The Moyo Garnet Chubby Ring features a hexagon garnet surrounded by pave diamonds and carved turquoise. The garnet was mined in Kenya and brought back to the US to be cut by Beth Stier in Michigan before making its way to Emily to find its rightful home in a beautifully designed Chubby Ring.

This ring is particularly special because the stone came from Moyo Gems, an organization supporting female miners in East Africa that redirects the access to education and wealth from the male-dominant industry into the hands of the women of the artisanal gem-mining workforce.

Moyo, which means 'heart' in Swahili, strives to improve the realities for women artisanal miners located in the Tanga region of Tanzania. Moyo Gems does more than buy the gems from women artisanal miners: Moyo invests in gemological education, formalization, and a sustainable international market and demand for their gems.

Each gem is traceable to the individual miner who unearthed it, who receives 95% of the export price of the gems, about 3-10 times more than they were making in traditional local trading.

Supporting women miners is important. Approximately 80 - 90% of the world’s colored gemstones come from artisanal and small scale miners. Women miners make up an estimated 30% of the total artisanal miners in all mining sectors, yet they fall far behind their male counterparts in terms of access to markets, access to education about gemology and basic business skills, and the price received for their hard-won gemstones.

You can learn more about Moyo Gems here and read more about Emily's efforts to effect change in the jewelry industry here.