With the first part of our trip to
Sir Richard Branson’s UNITE charity allowing us to meet the South African
entrepreneurs of tomorrow; the second half gave us the pleasure of meeting some
truly inspirational people who work to improve medical and education facilities
in rural South African communities.
Our first stop started with an
early morning flight to Ulusaba, Branson’s Private game reserve set in the
heart of Sabi Sand on the border of the sprawling Kruger National Park. The
high-light of our time in the bush had to be the visit to Christian Slater’s
newly opened crèche in one of the surrounding villages. The whole village had
come out to sing and dance and welcome Christian, Richard and the group. It was
a vibrant display of community with all of us being touched by the young
children’s songs and their proud introductions. Everyone signed the walls with
our hand prints, depicted as leaves on a tree to commemorate the opening of the
crèche.
During the afternoon game drive
everyone was on fine form with groups of entrepreneurs teaming up in different
Land Rovers to view the big five. Sir Richard was true to form, jumping from
his jeep and hiding in the bushes and leaping out with loud growls, to the
freaked out group in the jeep behind us – never a dull moment in the Branson
camp and practical jokes and tongue in cheek comments remain order of the day,
lightening the mood and creating a sense of playfulness.
Following a spectacularly presented
gourmet lunch on the terrace, 500ft above the game reserve overlooking the Sabi
Sands with a view that was simply breath-taking – we were ushered into the
grand lounge for a Q+A session with Sir Richard. This no holds barred session
was a dream come true for seasoned and budding entrepreneurs alike. Sir Richard
shared with us his secrets of success, and answered all questions with complete
candour and the most incredible humility. What becomes abundantly obvious when
spending any time with this business “mega-tycoon“ is that his team absolutely
adore him, and there is a kindness in his voice that demonstrates a really
genuine admiration of his cohorts that is literally palpable.
Finally the most moving part of the
trip was our visit to the Bhubezi Community Health Centre run by the
inspirational Dr Hugo Templeman. The clinic was a shining example of
progressive health care in rural South Africa. Seeing over 200 patients a day
they test for TB and HIV, offering antiretroviral and other life-saving
medicines. The clinic not only offers health care but also provides
skilled jobs to local people in their medical divisions, making sure money is
ploughed back into the community. Dr Hugo Templeman is a pioneer in HIV
treatment and prevention, and is looking for critical funding to keep their
clinic running after government funding pulls out next year. At the back of the
health centre the Starkey Foundation Hearing Mission had set up tents and were
fitting the community with free hearing aids. Having just returned from
Indonesia, The Starkey Foundation group travel the world with their founder,
Bill Austen, fitting over 400,000 free hearing aids to people in disadvantaged
areas. Over the course of the day at Bhubezi they fitted over 400 hearing aids.
It was truly emotional to watch a little boy hear for the first time and cry
with his family and then to see and old man regain hearing after 20 years and
get up to dance with joy!
This trip showed us that we are
just at the beginning of our journey and that there is so much more that we
want to do. We have already entered into discussions with some of the other
entrepreneurs to start a crèche of our own in the Ulusaba area. In addition to
this, we are looking to team up with members of the UNITE team to bring the Knowledge to Action Youth Leadership Summit to South Africa next year. The more we
talked about it, we felt that this vital training could truly benefit the
people who would later go on to be a part of the Branson Centre of
Entrepreneurship, as the training covers so much in the area of emotional
management and self-worth. This, alongside their identity around making money,
was one of the main aspects that we found the entrepreneurs were struggling
with during the mentoring sessions held at the centre. (Knowledge to
Action Youth Leadership Summit video.)
What was amazing for Greg and I was
to see how we are already on the right track with the work we are doing with
The Knowledge to action Foundation, having found sustainable and quirky ways to
raise money for our charity initiatives through our Flying Trader Missions, we
realized that we have already started ‘Screwing Business as Usual’!
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