Together with friends Nelson Mandela, Brad Pitt, and Richard Branson, Paul Mitchell CEO John Paul DeJoria serves as a patron of Mineseeker, a UK-based non-profit created in 2004. Mineseekers battles the worldwide problem of landmines—a horror so often victimizing children—through technological advances.
 
Recently, DeJoria, accompanied by Paul Mitchell co-owner Angus Mitchell, made a trip to South Africa to map out strategy with fellow Mineseeker patrons. They visited many of Africa’s landmine victims and helped to outfit them with prosthetic limbs.
 
“Imagine if your family’s life was altered forever, because someone stepped in the wrong place.  Let us all—as families, corporations, and concerned citizens of the world—work together to rid our planet of the horror of the landmine," says DeJoria.
 
The Mineseeker Foundation has recently taken on another initiative in their philanthropic outreach in Africa: they were working to combat the spread of AIDS. DeJoria and fellow Mineseeker patrons have signed an agreement with the U.S. pharmaceutical company Calypte to purchase a new AIDS test called AWARE™ that can be used in the field by non-medical personnel. The new self-test HIV/AIDS kit is the world’s first in the field of low-cost self diagnosis of HIV/AIDS utilizing an easy-to-use saliva swab. Mineseekers will fund the purchase of one million swabs, with an option of a further four million units. The swabs, now approved by the South African Health Authorities, have been tested in Kenya and have proved to be as effective as leading blood test products—but without the necessity of a costly, medically supervised support structure.
 
To learn more about the humanitarian efforts of Mineseekers, log onto the website at www.thesoleofafrica.org.