Like many resource-rich African countries, Zambia’s mineral wealth leaves the country ton-by-unprocessed-ton.

A businessman from Marietta, Georgia, is teaching jewelry making to women in an impoverished Zambian village, helping them create jobs and export more than unprocessed stones, the MariettaDailyJournal reports.

The women are transforming recycled copper and semi-precious gems into finished jewelry, then selling it to consumers in Finland.

Doug Meadows, owner of David Douglas Diamonds in Marietta, was inspired to start a school for entrepreneurs after he attended a 10-day gem-seeking and business-conference trip in in 2011 in Africa.

Meadows went first to Uganda, then Zambia, where he conducted a workshop for women.

Men dominated most of the conferences Meadows attended with the goal of ensuring “a fair trade, where miners are taken care of,” he said.

Dawn Bridget Close is a missionary for the Foundation for the Realization of Economic Empowerment. Close said she realized the local people weren’t profiting much from their resources. When she heard from a mutual friend that Doug was a jeweler, she suggested he put on a seminar for jewelry, gemstones and mining for Zambian women.

“Zambia is abounding in mineral wealth, but it is literally leaving the country by the ton — unprocessed,” Close said.

Meadows said it wasn’t his intention to create jewelers, but he knew Close worked to empower women.

Meadows went to Africa with a suitcase full of tools for jewelry making. He ordered a new drill so the women would have a drill with the right voltage.

Fifty-three women showed up for the seminar.

They learned how to use donated tools including files, saws, pliers, hammers and
a variety of jewelry-making tools. It blossomed into a business for the women.

Close said she asked Meadows to teach some basic jewelry-making techniques in order to inspire the women to realize they could do more than just export uncut stones.

“It was a revelation for all of us to realize what could be done with the resources we have,” Close said.

Women living in an impoverished village can now transform recycled copper and semi-precious gems into finished jewelry, then sell to consumers in Finland, Meadows said. Their products and story are online at www.free-zambia.org, she said.

Meadows said the women were so enthusiastic they asked Close to call Meadows, asking to learn more.

In July 2013, Close traveled to Atlanta and spent time with Meadows learning more techniques. She passed those on to the women.

Meadows said he has successfully taught jewelry-making skills in other projects in Africa, but lack of education about business caused a group of Kenyans to fail.

Teaching jewelry-making skills wasn’t enough to succeed, Meadows said. Entrepreneurs
needed to learn business and marketing skills. They could learn a skill, but needed to learn money management and how to build a business plan, he said.

Now Meadows has a new goal: to start an entrepreneurship school to make job creators instead of job seekers, he said.

During his last trip to Kenya, Meadows identified an opportunity to work with an orphanage to develop a school.

He said he was surprised to see teenagers in orphanages and decided to start a school for orphaned children ages 14 to 18, teaching them a trade as well as business skills.

“The school that we are setting up will be a web-based school for orphans in Nakuru, Kenya,” he said. A physical school will exist at the orphanage.

Meadows said he used a model that worked for teaching pastors biblical skills through mini
conferences supported with online training at Lifeschool International.

“The model worked well and I applied it toward business,” Meadows said.

The business school will go beyond teaching basic business skills. Entrepreneurial and
character skills will be taught using biblical principals.

“Our goal is to help develop job creators, not just job seekers and change a generation,” he said.