Supplier BulletinJul 03, 2025
Protect Your Customers and Your BusinessSponsored by the Gemological Institute of America
SourcingApr 09, 2018
DEF Highlights Work of Okavango Diamond Company
The company has a program that provides entrepreneurship training to youth in Botswana.
The Diamond Empowerment Fund has posted a profile of the Okavango Diamond Company’s Youth Entrepreneurship Programme on its website as part of its ongoing effort to highlight the good diamonds do worldwide.
New York--The Diamond Empowerment Fund is highlighting a program in Botswana that provides entrepreneurship training to youth there.
The Okavango Diamond Company’s Youth Entrepreneurship Programme (ODC-YEP) exposes youth in Botswana to the diamond industry and provides formal training to help them explore and develop any entrepreneurial ambitions. Okavango is a rough diamond marketing company that’s wholly owned by the Botswana government.
“Entrepreneurship has been identified as part of a number of solutions to address unemployment in Botswana,” said ODC’s Managing Director Marcus Ter Haar, a DEF board member. “It is important for us as stakeholders in the industry to do all in our power to ensure the success of the country in which we do business and the people that live there.”
DEF is highlighting the work of the ODC-YEP via a profile posted on its website that targeted millennials through DEF’s social media-based Diamonds Do Good initiative.
More examples of how the jewelry industry gives back will be highlighted at the Diamonds Do Good gala, scheduled to take place Thursday, May 31 in Las Vegas.
De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver is being recognized for De Beers’ partnership with UN Women, with the goal of achieving parity in appointing women and men into senior leadership roles.
In addition, DEF is recognizing the government of the Northwest Territories in Canada for responsible diamond mining practices that work to ensure a sustainable future for wildlife and indigenous tribes.
For more information or ticket to the gala, visit DiamondsDoGoodAwards.org.
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