Local organization sends help to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Fiona (includes video story)

On Monday Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Fiona. The storm left the island with no electricity, massive flooding and destruction. Coincidentally, the hurricane struck on the fifth year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, which had caused damage on a similar scale.

When the Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) heard about the crisis, they scrambled into action. GEM’s goal is receiving, packing and shipping supplies to areas with humanitarian crisis’ in the cheapest way possible with the most impact. After partnering with local actors in 2017 to get Puerto Rico back on its feet, GEM’s leaders knew they had to help.

Founder Michael Capponi shared the following: “We already have teams there, we have long-standing partnerships with what we did in Hurricane Maria… so it’s about how quickly we can get supplies out there to them, then a lot of it will be about clean up because the water rose five to six feet.”

In addition to Puerto Rico, GEM will be providing aid to all other countries affected in the Caribbean by hurricane Fiona. If you would like to get involved or contribute please visit their website at www.globalempowermentmission.org.

Samuel Rodriguez Garcia is a senior at Florida International University. Samuel hopes to bring a little more light to the world with every interaction. After graduation he will pursue a career in film making.