(IDEX Online) - The Diamond Empowerment Fund will distribute grants totaling $470,000 to nine beneficiaries on three continents. The grants will support girls' education, entrepreneurship, youth empowerment and higher education opportunities.
This year for the first time, a grant is being given to a program for girls in high school at the Ambaba Girls School in Surat, India. The program focuses on STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education.
Grants are being given to support girls education via the Flaviana Matata Foundation and the Graca Machel Trust in Tanzania. In Botswana, the DEF is supporting higher education scholarship through the Botswana Top Achievers Program and empowering youth afflicted with HIV through Sentebale. In South Africa, the organization supports graduate students through the Mandela Institute for Development Studies.
In the Northwest Territories of Canada, the DEF will again give technical training scholarships for diamond industry jobs and entrepreneurship studies to youth from indigenous communities through the Mine Training Society.