Christina fled Kiev with her 5 year-old and 3 year-old children leaving her husband behind to fight in the 3-day trained Ukrainian civilian army.

They sat in cars and buses for days and arrived to a temporary camp as they crossed the border into Medyka, Poland. They are in shock and terrified to have evacuated every aspect of their former lives.

A team member of Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) is the first friendly face they see when crossing the border. They are offered a warm beverage, food, hygiene kits and necessities. They are placed on several buses and sent to sleep on the floor of a shopping mall that had to close all its shops to provide temporary housing for thousands of other refugees in the same situation.

They do not know when or if they will be able to return home. They are in denial of how bad the situation in the Ukraine has become and have lost contact with family and friends who are either still in Ukraine or escaped. Electricity and therefore wifi has been cut in many areas.

GEM’s mission is to get aid in and refugees out. Staying in a temporary camp with very few toilets and no showers is not sustainable. GEM’s case managers are working with the refugees to get them to other European cities. Christina and her children have have family in Spain. GEM’s travel partners arrange and pay for flights and 3 more lives are now on the path to more stable and secure housing. This is one aspect of GEM's relief mission.

Meanwhile, GEM is also working with the Aerial Recovery Group, former Green Beret special forces volunteers, to help extract people from danger and get aid back into Ukraine where they are running out of food and supplies. Over 460 orphans have been saved due to these efforts thus far.

As an American with ancestral ties to both the Ukraine and Poland, I feel compelled to help the refugees of Ukraine. I’ve known Michael Capponi, the founder of GEM and its Chairman, Reid Boren for over 25 years. I’ve witnessed what Michael and his team are capable of.

They figure out what needs to get done and make things happen – many times quicker and more efficiently than our governments and largest aid organisations.

When Michael arrived to Poland and we connected he said that we should focus on items for women and children. With the assistance of White Horse Machinery, we successfully delivered our first 45-foot truck of humanitarian aid to GEM’s 18,000 square foot warehouse in Rzeszow, Poland. Our first truck included essential water from Harrogate Spring Water as well as comforting tea from Yorkshire Tea.

Many volunteers from the Yorkshire community have already donated nappies, baby food, wipes, hand sanitisers, air mattresses, formula, bottles, toiletries, and feminine hygiene products. Complete strangers have come together to chip in. We still need suitcases, sleeping bags and cell phone power packs.

Your donation will go to purchasing supplies specifically requested by GEM’s staff on the ground in Poland. Your donation will help thousands more like Christina and her two small children.

GEM's Mission:

• Aid into Ukraine

• Relocation Assistance

• War-zone evacuation

• Stability housing

• Non-Ukrainian refugees

• Expansion into Hungary & Romania

Global Empowerment Mission and Bstrong (led by Bethany Frankel) arrived in Medyka, along the Ukrainian-Polish border within 2 days of the start of the crisis. GEM"s assistance plan includes the following:

Aid into Ukraine: Since the cities under siege are running low on supplies, your donation is importing and purchasing food, water, basic necessities, medicine and medical equipment needed in a war zone. These are handed off to our Polish partner who delivers the aid to cities like Kiev.

Relocation assistance: Since the border cities are inundated with refugees, we are rapidly identifying people who have friends and family within the EU that can house and support them. Your donation funds 100% of the refugee’s transportation, lodging and airfare to the destination of their loved ones. Also, we are helping refugees out of tents and into warm homes of Polish families through our connection with the Polish churches.

War-zone evacuation: With our Ukrainian partners still living inside of Ukraine, your donation is funding 100% of their effort to drive into Kiev with supplies and pick up women and children who want to be evacuated, but were unable to do so on their own.

Stability housing: With our Polish partners, your donation is renting additional housing facilities to refugees who are unable to find temporary housing through Polish families. We are funding 100% of their housing, food and transportation needed.

Non-Ukrainian refugees: We have identified a special class of refugees where the needs are much more complicated due to visa situations and language barriers. With your donation, we are actively working with various agencies to provide a service that other NGOs may not currently provide.

Expansion into Hungary & Romania: Your donation is scaling outside of Poland to partners in two other Ukrainian border countries to provide aid.

You might feel helpless and overwhelmed with the news -and you CAN do something. With your help and donations, we are able to scale these operations, evacuate women and children, relocate refugees, and provide dignity and safety to those who have been traumatised. Don’t sit on the sideline while thousands are left homeless. Join Global Empowerment Mission and Bstrong to make a difference.

Your donation will purchase the most essential supplies requested by GEM on the ground in Poland such as cell phone power packs, sleeping bags and suitcases.

You can follow GEM @globalempowermentmission and me on Instagram at @whitney_vauvelle for updates. We are sharing pics and videos of how aid is coming in and being distributed as well as some of the success stories of people being relocated and getting settled in their new lives.

Your donation will make a difference.

Thank you,

~Whitney