Child Labor Prevention

Brilliant Earth has recently donated $10,000 to the Diamond Development Initiative’s (DDI) Tukudimuna Child Labor program, an initiative that is working to end child mining. The program is making headway in its effort to end child mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and to create a model for other organizations to build upon in the future.

All over the world, there are hundreds of thousands of poorly paid children laboring in dangerous diamond mines. With regular exposure to chemicals, disease, and hazardous mining structures, the health and well being of child miners are at serious risk. Without education or access to other opportunities, they are likely to remain in these mines for the rest of their lives.

The Tukudimuna pilot program aims to remove Congolese children from diamond mines and provide an attuned infrastructure that will help foster them into higher education and better economic situations. Brilliant Earth’s donation of $10,000 will sponsor the enrollment of 108 children from the DRC for a full year. Children enrolled in the program will learn about more sustainable long-term occupations that will enable them to leave diamond mining for good. By introducing young people to healthier opportunities, the program hopes to eventually benefit the communities in which the children live and work as well.

DDI is currently testing different incentives to attract children and their families to the program and to keep them there long enough to realize the benefits. The DDI also wants to improve the understanding of the dynamics of child mining to find new, improved and replicable solutions for ending it globally.

Brilliant Earth is a proud contributor to the program’s development, and we look forward to seeing this important program expand to more communities and countries worldwide.