Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons wants to provide financial support to improve health care and schools in the diamond mining regions of Africa.
After a nine-day trip to the continent, Simmons announced the launch on Tuesday of the nonprofit Diamond Empowerment Fund, which will raise money to support education and medical facilities.
Simmons Jewelry Co., co-owned by Simmons and his estranged wife, Kimora Lee Simmons, has created a line called Green Initiative, and 25 percent of the proceeds will go to the fund. The line will be sold through Simmons Jewelry Co.’s retail partners, including Zales, Fortunoff and Kay Jewelers.
“I’m in the jewelry business and everyone in the jewelry business has an agenda,” Simmons said during a press conference at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Manhattan. “I’ve never had an agenda except for helping my people in Africa.”
His primary target is helping to eradicate the HIV virus and AIDS and help promote education.
Simmons was inspired to travel to Africa for the first time after seeing a screening of “Blood Diamond,” the much buzzed-about Leonardo DiCaprio movie about a fictional mercenary who is trying to locate a rare pink diamond and finds himself in the midst of civil war in Sierra Leone, where rebel groups take control of the diamond mines to help finance the conflict.
Simmons’ mission took him to South Africa, Botswana and neighboring countries. He was accompanied by Simmons Jewelry president Scott Rauch, Hip-Hop Summit Action Network co-chairman Dr. Benjamin Chavis and Sally Morrison, director of the Diamond Information Center, among others.
Simmons noted that less than 1 percent of diamonds are conflict diamonds, mined and traded to finance illegal activities and violence. He credited that to the effectiveness of the Kimberley Process, a certification plan established in 2000 that is intended to ensure that diamonds are ethically mined and distributed.
Simmons said he believed he and his team had made headway with DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly, who co-stars in the movie, which will be released to theaters Friday. As they promote the movie, Simmons said, the stars will explain that consumers should not stop buying diamonds because the industry is essential to the well-being of Africans and their countries.