CrimeDec 15, 2025
Men Receive Life Sentences in Home Invasion Murder of Jeweler Carlos Jose Hernandez and Joshua Zuazo were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in the 2024 murder of Hussein “Sam” Murray.
SourcingSep 28, 2016
DEF Donates $130K to African School
The Diamond Empowerment Fund has made another donation to the African Leadership Academy, the Johannesburg-based program that helps prepare students for college.
Pictured at the reception marking DEF’s latest donation to the African Leadership Academy are, from left, ALA Executive Director Tim McChristian; Bradley Opere, ALA graduate and current student body president at the University of North Carolina; CNN’s Robyn Curnow; ALA Chair Liz Gips; DEF President Phyllis Bergman, board member Nicola Breytenback, Executive Director Nancy Orem Lyman and program and events associate Raven Carey-James; and Chris Bradley, co-founder and CEO of ALA.
New York--The Diamond Empowerment Fund has made another donation to the African Leadership Academy (ALA), the two-year program based in Johannesburg, South Africa that helps prepare young students for college.
At a ceremony held recently at the Yale Club in New York City, DEF presented ALA leaders with a check for $130,000, bringing DEF’s total donations to ALA to $750,000.
ALA co-founder Chris Bradford, along with board Chair Liz Gips and Executive Director Tim McChristian, were on hand to receive the check.
In addition, at the event, CNN International anchor and correspondent Robyn Curnow moderated a discussion on opportunities for entrepreneurship in Africa with Zimbabwean businessman and philanthropist Strive Masiyiwa, founder of international telecommunications group Econet Wireless.
Also present were several ALA graduates, including Bradley Opere from Kenya, who currently is the student body president at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
DEF’s support of ALA and other programs in diamond communities are made possible through the funds the organization raises at its annual Diamonds Do Good Awards gala, which is now held in Las Vegas in June, in conjunction with JCK Las Vegas and the other trade shows.
ALA is just one of the education initiatives that DEF supports.
The academy stresses leadership, entrepreneurship and African studies. Students return to their home countries after college graduation to apply what they’ve learned to building and improving their own communities.
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