In September 2007 Kenneth Scott traveled to Sierra Leone for a 16-day tour of the country to make contacts to begin building the foundations for our projects there and throughout Africa. During that trip he had the opportunity to view real conditions on the ground in Freetown, capital city of Sierra Leone, and out in some of the provinces. The above scenes are photos taken from Kroo Bay, which is right in the middle of Freetown and it was these conditions that stimulated our firm resolve and intention to help the people of the country rebuild their lives and communities. This trip was the second attempt to initiate a vision and project that Andrea and Ken had conceived in the late 90s that they called “Diamonds Are For Life.” In the gem, diamond, and jewelry industry (in which Ken had been involved since 1977 and Andrea since they met in 1992) it was becoming known what was happening in Africa with the subject of “Blood Diamonds” and the use of illicit diamond trade to funds wars and other situations on the continent. Diamonds Are For Life was their answer to that situation, to establish a primary source for the mining of diamonds, create a vertical integration of the mine to consumer supply chain, and return most of the profits back to the People and the Land.
They attempted to start this project in South Africa with the purchase of a 50 square mile tract of diamond bearing land along the northwest coast. This attempt failed for lack of funding. But, as with all things PanTerra, an idea was seeded and it took root, to be nurtured along until we could start bringing it into bloom. So the idea stayed dormant for seven years until the trip to Sierra Leone could be done. Key relationships were established during that trip but the full concept did not come to fruition to implement the full plan. Since that time we have maintained the focus and intention to make it a reality and picked it up once again in 2018. This culminated in the writing of a master plan for the whole country, including the original concept of Diamonds Are For Life, but adding much more. The Executive Summary for this plan that was presented to the Sierra Leone Government in June of 2019 and it can be read below.
More has been added to this plan since that time and contacts and project agreements have now been set in place in more African countries, following this same model. Due to all of the disruptions and vicissitudes in the world since the beginning of 2020 the capital to initiate these plans and projects have been delayed, but are now in place, so that we can begin all of these projects along with building all of the essential infrastructure, teams, strategic alliances, and partnerships that will make it a reality starting in 2024. We are an unstoppable force that will never stop until we see these intentions realized in our time. Come join us if you will!
The photos on this page show the kind of deplorable conditions that tens of thousands of people are forced to live in now, due to the fact that approximately 1.5 million people were forced off of their ancestral homelands during the civil war that was all about the attempt to take over the country under the control of DeBeers and the Anglo-American mining conglomerate that has attempted to control all diamonds throughout the world. Most of these people were forced to come into Freetown where they now live in squalor and poverty. Our intention is to work with the people and the government to move the people out of this area and build new communities for them to return to their land, with interim staging relief set up outside of Freetown along the lines of our disaster relief programs.
