Scratching the Surface: Russell Simmons reflects on the New York Times article about education in South Africa

A few years ago, I founded the Diamond Empowerment Fund to raise support of education initiatives in African nations where diamonds are a natural resource. Most people that know about D.E.F. think of the Simmons Jewelry Co’s Green Bracelet, the symbol of our cause worn by many celebrities, athletes, and a few politicians. That’s great, and every time I see someone wearing it I am happy to know it’s out there getting seen and making a difference.

But sometimes even I forget how important the cause is since there are so many needs in the world, not to mention in Africa. D.E.F. is supporting two programs – CIDA City Campus and African Leadership Academy – both based in Johannesburg, South Africa. CIDA is the first virtually free business college in South Africa with almost 1000 students from very difficult circumstances and most coming from extreme poverty. African Leadership Academy is based in South Africa, but has set its sights on transforming the continent by helping talented and driven students from throughout Africa get the top education that will help them fulfill the promise of their God-given talents by getting a world-class education.

Plain and simple, both of these programs are about access to resources. I promise you – you will be hard pressed to find young people who are as focused, determined, and grateful for opportunity as the students of CIDA and ALA. They deserve to be able to get an education and chase their dreams with a chance of catching them. Read this important report from the NY Times which gives us some insight into the challenges and opportunities for South African youth. Reminds me we are just scratching the surface.

-Russell

click NEW YORK TIMES to read the original article.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 6:10 am and is filed under DEF Blog, News and Upcoming Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.

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