Gem Munro, with his work and life-partner Tanyss, has devoted his life to improving educational opportunities for disadvantaged people.

He and Tanyss founded Amarok Society knowing that education is the key to freedom and self-determination, which has been inaccessible to the poorest, most vulnerable children and youth in Canada and around the world.

Amarok Society was created to fill the growing education gap in the developing world by reaching the millions of marginalized children for whom a quality education is inaccessible. AS goes about this work in an unusual way: rather than opening schools for children, it opens schools for destitute and illiterate mothers. Each mother teaches everything she learns to at least 5 children in her neighborhood, thereby creating a sustainable culture of education from within the family.

In recognition of their work in education, Tanyss and Gem were awarded Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals.