MRK X Moyo Gems

In East Africa, the artisanal gem mining workforce is around 30% female. However, women lag considerably behind their male counterparts in terms of market access, education in gemology and fundamental business skills, and the price they get paid for the precious stones they have worked hard to acquire. Each Moyo Gem can be traced back to the specific miner who found it, and these mainly female miners are paid fair market value for the gems through direct dealings with international gem dealers.

All of the miners who take part in the Moyo Gems Market Days are TAWOMA (Tanzania Women Miners Association) members and operate mines that have been granted permits by the Tanzanian government. In addition to attending occupational health and safety training provided by Pact in their villages, they have all completed the GIA program, which provides much-needed gemological knowledge of the gems they are mining. TAWOMA also works with Pact to give its members financial literacy training, allowing those miners to typically make 3–10 times more at Moyo Market Days than they would usually through a local broker. TAWOMA and the women participating in Moyo Gems select how best to use the funds received through grants to benefit their communities, whether it be to upgrade the school, invest and repair mining sites, provide equipment and training for value addition such as gemstone faceting, or other projects they feel are most important.

To further support the Moyo Gems collaboration, we at Monica Rich Kosann have provided the funding for a new state-of-the-art Ultratec faceting machine, to a team of committed TAWOMA women faceters located in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. These women have graduated from in-country vocational training and have been working with outdated equipment. This investment will help these women faceters turn the rough gems the women miners find in Tanzania into marketable gems, which creates significant economic opportunities as well as value addition for Tanzania. Additionally, 15% of each MRK X Moyo Gems purchase will be donated to the Moyo Gems collaboration, providing more needed equipment and training to the members of the Tanzania Women Miners Association.