Charity Support
Diamond Development Initiative
Holloway Diamonds have supported DDI financially for close to a decade.
Man made diamonds are now commercially viable and less expensive than natural diamonds. ‘Lab grown diamonds’ (LGD) are marketed as protecting artisanal miners, however that is an oversimplification. The work that DDI and the Kimberely process are doing is improving the livelihoods of millions of poor people faced with few other options.
Artisanal mined diamonds are a main livelihood for more than 1.5 million miners in 18 countries in Africa and South America, supporting around 10 million family members. Artisanal miners earn very little and often work illegally and under terrible conditions; violence and child labour are common, and environmental damage is caused by stripping topsoil.
DDI has 8 principles covering legality, consent and community engagement, human and worker’s rights, health and safety, violence-free operations, environmental management, interactions with large-scale mining and site closure and environmental restoration. Each of these principles is measurable against a list of acceptable audit evidence. The standards have received broad acceptance in Sierra Leone, the basis for the Blood Diamond movie, and they’re now ready for implementation across the other African and South American countries.
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Mum worked on lots of street stalls and charity boards, shook tins for Red Cross etc. She took donation to delivery efficiency seriously. Holloway Diamonds have an open door for donations of jewelry for raffles and door prizes to local state schools, kindergartens, but not sports clubs or private schools.
My most controversial donation was $5,000 in 2017 to the Sudanese youth basketball team (some of the players robbed my Canterbury store twice and attempted to rob the Brighton store). Most applauded, some thought it opportunistic.
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Founding board member of the Australian Fronto-Temporal Dementia Association (and current chair). My second wife Drena was diagnosed with a younger onset dementia (FTD) in 2009 and has lived in an aged care home since 2012. I was an initial member of a carer support group and together with some other carers and a group of medical professionals we started AFTDA in 2012. In 2018 our chairman mentioned to the chair of Alzheimers Australia that the name should be changed to Dementia Australia. AA became DA in 2018 and AFTDA handed its responsibility and management of the then half a dozen carer groups around Australia. We continue to monitor the transition which so far has gone very well.
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Local Donations
We began keeping a record of a few years ago:
2015
Indigo Foundation
The Royal Melbourne Hospital Neuroscience Foundation
Make A Wish Foundation
Children First Foundation
Sandringham Hospital
2016
MS
Children First Foundation
Boroondara Park Primary School
2017
Australian Humanitarium Aid
St Vincents Institute of Medical Research
Children First Foundation
Black Rhinos Basket Ball team
2018
Children First Foundation
2019
St Vincents Institute of Medical Research
Children First Foundation
Red Cross Bushfire Appeal
2020
Victorian Bushfire Appeal
