Press Release – The Diamond Empowerment Fund (D.E.F.) announced its support of a mobile school for youth in the Kankala mining community of the Kasaï Occidentale province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Set to open in June 2015, the Diamond Empowerment Mobile School will give 25 children a chance at a brighter future. It will be one of eight planned schools developed by the Diamond Development Initiative (DDI). Mobile schools consist of traveling teachers and portable materials that are brought to a mining community for a condensed school year. These communities are in remote locations where children, particularly girls, would not otherwise have full access to education.
“To provide education to an additional 25 children in mining communities is phenomenal,” said Dorothée Gizenga, the executive director of DDI. “It means 25 fewer children in mining and 25 more children with a daily meal and the chance to succeed.”
Ian Smillie, the chairman of the board at DDI, said, “Sending schools to kids is a proactive and practical approach to a longstanding problem. We look forward to partnering with those, like the Diamond Empowerment Fund, who share our vision on a more permanent solution.”
D.E.F.’s president, Phyllis Bergman, said “The Mobile Education School’s project is synergistic with D.E.F.’s mission to support sustainable approaches to development and education in diamond communities around the world. This is another example of how diamonds truly do good.”
The D.E.F. joins Brilliant Earth as the first two sponsors of mobile schools in the DRC.
Picture DDI and DEF
