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DEF’s 2019 Grants Gift Largest Amount in 8 Years
It includes a first-time grant focused on a STEM program for high school girls in Surat, India.
Diamond Empowerment Fund Executive Director Nancy Orem Lyman is pictured here, second from right, with science and physics teachers as well as Krupaliben Shah, principal at Ambaba Girls School, in Surat, India.
New York—The Diamond Empowerment Fund is donating its largest amount of money in eight years.
The organization announced this week that $470,000 is being granted to nine beneficiaries in diamond mining and manufacturing communities across three continents.
The grants will support girls’ education, entrepreneurship, youth empowerment and higher education opportunities.
For the first time, a grant will focus on a STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) program for high school girls at the Ambaba Girls School in Surat, India. DEF also continues to support higher education in India through Veerayatan in western Gujurat.
In Africa, grants will be given in Tanzania to support girls’ education via the Flaviana Matata Foundation and the Graca Machel Trust; in Botswana through the higher education scholarship support of the Botswana Top Achievers Program and empowering youth with HIV through Sentebale; and in South Africa, supporting graduate students through the Mandela Institute for Development Studies.
Technical training scholarships for diamond industry jobs and entrepreneurship studies will again be given to youth from indigenous communities in the Northwest Territories of Canada through the Mine Training Society.
The Diamond Empowerment Fund was inspired in 2006 by Nelson Mandela to convey the story of the positive impact of diamonds in Southern Africa to the world. Today, it focuses on creating meaningful change in global diamond communities and telling their stories.
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