Coumba Sylla
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/ 26 July 2006

Website helps people living with HIV find love online

South African Ben Sassman admits his bid to help a lonely friend living with HIV/Aids started out as a ”feel-good project for myself” but is now an online dating service reaching people around the globe. The Positive Connection, in its third year, can even claim success in the matchmaking game, having brought together a few solid partnerships.

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/ 5 June 2006

Ballet catches on in South Africa’s townships

A famed South African former dancer and his ex-ballerina wife have opened up a new world and possible career prospects for children from Cape Town’s poor slums through free dance lessons. The project launched by Philip Boyd and his wife, Phyllis Spira — one of the country’s top ballerinas in her heyday — now encompasses about 600 children.

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/ 24 August 2004

Illicit diamond trade: diminishing returns

Having been the best friends of some of the nastiest putschists and warmongers on the planet, diamonds are slowly but with considerable difficulty coming clean. African countries are relying on an international certification programme to open up new markets for legitimate diamonds, but it is impossible to know how many gems are still evading the controls.