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Investing in Sierra Leone’s Peace Diamond Alliance Initiative. PRESENTED BY: Joseph J. James, President & CEO The Corporation for Economic Opportunity (CEO) May 6, 2005. The Corporation for Economic Opportunity... ”Prosperity for All”. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Investing in Sierra Leone’s
Peace Diamond AllianceInitiative
PRESENTED BY:
Joseph J. James, President & CEO
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity (CEO)
May 6, 2005
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity (CEO)
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity (CEO) is a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation that helps disadvantaged communities and entrepreneurs reach their full economic potential.
CEO’s staff and strategic partners design and implement new initiatives, secure program and project financing and develop and strengthen partnerships with a number of public and private entities, capable of improving the economic status of CEO’s clients. CEO often utilizes its for-profit affiliates to help accomplish its mission.
CEO’s Africa Initiative is based on the strong belief that there needs to be greatly expanded, mutually-beneficial economic ties between Africans and African-Americans.
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
Sierra Leone: A Diamond Powerhouse
The diamonds of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa, are of a consistently high quality, with an average run-of-mine carat value that is higher than almost any other diamond producing country in the world. Most mining occurs in the country’s eastern region.
The vast majority of diamond miners are in the artisanal sector – mining without much more than hand-held tools, shovels and sieves. Artisanal mining today makes a significant contribution to the general economy of Sierra Leone. It provides work for more people than any other sector, except subsistence farming, and is the country’s major source of foreign exchange.
It has been estimated that there are between 100,000 and 200,000 artisanal diamond miners. Until now, these “diggers” shared little in the value of diamonds mined, rarely received a salary, and most averaged incomes of little more than a dollar a day.
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
THE STAR OF SIERRA LEONE
“Blood Diamonds” Sierra Leone has recently emerged from a devastating civil
war. Rebels forced residents in the eastern section of the country to work in the diamond fields and much of the violence was funded through the illicit smuggling of locally produced diamonds through Liberia.
This pattern was echoed in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, giving rise to the concept of “Conflict” or “Blood” diamonds. An international consensus to staunch the flow of illicit diamonds resulted in, among other things, the creation of the Peace Diamond Alliance.
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
Established in 2002, with funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the PDA is committed to bringing private industry, community, NGO’s, and government together, to ensure that the Sierra Leone diamond industry contributes positively to peace and prosperity for the people of Sierra Leone. For more details on the PDA, see www.peacediamonds.org.
Management Systems International (MSI), the USAID contractor which manages the PDA, is now implementing an innovative approach to artisanal diamond mining management, involving the organization and utilization of miner coops. PDA member and CEO’s affiliate, Kono’s Hope, LLC, is actively engaged with this initiative by providing financing, thanks to its committed investors, and marketing assistance to small, indigenous mining enterprises in eastern Sierra Leone’s Kono District.
PEACE DIAMOND ALLIANCE (PDA)
Kono’s Hope, LLC
Kono’s Hope, LLC is a South Carolina corporation, affiliated with CEO, formed to provide financial and marketing assistance to small mining operations in the Kono District of Sierra Leone. It has raised funds from a small group of mostly African-American investors.
Kono’s Hope, LLC’s management team is led by its founder, CEO’s President, and a highly experienced diamond company owner in the New York City Diamond District. Management hopes to sell both “rough” and finished diamonds, primarily in the US market.
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
Payee Miners and Farmers Cooperative
Payee Miners and Farmers Cooperative is one of the coops selected and trained under the Peace Diamond Alliance Initiative. It has 35 male and female members, who are indigenous individuals from the local community.
With Kono’s Hope, LLC financing, it has secured a diamond mining site, obtained the necessary licenses and has been in operation, since late March. Its site, made available by Chief Gborie, is in the same area where the 968.8-carat Star of Sierra Leone diamond was found.
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
Payee Coop Members at Kick-off Celebration
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
Coop Mining Site – “Working in Earnest”
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
Chief Gborie in the Midst of Coop
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
Management Oversight Committee at Coop Mining Site
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
Female Coop Miners On Break and Saying, “Thanks”
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
Meya Development Company, Ltd.
Meya is a small, indigenously-owned, Sierra Leone company, formed to mine the river-bottoms in the Kono District.
The company’s founder, Dr. Tamba Alpha-Kpetewama is a native of the District. He and CEO’s President met while the two worked and lived in Maryland. They vowed to work together to help the people of Kono, through honest and fair diamond mining and various community development initiatives.
Kono’s Hope, LLC is providing financing to help Meya undertake its mining operations.
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
Dr. Tamba Alpha-Kpetewama, Meya’s Founder
Sierra Leone’s Historical Links to South Carolina
Rice was the staple crop in 18th century South Carolina and Georgia, and planters in those colonies were willing to pay high prices for Rice Coast African slaves, because of their rice-growing skills. Slave ships like the “Hare” took thousands of enslaved Africans from Sierra Leone and other parts of the Rice Coast to the ports of Charleston and Savannah.
Bunce Island was a slave castle, just off the coast of Freetown. From about 1670 to 1808, this tiny island in the Sierra Leone River shipped tens of thousands of African farmers to bondage in the Americas. While 95% of the nearly 11 million Africans kidnapped and sold into slavery were shipped to the West Indies and Brazil, the British commercial agents at Bunce Island also targeted a particular market: the rice plantations of South Carolina and Georgia.
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity...”Prosperity for All”
The Corporation for Economic Opportunity
Joseph J. James, President & CEO
116 Wildewood Club Court, Columbia, SC 29223
Phone: (803) 462-0153 Fax: (803) 462-9676
E-mail Address: [email protected]
