DEF to Gift $500K to Students, Entrepreneurs

RAPAPORT… The Diamond Empowerment Fund (DEF) has approved up to
$500,000 in grants to help students and young entrepreneurs in countries where
diamond mining takes place.



The money will go to the organization’s existing
beneficiaries, including the Botswana Top Achievers program, the Graca Machel
Mandela Foundation and India’s Veerayatan, the New York-based DEF said Monday.
It will also help graduates of the DEF’s mobile school in the Democratic
Republic of Congo attend high school through a Diamond Development Initiative
program.



“This is a direct result of sponsors of last month’s
highly successful Diamonds Do Good Awards fund-raising dinner in Las Vegas,”
the DEF said. “The goal of these grants is to help build strong, sustainable
and economically successful communities.”


The DEF made the decision at its midyear board meeting on
Monday.