Diamonds Do Good (DDG) announced Friday that it’s poised to grant $120,000 to diamond industry beneficiaries—and $30,000 to the Brave of Heart Fund, which aids the families of health care workers who died from 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, in a prepared statement.

DDG’s industry grants will go to programs that support girls’ education, entrepreneurship, youth empowerment, and higher education opportunities in the diamond mining communities of Tanzania, Botswana, and the Northwest Territories of Canada. 

In Africa, grants are being given in Tanzania to support girls’ education through the Flaviana Matata Foundation, as well as empowering youth afflicted with HIV in Botswana through the Let Youth Lead program of Sentebale. 

In the Northwest Territories of Canada, DDG scholarships will be given to youth from indigenous communities looking to enroll in special technical training scholarships for diamond-industry jobs as well as entrepreneurship and environmental studies programs as administered through the Mine Training Society.

Diamonds Do Good was inspired in 2006 by Nelson Mandela “to tell the world about the positive impact of diamonds in Southern Africa,” according to organization literature. Its focus today is to create meaningful change in diamond communities across the world and to empower retailers and manufacturers to share those stories with diamond consumers.

(Logo courtesy of Diamonds Do Good)

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Emili Vesilind

JCK Senior Editor