Broken in Angola

It was already a long morning at work when John began running seven miles without stopping to take a breath. He felt like collapsing, but he kept going. His goal was to reach the local hospital as quickly as he could.

All he had on his mind was his wife, the one person he could fall back on.

Once he reached the entrance doors to the hospital, he finally stopped to collect himself. He felt terribly weak, but he knew he had to overcome these feelings. Only an hour ago, he was terribly shaken by the news he heard from his co-workers. They were speculating that an explosion had occurred in the village’s central market. John was so troubled because he knew that his wife enjoys spending her mornings there looking for fresh produce.

Five minutes after arriving to the hospital, John takes a deep breath and puts on his best face before marching inside the hospital. He looks around, noting how small and modest the hospital is. He immediately spots the main desk to his left and rushes to ask the man behind the counter if a woman matching his wife’s description, with caramel-colored eyes and short black hair, was rushed to the hospital this morning. The man nods and John feels his heart immediately sink. He runs from door-to-door, checking all of the female patients at the hospital.


Fifteen minutes later, he is confused but relieved.

Exhausted, yet filled with adrenaline, he begins to run back home. He never ran so much in a single day. Weak at his knees, he finally arrives home and falls to the ground with joy when he sees his wife, as beautiful as ever.

She helps him up and they embrace each other, holding on for several minutes before exchanging a single word.

She looks at him with painful eyes and bravely tells him the truth: she was only a short distance away from the explosion when it occurred. They both painfully smiled at each other.

After settling down, John and his wife decided to plan a visit to her sisters, something they’ve been wanting to do all year. Money was tight, but it seemed like the right time.


Three weeks later, however, on the day before John and his wife planned to leave, he found himself at the hospital again.

This time, luck was not on their side.

On this particular day, John was left to plan a completely different event — his wife’s funeral.


Unfortunately, extreme violence and terrorism is common in many parts of Africa, including where John is from — Angola. Political unrest between the government and rebel groups has led to civil wars all over Africa. Among the affected areas, the civil conflicts in seven countries, including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Angola, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo have most notably been fueled by conflict diamonds. During war, innocent civilians live in terror, fearing for their lives and their loved ones.

According to Global Witness, during the civil war from 1998 to 2003 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, over three million lives were lost because of conflict diamonds. In Angola, at least 500,000 people died. In Sierra Leone, at least 50,000 people lost their lives, without even taking into consideration all of the civilians who suffered mutilation, rape, torture, and abduction. And in Liberia, where the population is only roughly 4.6 million people, the small country had already endured two civil wars with a three-year gap between them. There, an estimated 200,000 people died because of conflict diamonds.

Conflict diamonds play a role in all of these countries because they intensify civil wars by financing militaries and rebel militias. Rebel groups, who must finance the high costs associated with fighting a war, have found diamonds to be the solution to their financial problems.

Conflict diamonds, which are most commonly known as blood diamonds, are also referred to as hot diamonds, red diamonds, and war diamonds. These types of diamonds have clearly earned their nicknames as they have financed so many terrorist attacks and other militaristic operations.

In addition to the most obvious effects of imminent violence, including death and fatal injury, blood diamonds have caused many other problems. In order to find diamonds, local civilians are often forced to quit their jobs and daily lives to work at mines, where they must search for diamonds in harsh and brutal conditions. Many are treated in slave-like conditions, working for long hours without just compensation (and in some cases, no compensation).

Children, especially boys, are often targeted and exploited for these mining jobs. According to a study completed at Harvard on child miners in Sierra Leone, “Seven years after the end of a civil war that targeted children for atrocities, hundreds of children and youth are exploited daily as they labor in open-pit diamond mine.” Clearly, even with the demise of a civil war, conflict diamonds continue to play major role in fragile communities.

In sum, conflict diamonds equate to countless losses. Innocent individuals lose their limbs, families lose their loves ones, and communities are shattered over the loss of basic yet essential infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and homes. John, like many others, lost a precious and irreplaceable person in his life; and worst of all, he continues to live in daily fear that all of his family could be gone the next day.

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Disclaimer: All names and details have been created to illustrate real-life conditions, as they were researched, recorded, and understood by our team at Pure at Birth in our effort to educate and inform those more fortunate about how blood diamonds have affected thousands of innocent individuals. Our ultimate goal is to help you visualize what others are going through, so we can spread awareness and bring about positive change, together.


This blog post was made possible by Pure at Birth.

Pure at Birth spreads awareness about conflict minerals for the next generation through the use of cultivated diamonds in its pendants. Each purchase helps give a second-chance to those destroyed by the blood diamond industry. You can view the pendants here.

Thank you for reading our story. ❤

Brenda R. | Blogger for Pure at Birth

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Pure at Birth sells pendants that give back. Check out our cause at www.pureatbirth.com ❤

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