Press release – As we entered 2020 – our third year of operations for GemFair – there was a strong sense of expectation and excitement within the GemFair team. We were looking forward to building on the momentum we’d established in 2019 by continuing to extend GemFair’s reach and impact throughout the artisanal and small-scale diamond mining (ASM) sector in Sierra Leone.
The year got off to a strong start – by the end of the first quarter, we’d scaled the GemFair programme to a further 42 mine sites, bringing our total to 136 member sites and covering almost 2,000 individual workers. We’d also delivered training to a further 213 miners and were receiving positive feedback on our training programme from miners, government and civil society organisations alike. GemFair was firmly becoming a benchmark for responsible sourcing from artisanal diamond miners.
Then the pandemic began, and we quickly realised that 2020 was not going to be the year we had planned. The outbreak of Covid-19 profoundly impacted GemFair’s operating environment in Sierra Leone, as well as the global diamond market. It also presented significant challenges for GemFair’s members. The combination of a depressed diamond market, a poor harvest and a sharp increase in food prices due to border closures, meant that food security became a very real concern for our members, with many saying they were unable to feed their families. In addition, consultations with local healthcare professionals revealed a sector unable to protect frontline workers if there was an outbreak in Kono.
With our unique position in the local ASM sector and our commitment to helping improve the lives of ASM workers, we knew we had to do all we could to support the local community during this unprecedented crisis. Our local team immediately mobilised to develop and roll out an extensive Covid-19 response plan, focused on providing food and medical support to our members, their families and the wider community. This, alongside keeping our staff safe, become our operational focus for the year.
In total, we will have provided food aid for a duration of nine months ending in early 2021, with 4,703 food parcels delivered to 1,715 direct beneficiaries and more than 10,200 indirect beneficiaries. The impact of this much-needed assistance was described by one of our members, Lansana, as follows:
“The food parcel is a blessing and I never expected it. I was very happy receiving the package. The photo says it all. On that very day, I left nothing at home for my kids and other dependents. [I] was thinking of taking loan from a friend of mine then GemFair staff came in with the food to distribute among the workers.”
To support local healthcare facilities, we donated 200 boxes of surgical masks, 4,000 N95 masks, 200 face shields and 100 litres of hand sanitiser, as well as establishing five portable hand-washing stations. We also donated radio airtime for health officials to hold live Q&A sessions on Covid-19 with remote communities, as well as repurposing our GemFair digital solution to send out Covid-19 health guidance from the World Health Organisation to our members.
While our operational focus shifted to onxe of community support, we also wanted to find a way to continue delivering our training programme in some capacity during the year. To achieve this, we developed an on-demand training programme, drawing on our existing GemFair digital platform and tablets provided to members, tailored for a low-bandwidth environment. As a result, we can now access hundreds of people living in remote communities that are hard to reach through more traditional, classroom-based training methods.
Among this significant shift in our operations, we were also pleased to sign an MoU with the German Development Corporation (GIZ) and the Mano River Union (MRU) in July of this year. The MoU is to develop and deliver a capacity building programme in the MRU countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Ivory Coast, to further enhance practices in the ASM sector. Despite the challenging global situation, we’ve managed to hold a number of training sessions already for stakeholders from across the four countries, with participants spanning government, mining, law enforcement and civil society.
So, as I reflect on our progress this year, it is perhaps fair to say that GemFair did, in fact, extend its reach and impact throughout 2020. While it may not have been in the way we’d originally anticipated, the dedication and sheer hard work of our team to provide vital support to our members and their communities during the pandemic epitomises the GemFair spirit and all that we stand for.
I’d encourage you to read more about GemFair’s progress and impact in 2020 in the latest edition of our annual report, The GemFair Way.
Feriel Zerouki
Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and General Manager, GemFair
Photo © De Beers, GemFair : Lansana distributing food parcels at his mine site.
