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About Pride 'n Purpose

Pride 'n Purpose is the community upliftment wing of Ulusaba, Sir Richard Branson's Private Game Reserve, located within the Sabi Sands. Pride 'n Purpose is a non-profit development fund committed to the upliftment of disadvantaged communities living in and adjacent to the Sands. The charity has been set up by members of the Ulusaba family and is kindly helped with funding from Virgin Unite and guest donations.

Upliftment is achieved both through the provision of basic needs, and through empowering communities with sustainable development. Provision of basic needs such as access to food, water, and health services is seen as vital, as without these resources, sustainable development is not possible. Sustainable development projects involve helping people to help themselves through social and economic empowerment. Ulusaba recognises that although conservation is vital, for it to succeed the needs of the people (as well as the animals) need to be taken into account. Making conservation worthwhile for the rural communities will help to ensure that the parks survive.

Pride 'n Purpose Projects

With the help of Ulusaba guests, Virgin Unite, and supporters from around the globe, Pride 'n Purpose has been able to achieve the following:

- Provision of clean drinking water - Pride 'n Purpose installed two boreholes at Dumphries which now provide clean drinking water to the community. Prior to this water was collected from the nearby Sand River, and was unsafe to drink.

- Provision of health care - Pride 'n Purpose teamed up with Ndlovu Medical Trust in building the much needed Bhubezi Aids Awareness Clinic within the Dumphries community. Through Virgin Unite, Pride 'n Purpose also teamed up with Anglo Coal, the US Government (PEPFAR/USAID), and the Ndlovu Medical Trust to create a 'one-stop centre' for basic primary health, TB, HIV/AIDS and Malaria care at a local level through the development of the Bhubezi Community Health Care Centre in Lillydale.

- Food - Pride 'n Purpose provides crèches, schools, and orphans homes with food parcels. We are also involved in supporting and setting up food gardens.

- Building of crèches and orphans homes - Pride 'n Purpose has been able to help renovate and build two crèches ensuring that these children have a humane environment in which to spend their formative years, and four orphans homes for children who have lost their parents to AIDS.

- Income generating activities - Pride 'n Purpose is involved in supporting numerous projects that provide individuals with skills that are marketable to the local communities and to the Sabi Sands lodges, and supports individuals with promising entrepreneurial skills. The projects to date include beading, candle making, sewing, hat making and shoe making.

Our Philosophy

We believe that people are most effectively helped if they are empowered to help themselves. Our aim is to therefore work with and not for the people. Communities benefiting from Pride 'n Purpose:

- Lillydale
- Justicia
- Huntington
- Dumphries A, B and C
- Embonosweni Community in White River

How you can Help us to Help the People? The richness of Africa's nature contrasts strongly against the reality of everyday life within the communities of people living adjacent to the Sabi Sands Game Reserve. Although Pride 'n Purpose has done much ground breaking work in empowering these communities, our work has only just begun and we need your help to succeed in continuing to make a difference. Every donation or action, no matter how small, will take us a step forward to empowering these people that have historically been neglected and sometimes forcibly removed to make way for conservation. While helping Africa's people, you will also be helping its wildlife.

"Ultimately conservation is about people. If you don't have sustainable development around these parks, then the people will have no interest in them, and the parks will not survive." - Nelson Mandela

We would like to thank all those who have made a difference by contributing to Pride 'n Purpose.

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