A special grant from the World Bank has enabled Mothers for All to send our first orphaned school leaver, Oratile, on a year's training course in IT and book-keeping as well as buy a special diamond drill to make threading holes in local semi-precious stones to include in our jewellery.

One of our mother's groups is based in Bobonong, a village in eastern Botswana. Within the dry river bed running through this particular village there are thousands of semi-precious agates hidden inside ordinary looking rocks. These have been collected for years by local villagers and put through a tumbling machine to make them smooth and bring out their beautiful colours. However, there has not been much of a market for them as the villagers did not have the special equipment needed to drill holes through the stones without shattering them. Mothers for All, with our special diamond drill, will now be able to buy these stones, drill holes and incorporate these unique agates into our range of jewellery.

Here is Oratile with some of our mothers' products. She aims to return to work for Mothers for All once she has qualified.