Virgin Group Founder and Chairman Sir Richard Branson discusses AIDS, TB, and the 0% Challenge

Just to set the scene, what is your overall sense of the global response to AIDS, TB & malaria, and of the opportunities to scale up the corporate community’s response? 

The impacts of these diseases are devastating and we clearly have a long way to go. A child loses a parent to AIDS every 14 seconds, TB is spiraling out of control in certain areas, particularly with the new XDRTB strain and malaria discriminates against the poorest, killing an African child every 30 seconds. If we do not respond in radical ways the 3 diseases will eat away at our workers and their families, impacting productivity and draining staff morale.

What is out there right now is only a drop in the bucket, but there are already some promising initiatives in place many companies have comprehensive education and treatment programs for staff and businesses are speaking out against stigma and discrimination. Others are applying their assets in creative ways like the NBA using their players to bring a voice and resource to tackle stigma, invest in hospitals and mobilize bed nets to fight malaria. The collective work of companies through groups like GBC are also critical in making investment in AIDS, TB and Malaria the norm.

It’s a must that as employers we help protect staff through non-discrimination policies, education programs and access to diagnostic and treatment services. We must also provide our skills and business acumen to improve health systems and increase the reach of great grassroots leaders that are fighting these pandemics on the front line. Though it’s tough we should also encourage our suppliers to do the same. At Virgin we still have a long way to go, but we’ve taken the plunge and I encourage all businesses to do the same.

Businesses can have a great impact in the fight against AIDS, TB and Malaria and they should work together, share best practices and learn from one another what is most effective.

Virgin Unite’s leadership on critical social issues like HIV/AIDS has been a remarkable model for the private sector. In particular, we are all impressed by your efforts to create sustainable projects that can grow and eventually flourish on their own. How have you been able to translate your own entrepreneurial philosophy -- which built Virgin into a dynamic, multinational brand -- into a vibrant and substantive grassroots effort to effect social change around the world? 

Virgin Unite, the independent, charitable arm of the Virgin Group, is all about revolutionizing the way things are done in the charitable sector and in particular the way businesses get involved. By channeling the resources of our staff, customers and suppliers from around the Virgin Group we can put massive support behind sustainable social and environmental solutions.

We aim to drive entrepreneurial approaches to social and environmental issues. By partnering with grassroots organizations and on the ground social entrepreneurs we can catalyze solutions that make sense for, and are owned by, the communities. The time is right for new partnerships that break the old donor/charity model. Business muscles, entrepreneurial skills and other core resources are now just as important as fundraising dollars in order to drive large scale, sustainable change.

As you know, young women have become the new face of AIDS, and are the most vulnerable population around the world today. The growing feminization of AIDS has created new challenges for companies seeking to address the epidemic, and it demands solutions that empower women with better educational and economic opportunities while providing access to health care and preventing gender-based violence. What has been Virgin’s approach to this situation? 

With the support of GBC, Booz & Company, and MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation, we launched the Women on the Move program in 2004. In a partnership with SA Life College and LoveLife, CIDA City Campus provides the four year Women on the Move program as an integral part of the business degree at CIDA. Women on the Move enables the students to become mentors and peer educators. Together they aim to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS in their home communities, and, ultimately, to stem the number of orphans as a result of this pandemic.

Our aim is to support a new generation of young women to empower them to take control of their lives, free of HIV. It’s in line with Madiba’s legacy - the power of one to bring about change. One person at a time can change the future of this country. These women serve as a bridge between the life they come from to one of new possibilities for themselves and others.

The Women on the Move programme includes developing food gardens to provide nourishment and financial resource; developing community responses to poverty, including acknowledging the importance of child-headed households; and straight forward sexual health information.

Since Women on the Move began, more than 600 students have benefited from the programme. They, in turn, have reached out to many more with peer mentoring and support. Some of the more experienced students will now give particular support to children who have, through death or illness of parents, become the heads of their households.

Over the years we’ve seen you engage in some pretty sensational activities – being shot out of a cannon, abseiling from a helicopter and your well-known transoceanic hot-air balloon journeys, among others.  It seems obvious that your tolerance for risk has greatly influenced, and even enabled, your entrepreneurial approach to business.  Has it also played a role in your willingness to speak out against the stigma facing people threatened by HIV/AIDS? 

You don’t have to be a daredevil to speak out on this issue or take action—in fact, there’s more risk in not doing anything. It’s more about common sense and compassion than tolerance for risk. I was devastated when Donald, an employee at Ulusaba, unfortunately died of an AIDS-related illness in 2003. His story was fundamental in inspiring me to launch the 0% Challenge, our global staff-wide effort to help ensure that no Virgin employee ever again dies needlessly of HIV/AIDS.

No response to HIV/AIDS will ever be successful unless we fight the stigma and discrimination that is driving it under ground. We have to normalize it so it is not some scary disease. We all need to speak out and use our voice. I recently took an HIV test with employees in South Africa and it was such a positive experience for all us to realize that we are in the same boat and share the same fears. We also encourage staff and customers to use their voice to fight AIDS and other tough issues through our connecting people program.

I also believe we have a responsibility to take care of our employees—this philosophy of taking care of our employees is at the heart of Virgin and a primary reason we are so successful.

In your recent World AIDS Day op-ed with Ambassador Mark Dybul (Global AIDS Coordinator for PEPFAR) you suggested that too many companies are trying to address these critical public health issues in isolation. We also believe in the power of collective response, and are working with our member companies to make that happen. Why do you think companies – and governments – are shying away from partnership arrangements, and how can we overcome this problem to create a new collaborative paradigm?

We would all love to think that making a difference in the world is easy, but I feel the only way to tackle social and environmental challenges is through partnerships. The crises are too big to go at it on your own and the public and private sectors each bring their own unique skills and expertise. And when combined unlikely bedfellows make a powerful, unrealizable impact. I would be a fool to think I knew everything about climate change and HIV/AIDS to make the best decisions. Challenges arise when expectations are built in isolation. It is true that the business sector and social sector speak different languages, but this is not a reason to walk away from the cause.

Sharing best practice, learning from the social entrepreneurs and grassroots leaders on the front-lines and reminding ourselves of the end-goal are all important things we can do.

Last year Virgin Unite inaugurated an innovative project – a public private partnership with the U.S. Government and Anglo Coal in South Africa called the Bhubezi Community Health Center. Can you give us an update on how Bhubezi has made a difference in the community? Does Virgin Unite have any plans to replicate this pioneering model elsewhere around the world? 

The Bhubezi Community Health Center just opened its doors to patients at the end of April. It’s an exciting time, and our focus right now is on working with the surrounding communities and local authorities to ensure Bhubezi serves their needs. The effort as been led by an incredible social entrepreneur named Hugo Templeman. He designed Bhubezi on the model he used to develop the successful Ndlovu Medical Centre in Moutse Township, near Groblersdal.

Bhubezi CHC will serve approximately 70,000 people from 12,000 households living in 21 villages in the Agincourt sub-district of Bushbuckridge. Our aim is to create a ‘one-stop health care centre’ that will bring effective diagnosis and treatment to the community particularly for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. In addition to providing health services, the Bhubezi CHC will drive economic development by facilitating the creation of locally run businesses. It will help reduce unemployment, build the capacity for entrepreneurship, tackle the stigma related to HIV/AIDS and create a model for rural AIDS treatment in South Africa. Once we are able to prove this model for rural healthcare we hope it is replicated across rural South Africa and neighboring countries.

Sir Richard Branson was born in 1950 and educated at Stowe School. It was here that he began to set up Student Magazine when he was just 16. By 17 he'd also set up Student Advisory Centre, which was a charity to help young people.

In 1970 he founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer, and not long after he opened a record shop in Oxford Street, London. During 1972 a recording studio was built in Oxfordshire, and the first Virgin artist, Mike Oldfield, recorded "Tubular Bells" which was released in 1973.

This album went on to sell over 5 million copies! Since then many household names, including Belinda Carlisle, Genesis, Phil Collins, Janet Jackson and The Rolling Stones have helped to make Virgin Music one of the top six record companies in the world. The equity of Virgin Music Group - record labels, music publishing, and recording studios was sold to THORN EMI in 1992 in a US$1billion deal.

The Virgin Group has now expanded into international music Megastores, air travel, mobile, financial, retail, music, internet, drinks, rail, hotels and leisure, with around 200 companies in over 30 countries.