But of all places, why Sierra Leone?

It all began about 5 years ago with a young man from Sierra Leone, Aruna, who came to speak at Flood (Flood is the church in Sacramento where my husband and I would later meet). Aruna was speaking on behalf of Children of the Nations… a non-profit we hope to visit in Sierra Leone (http://www.COTNI.org).

After church that night, Sam offered Aruna a ride to dinner with a big group from church… little did he know that ride would change all of our lives forever.

Aruna told Sam about growing up in the midst of a brutal war… where rebels would kidnap children and force them to kill… where babies' hands were cut off simply to promote fear… and where diamonds fueled war.

This was years before the movie Blood Diamond was filmed and Sam was floored by the idea of conflict diamonds. He had worked in the jewelry industry for most of his life and had never even heard of the concept. He immediately felt socially responsible.

Fast forward a couple of years… I moved to Sacramento. Sam told me about Aruna not long after we met. He was so passionate about doing something to benefit the diamond producing countries of Africa (specifically Sierra Leone). Needless to say, Sam's passion for Africa quickly became my passion for Africa… and I decided to find a direction for that passion.

I started by turning our wedding into a sort-of African charity event. Our favors were World Vision gifts of fish ponds, wells, and orchards for villages in Africa (http://www.worldvision.org). We also collected money during our "Money Dance" to donate to Children of the Nations (http://www.COTNI.org). .

Fast-forward to early this year… I did a story on a good friend of ours who had covered the violent civil war in Kenya for the New York Times (Micah Albert, Photojournalist). You can see the story at (http://www.kcra.com/kenya).

Hearing Micah's stories made me realize that Sam and I were being called to do more than just donate to charities. Inspired, I contacted World Vision in the hopes that they could get me into Kenya. Unfortunately it was too dangerous, but they put me in touch with their media liaison in Oakland, Angela. It was Angela who encouraged me to go somewhere the media wasn't. She pointed out that everyone goes to Kenya and Sudan and the Congo… but there are so many other stories out there that aren't being told. She looked at a map and randomly threw out, "How about Sierra Leone?"

Obviously I immediately thought of Sam & Aruna and jumped at the idea. We had been talking about doing a combo vacation/mission trip, so I figured why not shoot a series of stories and make it a trifecta!

At that time I didn’t understand the significance Sierra Leone, I just knew we had to go. The more I learn about the people and their amazing resilience, the more I realize the importance of this journey. These are stories that need to be told… that could potentially impact the future of an entire continent… and should absolutely be significant to every woman with a diamond and every man who considers buying one.