said, well, we don't have to talk about all the detail.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: I just go and do what I need to do, and and if there's something to be spoken about, then you'll speak about it.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, yeah, and life is really a balance because you know, I'm I live in tents and refugee camps and everything in a very harsh way, but I love my five-star hotels and my spa and my mani petty and all that stuff, you know.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a balance, and same with um uh Alvin, my husband and I, you know, we'll go off for a certain amount of time and he'll go off on his business trip and then we'll come home and we're together.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we just try to balance it all.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so far it's working.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: So well, you know, most people are just like their husbands or their wives go out the door and are back at sort of five o'clock, you know, six o'clock.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas yours is quite an extraordinary, and it is testimony to both of you that you have that respect for each other, and maybe that's something that we can all learn from.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's something a bit different.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: But whenever we have guests in our house, when they see the helmet, the skateboard, and all of these things, they always go straight to my husband and say, Oh, you you write a skateboard?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: Or oh, you got a helmet, did you go to war?
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: They never say it to me because they think the man is the one that would have all those things, you know.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: But everything like that in the house is actually mine.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: But they always say it, is that yours, Albert?
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that is brilliant.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: That is that is brilliant because it does, it exemplifies your, you know, well, I suppose the way that people say gender roles, which is in itself, because you know, you're not your average bear, and you're somebody who, but you know, you're such an example of a woman owning her story and going on the journey she needs to go on.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that is also very inspirational.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I speak to you, I'm always inspired by your strength, your courage, but also your gift of love.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's just ever present.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Where's your next?
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: So are you going to what's your next plan?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because you were going to go to Ukraine on the ground there, and now are you diverting and going to Turkey?
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Or what's your thinking?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'll doing, we'll be doing that all.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be doing Ukraine, I'm Turkey and Ukraine.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: But we have something booked with the Venezuelan tribes from Venezuela, and they had to flee for starvation and have never been in touch with white man.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: So they're in Colombia, northern Colombia in the desert, and and the Colombian military are going to give us an escort because the FARC is still in that area, so it's a little bit dangerous.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: But I have 10 nurses going, and we're going to have so much fun camping in the desert.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's in the end of March.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: So we have that planned.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because they've come, you know, with the into white man's territory, but they're getting leprosy and um TB and all the diseases of modern man, so there's real problems there.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: So that's we have that, and we were going the first week of Ukraine war, we had to cancel it to go to Ukraine.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: So they've been begging us to come back, so we have to fulfill that mission.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so we've got quite a few missions.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then every day a new disaster happens, but we just can't be everywhere.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: We just have to focus now uh and choose which ones we're going to because it's expensive, also.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, of course.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and and so you you'll go there and then will you go to Ukraine again as planned?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, I'll be in and out of Ukraine, not like full time like I was all last year, but I'll go in once a month, you know, and see our team and give them some, you know, a lift up and I take more solar lights over and things like that.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, everything evolves every day.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to make a dinner appointment with my friends or anything, and I always say, no, I I can't because I don't know where I'm gonna be three weeks from now, you know.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: But I like that.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, you're doing something uh I'm sure they would understand when they see what you do.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and also it is, I mean, even you know, it was great we could get our Zoom and get our podcast um time together because last interview we had such a great response to everybody is, especially in Australia here, the fact that you're this Aussie out in the global stratosphere doing what you're doing, it's just it's a really um inspiring story because it shows that you know we might be far removed geographically from everything, but we're not really.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact that you've gone and created this pathway for so many others as well to go out and assist.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: And and most of your volunteers are no brady person or a super this or that, a very average Aussie girl, just worked out how to do it, worked out the route to do it, and then you get all these great people to surround you and help with them.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: So and most of your volunteers are I know well, I wouldn't call you average Aussie girl, but then again, I get it.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're saying, as usual, because you're always so humble.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I suppose what you're saying is that if it's something you want to do and you want to you want to do something, you should go forth and do it.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you've done.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: And we are so grateful for your time and talking to us at the What I've Learned Podcast.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you take care, stay safe, stay curious, stay kind and connected, and I look forward to catching up with you soon.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again, Alison.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, sister.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: Bye, sister.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: The What I've Learned podcast will now be coming to you weekly, with new episodes released every Tuesday.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm blessed to have so many wonderful guests coming on the show.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: So check out my What I've Learned Instagram for updates.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, stay tuned, kind, and curious.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: Love Death.