Global Empowerment Mission

The Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) is a non-profit organization focused on providing immediate and long-term aid to individuals and communities affected by natural disasters, crises, and other emergencies around the world. GEM mobilizes quickly to deliver essential supplies, medical aid, and support services to areas impacted by events like hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, and wars. GEM leverages smart partnerships and volunteer energy to maximize the greatest dollar versus impact ratio. Corporate overhead has never exceeded 3% allowing 97% of all donations to support their global missions. GEM’s objective is to deliver the most amount of aid, to the most amount of people in need, in the shortest amount of time and with the least amount of costs to our donors.

GEM has built an international organization that’s disrupting the disaster relief sector through its innovative, efficient, and modernized systems and operates 6 international branches on multiple continents. GEM has proven the ability to immediately respond around the world to all phases of disasters. By harnessing the power of social media, celebrity influencers, strategic public-private partnerships and a strong, knowledgeable base of experienced volunteers, founder Michael Capponi, has created a replicable formula to have an efficient and effective response to global disasters.

Whitney Vauvelle’s involvement with GEM began at the beginning of the Ukraine war. She couldn’t sleep for 4 nights knowing that her great grandfather on her father’s side raised horses for Czar Nicholas II and that he had strong connections to Kyiv. When she saw that Michael Capponi was in Poland when the war broke out, she reached out.  He said to focus on items for women and children as the men were required to stay in Ukraine to fight.

It started with one message to her twins Whatsapp group. Schools, churches, and villages collected long life food and pet supplies. People dropped off nappies (diapers), toiletries, and our trucks transported medical supplies for St. John’s Ambulance to Ukraine as well.  Local companies, hospitals and charities stepped up to organize suitcases, toiletries, strollers, sanitizers, wipes, and we used the cash donated to purchase power packs and generators. We even organized ‘make-shift’ ambulances for injured soldiers on the front lines. Whitney’s efforts have coordinated 8 full-sized (52 ft) trucks and over 600,000 L of Harrogate Spring Water along for Ukraine.

Complete strangers showed up to volunteer sorting, packing, and doing whatever was necessary. Elderly ladies and men, some who could barely walk themselves, brought boxes, bags and suitcases filled with supplies. Elderly ladies knitted new baby blankets and sweaters. Others purchased thousands of pounds of supplies. It has been a beautiful experience to witness.