August 2010 - Chief Sahr Konodea

AGE: 30yrs PRESENT OCCUPATION: Youth Leader/Farmer at The Greener Diamond Farm, Kono, Sierra Leone

Born in Thenedu village, Gbense Chiefdom in the Kono District. Attended primary school and dropped out due to lack of support. Parents were poor and cannot afford the cost of paying school fees. Got him engaged in mining as a labourer till when the RUF rebels attacked Kono and seized control of the diamond rich district.

Lost his father during the attack in Kono and was captured by the fighting forces (Sylvester Group) and given a weapon to fight. Spent three (3) years in captivity, escaped from the rebels and later fell into the hands of a local militia known as the Kamajors.The Kamajors were an auxiliary force to the Sierra Leone army using black magic to fight and flush out the rebels. Spent another two wasteful years with the Kamajors and when the disarmament and reintegration process started, he benefited from that and got back to normal civilian life. With no father and mother both of whom he lost during the war, he now takes his own responsibilities.

Decided to go back to the village and settle. Formed the Youth group in the chiefdom, mobilized colleges and choose to go into agriculture as an alternative means of survival.

Now married with two children.

August 2010 - Doris Kaigbanja

AGE: 18yrs  PRESENT OCCUPATION: Youth Farmer at The Greener Diamond Farm, Kono, Sierra Leone.

Born in Gbense Kandor Chiefdom in the Kono District. Attended primary school and secondary school dropped out due to lack of support. Father got blind when she was at the age of 10yrs.

She lost her mother when she was very young and when the father got blind, there was no one to support her. She will help neighbors around with their domestic work to get food and soap to wash her clothes and also help the father from the remnants she collects.

She was captured by the RUF rebels in Kono, disvirgined and turned into a sex slave. During her years of captivity, she was raped by a number of rebels when she attempted to escape, tied and beaten and spent days without food. She was impregnated during the process and gave birth to a baby but the baby was killed during a cross fire.

Got freed due to the amnesty declared and the signing of the LOME Peace Accord. Struggling for survival with no parents, had a boyfriend with whom she spent few years, got impregnated and was abandoned and left to take care of the pregnancy. Now living with the baby with little hope of making a brighter future in life. Joined The Greeener Diamond agriculture project as a way to engage her into something productive that can earn her some income to take care of her child. End of Story.

August 2010 - Ezekiel Komba

AGE: 28yrs PRESENT OCCUPATION: Youth Secretary/Farmer at The Greener Diamond Farm, Kono, Sierra Leone.

Born in Gbense Kandor Chiefdom in the Kono District. Attended primary school and dropped out due to lack of support.

Lost both parents during the war, captured by the RUF rebels and spent three (3) years and was recruited into the fighting force. Led several attacks in villages as a junior commander, killing people and taking away food and properties to their base.

Got seriously ill in captivity and almost died due to lack of medication, good food and pure drinking water but later recovered.

He escaped from his captors and later lived with an uncle who cannot cope living with an ex-rebel junior commander. Decided to go and live in the street, doing odd jobs in the markets to make a living.

Later decided to go back to his village and joined colleges who are desirous to find a solution to their unemployment problems by engaging into agriculture.

Now serving as secretary of the group.

June 10 2008 - Anonymous

My African friend was a bit reluctant to talk about his story. He does ask that if you use his story on your website, he would prefer to remain anonymous, as he still fearful. This is about as much as he wanted to contribute, and I translated sentence by sentence, which sometimes did not make a lot of sense, but he was very emotional throughout and I did not want to loose that. I know that I had a very personal conversation about this with him afterwards, and he deeply expressed that from what he knows about Diamonds (ironically he is now a Geologist and professor at a University), they are not as rare as people think they are.

His point was that De Beers is rich for a reason........and that reason is tied to the Civil War.

My Story:

I was born to the Mende people in 1972 in Sembe Liberia and only a short distance of 17 Kilometers from Sierra Leon. I was a son born into a family of 14 other children. Our family was large with many uncles and aunts and cousins. My life is a sad story of fighting, loss and running always looking back over my shoulder.

I was just a young teenager when the civil war broke out in my country, and things are still bad there today. I have lost several toes and fingers and was brutalized before being smuggled out of this country to live with relatives in France. Everything revolved around the war and how to fund it. I lost half of my family in the early 90's and have been part of this conflict through smuggling diamonds abroad to safe zone to be sold as conflict free diamonds, just so that the moneys earned can support the war. In some way or another any diamond that is mined in my country, supports the war directly or indirectly.

One of my uncles was laborer for De Beers mining process and knows that indirectly everyone takes a cut; diamonds are just too important to women globally so honest people turn dishonest and are wanting to profit. Money is a bad motivator and robberies are very common and disfigurement of family members to get diamond trade is very much intact today.

I still have family in parts of Africa and some of them work for De Beers who know what is going on. We hate them but we rely on them for money and assistance. Although they have done a lot of good for our country, they are also part of the problem. If De Beers would not have made diamonds in big advertising campaigns, the "not so rare" diamond would be not so much money and could not support the war.

September 2007 - Nina Scheinman

After I returned from Sierra Leone, many of my friends asked me “Did you have fun?” This is a difficult question to answer because Sierra Leone is not a place you go to have fun. No, it is not fun to see children playing in rivers of trash, or to meet 18 year old mothers living in displacement camps, or have your heart broken time and time again by stories of child soldiers, rape, and mutilation. It isn’t fun knowing that even the littlest bit will help, but once you give that, you feel hopeless because that little bit is hardly enough to help the thousands who need it. So I explain to them that it wasn’t fun like their term abroad in Spain or France, but at the same time it was absolutely incredible. An experience I gained more from than any other in my entire life.

July 2006 - Mona (In fear, Mona will not give us her last name)

I know of family heads that would leave their families to look for diamonds, sometimes for months and sometimes they would never come back. If they did make it back they would have many horror stories. If they find a diamond sometimes they would swallow it so that no one would take it from them, then they would go sell it to the local towns where a buyer would be waiting. The buyers don’t care where the diamonds come from and the sellers just need the money to survive. Eastern Congo use to be the most peaceful part of the Congo. Now, rape is endemic, commonplace. If there weren’t so many natural resources, the war couldn’t keep going, but since there are resources they can be traded for guns and money. Everything is so chaotic with the war. If you have money, you can do whatever you want.