The Diamond Empowerment Fund (D.E.F.)  recently announced that under its latest disbursement plan, US$ 470,000 is being granted to nine beneficiaries spanning diamond mining and manufacturing communities across three continents. This figure reflects the highest increase in total disbursements taking place in eight years.

“Putting action behind the rallying cry that ‘Diamonds Do Good’, the grants will support girls’ education, entrepreneurship, youth empowerment and higher education opportunities, leading to meaningful change for communities where natural diamonds are found and cut,” the organisation said.

For the first time, this year a grant has been given focused on a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programme for high school girls at the Ambaba Girls School in Surat, India. The Diamond Empowerment Fund also continues to support higher education in India via Veerayatan, in western Gujarat.

On the African continent, grants are being given in Tanzania to support girls education via the Flaviana Matata Foundation and the Graca Machel Trust; in Botswana, through higher education scholarship support of the Botswana Top Achievers Program, as well as empowering youth afflicted with HIV through Sentebale; while in South Africa, graduate students are supported through the Mandela Institute for Development Studies.

“In the Northwest Territories of Canada, technical training scholarships for diamond industry jobs as well as entrepreneurship studies will again be given to youth from indigenous communities through the Mine Training Society,” D.E.F. added.

The organisation expects that these programmes will not only promote “meaningful change” in recipient communities, but they offer more examples of the many ways that Diamonds Do Good.

“Jewellers who tell these stories at the counter help customers to feel good in every way about their natural diamond purchases,” the organisation emphasised.

Inspired by Nelson Mandela, the D.E.F. was set up in 2006 “to tell the world about the positive impact of diamonds in Southern Africa”. Today, it focuses on creating meaningful change in diamond communities across the world; and to spread these meaningful stories widely to the stakeholders of the diamond industry.

Pic cap: Nancy Orem Lyman, Executive Director, Diamond Empowerment Fund with Science and Physics Teachers and Krupaliben Shah, Principal at Ambaba Girls School, Surat, India

***