Have you ever wondered about the journey a gemstone makes before it adorns your favorite jewelry piece? Our guest, Rachel Merisheki from Gem Legacy, joins us to peel back the curtain on the world of East African gemstone mining. Highlighting her deep-rooted connection to the jewelry industry, Rachel shares the inspiring birth story of Gem Legacy, a non-profit that's empowering the backbone of the gemstone industry - the local miners.
Learn more about Gem Legacy's not-for-profit efforts: gemlegacy.org
Learn more about Gem Legacy's adventures: gemlegacyadventures.com
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Have you ever wondered about the journey a gemstone makes before it adorns your favorite jewelry piece? Our guest, Rachel Merisheki from Gem Legacy, joins us to peel back the curtain on the world of East African gemstone mining. Highlighting her deep-rooted connection to the jewelry industry, Rachel shares the inspiring birth story of Gem Legacy, a non-profit that's empowering the backbone of the gemstone industry - the local miners.
Learn more about Gem Legacy's not-for-profit efforts: gemlegacy.org
Learn more about Gem Legacy's adventures: gemlegacyadventures.com
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop. What is up everybody? My name is Michael Burpo. Thanks again for listening to In the Loop. This week we have a very special interview with Rachel Merischecki from Gem Legacy, and Gem Legacy is a not-for-profit that sets up local miners with small artisanal mines in East Africa, and they also educate small children and young adults to better pursue careers in either mining or gemology or being facetiers, and it's a fantastic talk about all the work that they're doing over there. And we also plug at the end their website but I definitely want to make sure I get it in the intro as well which is gemlegacyorg, and they have a lot of options for making small donations and where your dollars will be going. 100% of donations go directly towards the initiatives that they outline and I really hope that some of our listeners consider this, especially as we're about to go into the holiday season and Thanksgiving and everything, and everyone is going to be kind of trying to make their bread, and I hope that we at least take a moment to think about where our products come from. And it's a fantastic talk. I'll link everything in the show notes below, so maybe take a look at that while they're listening to this episode. Thanks, and enjoy this talk.
Speaker 1:This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the jewelry industry's favorite website platform. Whether you're looking for better e-commerce performance, business growth or campaigns that drive traffic and sales, punchmark's website and marketing services were made just for you. It's never too late to transform your business with a user-friendly, point-of-sale integrated website platform designed for growth and results. Sign up for your free demo today at punchmarkcom. While you're enjoying this week's episode, take a moment and leave us a star rating on the Spotify mobile app. Or, if you're on Apple Podcasts, leave us a star rating and a review. It's the best way to help us grow into show that you really enjoy in the show. Thanks, and now back to the show. What is up everybody? I'm joined by Rachel Mersecki with Gem Legacy and we're talking about an awesome initiative that you're a part of. Rachel. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:I am so excited to be here on the Loop Podcast. Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm so excited to get a chance to speak with you. Our common point of contact is actually Ben Smithy, who I think if you correct me if I'm wrong is on your board and he was one of actually the founding members of making this podcast. In the loop, and I you know, the Smithy group kind of has, you know, changed their approach and are no longer as involved in the Julia industry, so they aren't making the podcast with us on a day to day basis, but I believe he's still heavily involved in Gem Legacy.
Speaker 2:He has been on our board since the beginning and is still to this day and is just kind of the strategic thinker among the brains behind Gem Legacy. So we really appreciate that.
Speaker 1:So cool. So maybe we can jump in and you can kind of tell me first of all a little bit more about yourself, but also what it is that Gem Legacy is focused on doing.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Gem Legacy is a nonprofit. It's a charitable organization and our focus is really artisanal color gemstone mining communities in East Africa. So we're working in Tanzania and Kenya. We have three main focus areas vocational training, entrepreneurship and community development. I am the executive director. I really run it when we're on the ground with my husband, bjorn, who is from Tanzania and is a second generation Tanzanite miner, and our passion is really to see these artisanal colored gemstone mining communities flourish and equip them with the tools and education to do that.
Speaker 1:Wow, what a cool initiative. That's so exciting that you have also, you know, deep ties to the project as well. First of all, how did you get started getting involved with Gem Legacy in the beginning? Did you go on like a on a trip and just kind of stumble upon it, or is it something that you, for example, go to school for?
Speaker 2:Great question. I feel like everybody in the jewelry industry has this like story. How did you get there? Yeah, so I work with colored gemstones. My father or family owns a wholesale colored gemstone business, but really what brought me back to the industry was realizing that colored gemstones are having a hugely positive impact on people's lives and we as an industry are not really good at telling that story Also. So this was back in like 2017, 2018. There were actually a group of travelers visiting East Africa and they realized like, oh, we're all contributing back. What if the whole industry could really invest back into this and give back as our way of saying thank you? I mean, the rest of us wouldn't have jobs if miners stopped mining gems. So it was really by their inspiration and as I came back to the industry, I was really it was just on my heart to kind of make it happen and make it a platform for the whole industry to give back to, and so that's kind of really how we got started back in 2018.
Speaker 1:Man, that's so exciting. What a great kind of background and story. Because I think that sometimes we are kind of told that sometimes mining might have a negative impact not just on the environment but also on the local cultures as well, or that things have kind of like a a worse impact than what we are seeing on the Western world. But it seems like from the parts that you had just outlined, that there are a lot of benefits that come to these local communities that are responsible for mining in these countries.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think the storyline that flows in and out of our industry as a whole is blood diamond, you know. Still that's the thing that comes to consumers' minds. So that's diamonds which are very, very different supply chains. And it's not to say that there aren't some colored gemstones in the world that do have those challenges. That is absolutely true, but in East Africa. So actually there's a statistic that in Africa as a whole colored gemstones it's between 70 and 80 percent.
Speaker 2:There's some different studies, that kind of vary, but 70 to 80 percent of them are mined artisanally, meaning small-scale miners. They don't have outside investors, there's not a ton of funding coming in. They are local families, communities who are maybe even first farmers and second miners. So the tangible impact on their lives is something nobody knows how to quantify. I mean, even just when we are getting out in the bush into what is a mining region. For sure, but we're like, oh, this village wasn't here the last time we were going to deliver minor toolkits at this mine. But our local guide says, well, actually they recently found Savaret Garnet here. So now there's actually a village here, which means there's better infrastructure, there's more health care, there's new schools, there's more business opportunities. So all of these things happen as a natural result of colored gemstone mining?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that's kind of the original. Sometimes I've traveled out west, just in the US, and sometimes you'll see like, oh, this town was actually developed purely because they found a natural resource in these mountains and then, as a result, it developed like this population. I think that maybe we can tie this into like the first part of Gem Legacy's major focus, which is entrepreneurship. It sounds like there is a background in business for these communities. I mean, like you said, entire cities or towns being popped up seemingly overnight when it comes to finding these colored gemstones. Can you kind of walk me through what it is that Gem Legacy does to promote entrepreneurship in these communities?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. I would really say our heart behind our mission to support entrepreneurs or local miners is to say we believe in your work and we want to equip you so that you can get to a point where it is truly a success. So you are finding gemstones on a consistent basis. So if you look at kind of the trajectory, lots of miners and mine owners will kind of start working and then it kind of drops off after some time because it is really hard, it is expensive. There are a huge number of challenges, many of which we are still discussing. How do we best support the miners in these other ways? But the number one, most tangible way that they always ask for help is tools. And you might think are they already mining? Don't they already have tools? Like, how are they digging currently? So most of these miners, these are going to be the super artisanal ones.
Speaker 2:There are certainly mines that are a little bit higher level and they are really past the point of where we support them. So it is these new, young mines, where mines really have so little access to support or funding, that are using either broken farming implements or tools or they have purchased off or received from somebody shovels and picks like hand mining tools, and it is a little bit heartbreaking Many of them are so broken. They are really not, first of all, effective to use or safe to use, and so we found that that was, first of all, what they are asking for, but, second of all, something that felt like we could equip them with it and say we believe in you. This is a no strings attached, this is a gift. We want to just say we believe in what you are doing and we hope that this makes you more successful and continue to launch your mining operation, which is something that we are really passionate about as well. So any initiative that we have is based on a request that has been made to gem legacy.
Speaker 2:It is so easy sometimes, with our very western eyes, to go into situations and go, oh, they need this tool and they need this huge piece of equipment, but those may not be realistic for them and they may not be what they think they need. I think it is human nature. We are always like, well, you gave me something that is not what I need. I know what I think that I need, and so that is true even then. So our goal is really to equip them with what they need, pairing it with, like okay, things that we know and kind of putting all of that together. The result of that has been minor tool kits. So the kind of summary of it is it is $125 to provide a minor with a tool kit. Some of the items in there are shared, so, for example, a sieve Two people are going to use a sieve right, so that is kind of split between two people because they are going to partner up and team up to do that. And some larger pieces of equipment are going to be shared among four or six workers and so that includes really a variety of the basic tools that they would need, including headlamp and things like that for really safety. So that is kind of an average number. But the really cool thing about general legacy is we are able to really customize everything we do for every single place that we visit.
Speaker 2:So the minor tool kit program starts with we are actually going to assess the local area. We have partners on the ground who assist us with that, who really know the local mining areas and have networks and connections. They are going to find mines. They are going to go out and assess them or we will go out and assess them together and determine this. Mine really does not have access to outside investors or funding. They really need help. We are going to take a look at their tooling, their mining operation, all of that. We are going to give them some direction like, hey, underground, this is what we are seeing. Can we help you out? Let's look at this together. What tools do you need? And we are going to put together kind of what we see that they need, what they see that they need. Put it together kind of see where the stars align. We are going to return as long as they do meet our qualifications.
Speaker 2:We are going to return with those tools, make a delivery and, like I said, when we are doing that, the second half of our goal is really to encourage them. Can you imagine in our like microwave world? Here we have immediate gratification here in the US and they are working for weeks, months, years, even decades. We have heard stories of decades where they have mined without finding a gemstone. So they really believe in their work, like they are so passionate about it. If you ask a minor 10 times out of 10, I guarantee you will say, if I could pick another job, I would still pick my name. So it's like we want to say we believe in you. We on this side of the world we need you to keep mining, but also like we believe in you, so take these tools and be encouraged to continue working.
Speaker 2:So the minor toolkit program is fairly widely spread out around the two countries and we are continuing to expand it. It's kind of an evergreen initiative for us. Our goal is to just continue providing tools and then, a few months to a year after, we will revisit that mine where we delivered the tools, ask them was it helpful? What? How could we improve it? Do you need more of something? Should we change something? Just this summer a mine owner told us that you know the bottom of these SIVs. We really need a heavier duty material under there. Great, that's a change that we've made and we've also re-delivered to some mines so that they would have that. But it is really the most tangible way that we are able to kind of support that entrepreneurial world of miners.
Speaker 1:Man. What a really really cool, tangible way to help people. One quick question I have. So you mentioned Tanzanite is something that is being mined. What other gemstones are they are they searching for? Is it or is it primarily, I guess? I don't really know all of the names of the other colored gemstones.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we gem legacy does not work a lot with Tanzanite mining because those are of a much larger scale, often have investors. But the other colored gemstones found in the region would be Garnet, turmaline, zircon, aquamarine, ruby. Probably missing a few in there. Spanel probably still missing some. But that's a good Friday.
Speaker 1:And does the mining process for each of those vary at all, or is it typically it's the same thing and it just depends on which region you're in? Is what they're going to be finding, or is the process for mining for example, Garnet much different than Spanel?
Speaker 2:Really great question. So partially depends on region and partially depends on gem type. So a lot of times the same gem type will always develop in the same type of rock and at the same depth in the Earth's crust. So that is mostly true. So if we're in areas like Tonga and Eastern Tanzania, it is really all what we would call alluvial, so very low depth mining, and so they don't need to do a lot of like dynamite explosives. They're just able to do kind of at the surface mining. So it does vary, which is again why some tools that we would provide in toolkit don't apply to another mine. They don't need it. And so something that is really important to us if we're going to say to a donor we are asking you to help us fund this, we want to make sure that there is maximum impact from every single dollar a donor is giving to us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think now I can see kind of what you're talking about with just using, for example, like retrofitted farming equipment and how that could be like the entry point for them to start mining. But I can also see how using the right tools for the job could be such a massive improvement over, you know, using something that is not exactly well equipped to be doing what they're trying to be doing. Absolutely Yep. So maybe we can talk then about training. So this is the second part of the main focuses of Gem Legacy. When it comes to training, is it just about how to be using this farm equipment or, sorry, this mining equipment that you are extending to them with the miners toolkits, or is there more training that goes beyond just the actual mining process?
Speaker 2:So we would say that they're really the experts in mining and so we really leave how they're mining to them. There are other discussions GemLegacy is having of how do we better support them geologically understanding the rock, but really training-wise we're leaving that in their hands. Our focus on training we have had some gemological trainings in the past for local miners and dealers to understand first of all what they're mining, how to value it and then what they should be selling it for. But really GemLegacy's ongoing focus for training is really vocational training.
Speaker 2:We support a school this is on the Tanzania side, in Arusha, which is the closest big city to where Tanzania is mined and this is a vocational school that is for gemology and gemfasting. So it's a five month program and it's really mostly young adults who go through the program, which we love. It means we are opening opportunities for the next generation. We all know this education is kind of the key right that unlocks these opportunities. So we are always looking for and bringing in students to the school and then providing a scholarship for them to attend the five month program. Most of the five month program is really gemfasting, because that is a up and coming industry in East Africa. There is a huge demand for educated, capable gemcutters, because Tanzania requires some gems to be fasted before export and many other countries are looking to go in that direction. The other part of the scholarship would include gemology, gem identification and gem grading, gem sorting but really the main part of it is gemstone fasting.
Speaker 1:Man, what a really cool kind of. My grandpa always said that education they can never take it away, and I've always thought that it's like a surefire investment is that if you have it they will never be able to take it away and it will be hopefully evergreen. And, like you said, it's like that is the way to kind of unlock future opportunities for the next generation. And I think a lot of times we're focused on investing into kind of the generations that are a little bit more visible to us, which is older generations, but that you guys are getting in, I don't want to say on the ground floor, but getting in a younger age, so that you can see in many years of payoff, how long has gem legacy been in operation. It's probably a good question to start with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's been. This was our five year anniversary this year and I love what you're saying. It's really investing in people's lives and also sometimes what we think is like, wow, you can do that with that amount of money. It's only $750 for this five month scholarship. So we're really investing and equipping someone for an entire career and helping to place them in jobs with $750. One $750 scholarship is all I mean. A donor can sponsor an entire student for that.
Speaker 1:Man, what a really, really cool opportunity. And I guess, when it comes to one question I have, is part of the reason for faceting being done before exporting. You said that that's true for Tanzania. Is that so that they can lock in regional jobs for these people that are faceting, or is it just to make sure that there's no counterfeiting of the stones, or is there more to that? Great question.
Speaker 2:So there's a couple of countries around the world, Sri Lanka being a great example. They are a gem cutting center, have been for centuries, and they also require all gem export to be prefaceted. The benefit of that that Tanzania is kind of trying to capitalize on and other countries are looking to do as well. A couple of reasons they want us all to pay taxes on the gems we're exporting. The taxes on exporting their mineral resources is a huge source of income for an economy and a government like that. So obviously, if we're purchasing gemstones that are not faceted, they have a lower value, so it's called value addition. When we're cutting the gemstones, that's the value addition process. Now that they're faceted, we have to pay more for them. So first of all, we're paying more for them, so it's leaving more on the local economy. Second of all, now we're paying higher taxes because we've spent more money. And thirdly, the local jobs that are added to the economy through that process.
Speaker 1:For me. I have an idea. What type of lifestyles are these people coming to you from? Is this type of a position going to be considered like, for example, someone that is a gem faceted? Is that more of a blue color position, or is that going to be a position where people can have future wealth or the opportunity to set themselves and their children up for success in the future?
Speaker 2:This is really. I would say this is kind of a middle upper, middle class type of job. There are not a lot of jobs in East Africa that you have a job and it's a consistent job. A lot of it is really bouncing from job to job. There aren't so many jobs available. It's still a very agricultural economy and very entrepreneurial based economy, so to actually have a job is not something the majority of the population would be able to say. So we are really equipping them for an industry that's growing. It needs more people and you're actually equipping them for a job that they would be able to support their family on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and especially because it's tied to the success of their country as well. Just keeping the success where it's found seems like a great thing.
Speaker 2:And there's another initiative we haven't talked about yet but ties back in here. So we are actually bringing kids. They're now young adults, ready to attend college, but they've attended one of the schools that we support. That's another one of our initiatives. They attended it as primary school, like our elementary school. They've gone on to secondary school. They are ready for an education or a career, and so we're able to sponsor them to come to town and actually attend the school.
Speaker 2:So it's like this full circle kids from a young region Life cycle. Yes, it's so cool.
Speaker 1:Wow, maybe that kind of ties into the last major focus point, the third one, which is community. It sounds like you guys are deeply invested in these. I guess I hate to use the term town, because I know that there's a lot of differentiation between towns and cities, but it sounds like you guys are deeply invested in the communities that you are finding the or helping set up these mines in. What are you seeing when it comes to visiting a town and starting to set them up for success, and how does that pay off over the years?
Speaker 2:Yeah, when a community starts finding gemstones in the region, first of all there is a huge rush of people that'll kind of peter off over time and there's so many things that need to get set up, but sometimes the kids are the part that kind of get left behind and they don't get brought in on that beneficiation. So the initiatives that sit under our community development kind of header really seek to bring in the marginalized in color gemstone mining communities, so the people who don't naturally and organically receive that beneficiation. So a great example is the Kitterini Primary School. This is in Northern Tanzania and it is in a ruby mining region and this has boomed in the last 10 years or so but it has existed for quite some time. So this school is so cool, just the kind of trajectory it's been on. So they had about 500 kids and there was a USAID program that was providing lunch every day and so the school's up at 500 kids. But that program ended, the money ran out and ran out, and so they were no longer providing lunch. The attendance rate at that school went down to 100 kids, and so that's really when we became involved and is one of the reasons why, to this day, something really near and dear to our heart is when we're going to commit to a community, an initiative, a school, whatever it may be. That is an open-ended commitment. We have done enough research to say we feel like we and the community can work well together. Our goals are aligning, everything is paralleled, we have a singular focus. Until the day that that doesn't feel like that's true anymore. But there is no opportunity for us to say, yep, this is a five-year program and then we're backing out because in situations like this, they are becoming a little bit dependent on us. A goal of GEM Legacy is that we would not have anybody dependent on us. We want to equip them and launch them forward. You know we don't want to have them need us, but in cases like this we want to. This is our investment in education.
Speaker 2:So after we took over the program and instituted breakfast and lunch which was a very strategic move the attendance rate is now over 900 kids, wow. So this area is like very nomadic. It's the Maasai tribe. They're one of the most famous tribes in Africa. They're very nomadic but for the first time in their history, because of Rooney Mining, they're like semi-permanently living somewhere. So for the first time, their kids actually could go to school because they're semi-permanently in one region but it's not traditionally part of their culture.
Speaker 2:So we discovered that by providing breakfast and lunch, the parents were really motivated to send their kids to school because they didn't have to feed them. There's two meals provided. Breakfast meant that the kids actually get their own time, and lunches actually started the end of the school day to motivate them to stay the entire school day. Wow, but this is actually motivating kids to go to school and parents for the first time are like, oh, there's another opportunity for my child and they may grow up and they may go back and help, you know, tend the herds and that may be what they do when they grow up and we love that. But now that they know that there's another opportunity for them, they could choose that if they wanted to. So this is just like we love sharing about these kids. I mean, when we first took over the program, it was under 10% passing for their annual examination rates, which you need in order to pass on to like what would be our equivalent of middle or high school, and now they're over 90% the last five years.
Speaker 2:So it's like just the testament to. $25 a year feeds a kid. You could feed one child for $25 for one year and that means that's another year. A child is attending school and has the chance opportunity to get to higher education.
Speaker 1:Man. That's such a valuable impact. It just goes to show the importance of man. I hate to even bring this up, but especially in the US, man, I really hope that people get more on board with free school lunches. It's so important and you can see it with the impact on how it's brought up, your guys' attendance and also just motivated students. I think it's so important. So, rachel, I think we'll take a quick break and we'll come back in just a moment with a word from our sponsor. All right, everybody, are you ready to take your online presence to the next level?
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Speaker 1:That's C-Y-B-E-R and let them know in the loops at you. It makes me look good. Thanks Back to the show. Alright, everybody, we're back. Thanks for listening to that. It makes me look good. Alright, I'm still talking with Rachel Mersecki from Jim Legacy and we're talking about the impact you guys have had in the surrounding areas, of whether you guys have helped set up these minds, and also about the focus on the future and what you guys can do and how you guys are kind of maybe angling the program to better support these communities. What is it that's kind of like next on your agenda? Is it more of the same increasing enrollment around with these schools, or is it even something further than that?
Speaker 2:So I have kind of a two prong answer to that. One is like the big scope for the future and one is something that we're actually launching right now and it's kind of urgent and urgent need for the miners in East Africa. The big picture first is really we have found kind of a template. These same needs are true all over East Africa and all of these communities, whether it's miners or kids or education. So our goal is really to we've found this template. Let's expand it, let's broaden where we're working and who we're helping, because a lot of these communities we've found our rhythm, like it's a well-oiled machine, we are working well together and so really our focus right now is expansion, using the same things but in new areas and new regions of color gemstone mining. So we will really be traversing the bush to get out there and meet new mining communities. The minor toolkits are really our first foray into a community setting that up the logistics of making sure everybody's happy, is everyone getting what they're needing, are we working well together through that? And then conversations continue of what are the other parts of your community that we could step in and assist with and help to launch, whether that is entrepreneurship or the marginalized kids or education for the future. So that's really our long-term scope.
Speaker 2:Right now, literally at this moment, you may have heard of the weather predictions for the and so is the overall term, but it's like the La Nina, el Nino weather patterns that happen every two to seven years and apparently I am not a weather specialist. So from our recent learnings we've discovered that several different organizations are predicting apparently an 80% which is higher than normal chance of this El Nino being much worse than normal, in addition to some weather situations that are developing over the Indian Ocean. All of that combined means that Eastern part of Africa is at that over 80% risk for flooding and washout levels of rain. So the past several years this part of the world has been in a pretty extreme drought. So water insecurity is also something we are constantly looking at. How do we help these miners? But right now we're gonna flip to the other end of this spectrum. There is gonna be so much rain or that's the 80% prediction we are hoping that this does not actually happen, but since that's higher than normal predictions level that they give it, we are looking at how do we help these miners.
Speaker 2:We need to put prevention plans in place because flooding can be absolutely it can destroy my I mean quite literally, it can destroy years of work because they do not have the equipment to suck the water back out of there.
Speaker 2:So we have just launched our flood prevention plan and it is live on the website if you wanna take a look. So really, we are gonna be doing this in person. We are gonna be getting out as many mines as possible, providing information on the flooding situation and how to help put those measures in place at your mind to protect yourself. Then we're also gonna be providing shovels to actually move dirt and build some trenches, and then you also want a runoff to redirect the water away from the entry to your mine. A lot of these mines are also gonna have multiple entries and then providing bags, so like a sand bagging solution really to like block water from entering that top entry. And then, since there's gonna be a lot of rain and water insecurity is a major issue, we will be providing, like huge water storage containers for them to actually let's harvest this water and capitalize on this, since this is not this is the opposite problem that we normally have.
Speaker 2:It is $160 to provide all of this for one mine, so it's fairly inexpensive. Obviously, they're gonna have to put their manpower behind it for some time to really prepare their mines, but this is urgent like this is projected to be over the next six months. So we want to get these things in the hands of the miners and prepare them as quickly as possible we would. Our hope is that we provide all of this and we won't actually need it. The great thing is all the tools we're giving them they need anyway. They will repurpose them in their mining operations, no matter what, our hope is that we give them all.
Speaker 2:They don't need it, but we would rather them have it than not.
Speaker 1:Man. So for just $160, you guys are able to have support and stabilize one mine. That's fantastic, and maybe perhaps you can list off the other ones. I think you said it was 125 for the miners toolkit. What are the other like bulk prices that you had mentioned before, just in case people want to eye those as well?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I will list them and then if you go on the donation page on our website it will actually list for you, like which of these items would you like to donate to? You can obviously donate another amount, but it helps you kind of see that visually as well. So a couple of quick ones. We talked about the breakfast and lunch program. So $25 feeds, breakfast and lunch, one student for one year. Coming up in December we'll have our second annual career fair. So the kids who had attended that primary school they don't really talk about like what careers could you have? That's something we talk about here in the States and not something they talk about and we wanted to bring awareness to you could actually enter all these other fields. Not all of them require a college education, but we can help you with our scholarship program. So $20 means a student can attend the career fair. That means we're bringing in a ton of professionals from the local city out to the bush. We're gonna provide transportation and food for them as well as lunch for the students who attend the career fair. So that's $20.
Speaker 2:The miner toolkit was 125. It varies a little bit because we do customize it. That's kind of our lump sum amount Back to those students who receive the breakfast and lunch after they graduate from that school. We also provide scholarships for them to go on to secondary school, again like our equivalent of middle or high school. That is $125 for them. To go on to the next level of education, the gem faceting and gemology training, that five month program which is largely young adults attending, that is $750. And then the one we just finished with was the flood prevention, for one, mine is $160. And that will include us coming in person to provide those things, including sharing what this weather phenomenon is and how to protect themselves.
Speaker 1:So and again, that's gemlegacyorg, and we'll have all the information in the show notes below.
Speaker 1:We're gonna be releasing this most likely the week of Thanksgiving, and I can't think of anything better than to give back or kind of focus on something a little bit more for people that might not be as fortunate as ourselves. A lot of our listeners are Western. A lot of our listeners are doing very well for themselves. I think that finding a way to give back, especially for something that is deeply connected to our industry I mean, we talk about buying and selling these very expensive objects all the time, perhaps supporting and kind of giving a moment to think about where they come from is worth a kind of passing moment in the next time that you guys open up your phones. We'll have a link to it in the show notes below. If you guys want to donate there and you know what, if you guys, you know, mentioned in the loop in your guys donation I don't know if that's even possible and send it to us, we will send you something special. I don't know what it'll be yet, but we will send it to you. It'll be great.
Speaker 2:Anything else, rachel, before we wrap this up, yeah, something I want anyone to know who's considering donating to Gem Legacy. I'm pretty sure that this is the beginning. It's our favorite thing to talk about. 100% of every single donation dollar goes directly to our initiatives. We do not take out any fees, nothing. So the entire amount you choose to donate whether that is on our website, mailing us a check, you know, find the email on there. If you want to do a wire transfer, the entire amount goes directly to your initiative that you choose and that is dedicated to that fund. Which brings me to the way we're able to do that.
Speaker 2:The way we cover kind of our operating expenses is through Gem Legacy Adventures. This is a for-profit company and you basically you can join us in East Africa and see all these things firsthand. Go inside some colored gemstone mines, go on an animal safari, play with kids. It's an amazing experience and the profit from that essentially covers all of Gem Legacy's operating expenses. It has remained important for us to have that level of transparency with our donors and we want to hold that. We want to hold that really safely. So join us. The website is gemlegacyadventurescom Again, for-profit company. All the information is on there.
Speaker 2:Our next trip is August 3rd to 13th of 2024. We really walk you through everything what to pack, how to prep, you know what the dates will look like, all those fun things. But it is an incredible experience. If you are a professional and jewelry industry, this gives you the credibility that you have seen it with your own eyes and it is, I would say anybody who's ever joined us would say it is life-changing. I mean the perspective you have on an industry that you may have worked in for decades but you've never, you know, seen this stuff before. So definitely join us.
Speaker 2:And the other thing is, if you go on the website, you are also able to sponsor individual students for their meals for the year. You can see their picture and their name. Sponsor them if you're going to you know they're going to go on to secondary school the students who are attending the gem fasting gemology school. Again, you can sponsor each one of them individually. And as the holiday season rolls out, we will be bringing some of our kind of holiday specials. So we didn't even get a chance to talk about the children's home, but we have 40 kids who live in a children's home in a gem mining region. We'll be doing special Christmas gifts for them. So lots of Christmas themed stuff coming out, as we want to make it special for them.
Speaker 1:Wow, you guys have so much cool stuff going on and it really seems like you guys are making a difference, especially because the effects are so tangible. Sometimes I feel like you know, if you donate money for you know, right now it's October, it's breast cancer awareness money a month and it's like you know, making donations to that Sometimes I feel like man. It's so, it's so nimblous, I don't know what effect I'm having, but this is so great to hear that there is a tangible effect. You know, the fact that for a small donation that you can have, you can pay for the meals for a student for, you know, for his year, is so exciting and inspiring and I hope that you guys continue to do well. I'll have the link to both those websites below and I really love it if you guys could, you know, thank that and make sure that you guys, you know, at least give a moment to think about where your resources are coming from.
Speaker 2:Rachel, thank you so much for having us. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for coming on and perhaps we can do a follow up in the future and hear more about the successes you guys are sharing.
Speaker 2:That'd be amazing. Thank you so much again, Michael.
Speaker 1:All right, everybody, we'll be back next week. Talk to you soon. Bye, All right, everybody. That's it for the show. Thanks so much for listening. A little bit more of a thought provoking and heartfelt episode, but I really enjoy making ones like this.
Speaker 1:This week's episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, Michael Burpo. My guest this week was Rachel Merchecki from Gem Legacy, and all of the information about Gem Legacy is not for profit. As well as their for profit, Gem Legacy adventures will be in the show notes below. Maybe consider making a donation, especially around the holiday season, and having your dollar really help and kind of influence the future of the industry. You know, I think it's a really nice way to kind of bring some wholesomeness to the holidays. If you like episodes like this, maybe leave me some feedback on punchmarkcom slash loop that's L-O-U-P-E or you know what. If you want to maybe consider sharing this episode or an episode that you really like with someone else, especially around this time we're all working late hours, Perhaps. Maybe this will give someone some company. Thanks so much. We'll have one more episode next week before we take a break. Cheers.