Includes First U.S. Beneficiary Helping Families of Fallen Healthcare Workers Due to COVID-19
New York, N.Y.; October 6, 2020 – Diamonds Do Good® (DDG) announced today that despite the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on fundraising, it is still set to grant $150,000 to diamond industry beneficiaries most in need of immediate assistance to sustain their programs.
Putting action behind the rallying cry that ‘Diamonds Do Good’, the grants include programs in the diamond mining communities of Tanzania, Botswana and the Northwest Territories of Canada. Additionally, in recognition of this year’s devastating toll the COVID-19 pandemic has had on frontline healthcare workers in the United States, $30,000 of DDG’s total grant dollars will be given outside the industry to the Brave of Heart Fund which aids the families of healthcare workers who lost their lives to COVID-19.
“Although the Brave of Heart Fund is outside DDG’s normal purview of beneficiaries, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone around the world this year. It is only right that we do what we can to help in these unprecedented times,” said Anna Martin, DDG president.
Industry-related grants will support girls’ education, entrepreneurship, youth empowerment and higher education opportunites. In Africa, grants are being given in Tanzania to support girls education via the Flaviana Matata Foundation as well as empowering youth afflicted with HIV in Botswana through the ‘Let Youth Lead’ program of Sentebale; while in the Northwest Territories of Canada, Diamonds Do Good scholarships will be again be given to youth from indigeneous communites seeking special technical training scholarships for diamond industry jobs as well as entrepreneurship and environmental studies programs as administered through the Mine Training Society.
These programs will not only promote meaningful change in these communities, but offer more examples of the many ways that Diamonds Do Good. Jewelers who tell these stories at the counter help customers to feel good in every way about their natural diamond purchases.
Diamonds Do Good was inspired in 2006 by Nelson Mandela to tell the world about the positive impact of diamonds in Southern Africa. Its focus today is to create meaningful change in diamond communities across the world and to tell these meaningful stories.
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