Getting to Know ‘A World Empowered’

Lovelander Brian DiCiacco is the founder of a local non-profit organization called A World Empowered (AWE). Its mission is “helping people who like helping people, to help more people.” On his path to AWE, he has survived depression, near-death experiences, many surgeries, and drug addiction. When Brian was 17, he could barely cope with depression and all the other stresses of adolescence.

Suicide seemed the best solution, but something kept him from taking his life. His death wish stayed with him and compelled him to ride his motorcycle recklessly as if it were his last ride, and it almost was the day he t-boned a pickup truck. With fractures of both legs and six broken ribs, during the rush to the hospital, he coded in the ambulance and his heart had to be rebooted, and again in the ER, and again on his third day.

Two years later, he found himself in the clutches of serious drug addiction. Something spared him again —perhaps the same guardian angel who had been sparing him since age 17. When clean, he realized he could not always count on that overworked angel and dedicated himself to becoming a better person. His struggles had taken much of his body and soul, and once free from drugs he realized he would have to work physically and spiritually to keep what his angel had left him. In 2001 he bought a custom furniture company and ran it for 15 years.

As profitable as Colorado Custom Furniture was, his spirit was unfulfilled. There was more he wanted to do with his life. With all he needed in his backpack, he traveled, searching—for what he didn’t know. He started in Central America, riding a motorcycle from Nicaragua to Panama, then Indonesia to Vietnam to Thailand and beyond. Everywhere Brian went he saw opportunities to help, to make a difference, to bring clean water to India, education to Costa Ricans, e-commerce to the small Indonesian island Lombok. He wanted to empower peoples of the world to create their ideal life—a foreign concept to many of them.

One day, while swimming at his own secluded hidden beach in Costa Rica…………… seeing and sensing that the entire World had needs that were best met by nonprofit organizations (NPOs), AWE was conceived. After the first few months, he asked himself why start from scratch with his own NPO when there were already established organizations doing great work? It would be better to support and empower their organizations.

A World Empowered’s function is to raise money for other nonprofits and splits its donations 50/50 between local and international organizations. So far the young NPO has purchased meals for the elderly through Meals on Wheels, provided five small business loans to Denver-based Angelica Village, provided for washable reusable feminine hygiene pads to women in Malawi, and sponsored the planting of 125 trees in Africa. That’s only the beginning of empowering the world.

Brian DiCiacco is the founder of A World Empowered (aworldempowered.com) and author of the book The Dream Achiever. So dedicated to helping others is he, that 80% of the profits from all book sales, speaking engagements, and workshops are distributed to worthy NPOs locally and around the world.