AWDC Gives Grant to Diamond Development Initiative

(IDEX Online News) – The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) is continuing its support for the Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) with a third contribution in support of the organization, which works to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development through education, policy, dialogue and projects working directly with artisanal diamond miners and their communities.

“AWDC supports DDI because it is working at a primary source of the diamond pipeline, among people who are an important, but too often forgotten part of our industry,” said Ari Epstein, CEO of the AWDC.

“The AWDC’s gift of untied support will continue to provide fuel for innovation within the ethical supply chain and support for core functions, without which no organization can function” said Dorothée Gizenga, DDI’s executive director. “Grants like these make donations received from other funders go further, meaning more benefits to artisanal miners and their communities.”

AWDC funds will complement DDI’s new Mobile Schooling project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, an important new study on artisanal and small scale miners in Tanzania and the second phase of DDI’s Ebola response in Sierra Leone.