Creating A Greener Diamond Future
The Greener Diamond (TGD) is our charity foundation. Together with MiaDonna, TGD works as an integral part of our solution, by empowering communities to grow food instead of mining for diamonds
When founder Anna-Mieke learned she had most likely purchased a conflict diamond, she started sponsoring a boy in a diamond community in Liberia, Africa she saw first hand how much her sponsorship was changing his life for the better and knew it could be done on a much larger scale.
Each time you purchase an ethical and affordable MiaDonna product, a portion of the proceeds goes straight into programs that help restore the lives and land in sub-Saharan Africa.
We are committed to give back 10% of net profits. However, we do more than just that. The MiaDonna team also donates countless hours of their time developing projects as well as making sure each project is successful, which allows TGD to run with no administrative costs. Most of TGD’s projects have a set dollar amount and a strict timeline in order to plant before the ‘wet season’ arrives. There have been many months when MiaDonna has been known to donate up to 100% of their monthly net proceeds, in addition to the team’s hours, in order to get the farms planted in time. Otherwise, these communities would have to wait another year until the next planting season is upon them.
TGD is 100% funded by MiaDonna consumers purchasing conflict-free diamonds. (We do not take donations)
TGD contributes a whopping ZERO percent to administrative costs. Every cent goes to projects.
TGD is 100% run by volunteers who dedicate their time and effort to projects locally and abroad.
Because of You, and MiaDonna, The Greener Diamond is able to continue developing new projects to help undo the damage caused by the earth-mined diamond trade. TGD currently sponsors agricultural farms in Liberia and Sierra Leone where reformed child soldiers are trained to grow food, instead of mining for diamonds. Also, when asked, TGD has been known to fund emergency projects that need immediate funding, like relief projects and support for Ebola survivors and orphans.
Learn more about The Greener Diamond projects below.
The Greener Diamond Projects
Each and every time you purchase fine jewelry from MiaDonna, a minimum of 10% of net profits are donated to the Greener Diamond Foundation to fund initiatives and programs that help to restore the land and lives impacted most by the illegal trade of conflict diamonds.
The Greener Diamond Foundation is enthusiastic about working with the Elwou Orphanage, located on the outskirts of Central Monrovia, Liberia. This orphanage has relied on aid relief and begging to survive.
Our goal is to help this orphanage become self-sustainable, growing food and raising livestock for both self-consumption and sale. The surplus crops and livestock will help finance additional orphanage needs.
The Greener Diamond’s second farm is located in Liberia, and at this farm we are doing things a little differently. The farm is a five acre community farm, attached to a community center in Gbarnage, Liberia. This project is based on the idea of paying-it-forward. We train and supply the necessary tools and seedlings to a select group of people (mostly women) at our community farm so they can go back and farm on their own land to support their family and local community. In return, these people will then train another 10 people in their local community, those 10 people will train another 10, and so on.
When our founder, Anna-Mieke, was in Africa in 2016, she met a group of girls that stole her heart. These girls have lived a life most of us could not imagine. Most had lost their parents to diamond-funded wars and are now left raising their siblings while trying to attend school. The Greener Diamond is supporting these girls to thrive, and not just survive.
When founder Anna-Mieke found out she had most likely purchased a conflict diamond she started sponsoring a 7 year old boy in Liberia, Africa. It was through their letters that she got an inside look at what it was like for a child to grow up in diamond mining community. In one letter he said, "I had a great summer, only one of my friends was killed." That right there sparked the idea of what is now MiaDonna and The Greener Diamond. MiaDonna would be the sustainable funding source for the charity foundation, so we could empower children to live a life free of poverty. Ponpon has now graduated from university and helps run our foundation projects in Liberia.
Partnering with Youth Action International, the Women’s Empowerment Center provides skills training, counseling, financial and adult literacy to 150 Liberian women to help give them the tools and skills required to built a bright future for themselves and their children. In 2017, The Greener Diamond provided an additional grant to increase the program beneficiaries to 180 women.
Nearly 300 students receive education and training in computer science, welding, carpentry, and several other vocations at the SOS technical school in Kara, Togo. Togo is a small country in Western Africa and is in desperate need of the new school due to extreme poverty and a country average literacy rate below 50%. The Greener Diamond partnered with SOS Children's Villages to help fund tuition so young men can learn the skill of carpentry.
The Greener Diamond Farm is located in the Kono District of Sierra Leone. It is a little over 100 acres and employs and trains over 500 local, reformed child soldiers and street kids. The Kono District was chosen for the location of The Greener Diamond Farm as it is considered to be one of the world’s most fought over regions due to the abundance of natural resources.
Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are Ebola free, which is great news, but unfortunately it has, once again, really devastated these fragile countries.
Unicef reported almost 18,000 cases and more than 6,000 people died from Ebola, creating 7,000 orphaned children. Let us say that again...7,000 ORPHANED CHILDREN, which is just heartbreaking. This is not including the estimated 12,000 children that lost at least one of their primary caregivers.
Most orphanages are full and lack the funding and supplies to support any additional children, so local families are stepping up and taking in extra children. These families have come to The Greener Diamond asking for help and we have organized emergency supplies and are paying the tuition fees for many of the children who lost their parents as a result of Ebola.
The Greener Diamond is committed to more than just giving back. The Greener Diamond doesn’t believe in just writing checks to charities and never looking back. They roll up their sleeves and work directly with war-torn African communities that have suffered because past (and current) diamond excess. TGD also wants to make sure your taxpayer dollars are not contributing to stripping the land and people bare.
This is all being done because of your decision to make a more informed choice by choosing one of MiaDonna’s conflict-free Lab-Grown Diamonds.
Thank you for helping to make a difference!
In the Kono, it is not uncommon to find a diamond on the ground during heavy rains or if the ground shifts a little. Because of this, there has always been a fight over the Kono District. However, during the Sierra Leone civil war it got brutal...because the group that conquered the Kono District ran Sierra Leone and the profits from its natural resources.
They will always be in conflict and on the brink of civil war. That is why I found it so important to put our farm there. The local youth are tired of mining, poverty and conflict, they now realize mining will never prosper them. This [The Greener Diamond Farm] is what the local people want...they asked The Greener Diamond and we delivered..
