Finally, my husband Tom and I realized that the miners we'd met in Tanzania had already told us how to help.  Their families were home.  Their wives had small businesses and they wanted their children in school.  If we focused on improving overall economic development for people in the gem mining regions we could not only help the people we touched directly, but indirectly influence our miners.

If a miner knows that his wife’s business in the market is doing well, and his children can stay in school because they aren’t walking 3 hours each day to get water, he can choose not to work in unsafe or abusive conditions.  He can save up a few gems and take them to town for a better price instead of selling them to the first person with cash.

This isn’t charity. We are looking to give ‘seed money’ that supports economic growth in the gem producing communities.  Although we can’t directly change the way mining works, we feel that it IS possible to get a larger share of the profits from gems back into the hands of the people in gem producing countries.  Below are some of organizations we support, and some of the small-scale grants we've made.
 

Medical Equipment

We donated a portable Ultrasound machine and a medical laboratory microscope to Dr. Ikem Onwude in Abuja, Nigeria.  

Dr. Onwude holds free clinics in churches around Abuja on the weekends, and seeing impoverished and elderly women who have no other medical access.  The new equipment allows him to do more accurate diagnosis than he could before.    

We are working with Dr. Onwude and Dr. Kinglsey Ndoh to finance a medical safari to the mining regions.

Small Business Consulting

Tom and I travelled to Morogoro, Tanzania at the request of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and the City of Kitchener, Ontario.  

We donated our time and consulting skills to the Morogogo Mining Cooperative Society - running workshops, visiting local mining operations, and assessing the viability of building local gemological and cutting skills.  Our report was used by FCM to determine how best to use the money allocated to Morogoro, and we continue to offer consulting support.  

As of early 2014, the first class of gem cutters has finished training, and one of the luxury Safari hotels will be carrying Morogoro gems.

Grants to Business Cooperatives

Small business cooperatives are a staple of African commerce. 

We look for small groups of women at the low end of the economic food chain.  So far, we've made grants to two groups running businesses in Arusha, Tanzania.  Both were composed of women, each running her own small business mostly selling vegetables in the markets or selling roast corn and other street food.   The groups each had a common fund from which they drew money to buy supplies.

We opted to give grants, rather than loans so they did not have to worry about repayment.   These micro grants gave them the capital to start new businesses as groups, rather than as individuals.  These new, larger businesses will allow them more security and a better return on their investments and let them continue their individual efforts as well.  For the first time these women could hire workers to run the common business for them so they could earn extra while continuing to run their own businesses.

Water and Sanitation

All over Africa, you see people carrying water.  It's common in outlying villages to spend 3 hours a day walking to bring water to a family.   We've worked with MSABI in Tanzania to donate borehole wells and latrines.   This both provides a local source of safe water, and the sanitation required to keep the groundwater safe.

This is the borehole well we donated in 2010.  It was complete in May of 2011 and provides water for a small village in a mining region near Ifakara, Tanzania.

Our other borehole well was completed in February 2012 near Idete, Tanzania and provides water for a small village of 250 people.  

Scholarships and Education

Education is critical to reducing poverty in the developing world.   It is also out of reach for many people.   We've worked with several organizations to provide training in gemology and gem cutting that will help keep more of the mineral wealth in the source country.

We support Young Strong Mothers Foundation based in Morogoro, Tanzania. The past few years, the government in Tanzania has been forcing girls out of school if they get pregnant. This is devastating to these girls, their families, and the country. YMSF offers support, education, and both parenting and job training to help them become excellent mothers and productive adults.

We also support SOS Children's Villages with donations for general education for orphans.