Sir Richard Branson, right, watches Bill Austin, founder of the Starkey Hearing Foundation, and his team of audiologists fit patients in South Africa with hearing aids.
BUSHRIDGE, MPUMALANGA, SOUTH AFRICA–Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airways, teamed up with the Starkey Hearing Foundation recently to provide 490 hearing-impaired children and adults with hearing aids. The one-day mission took place at Branson’s Bhubezi Health Clinic in Bushridge, South Africa.
Bhubezi Clinic is a one-stop center established by Branson’s Virgin United to provide basic healthcare, TB, and HIV/AIDS care. This innovative public-private partnership serves one of the most impoverished areas of South Africa.
Virgin Unite seeks to incubate new social enterprises that bring together companies and other partners to create sustainable, entrepreneurial approaches to social and environmental issues.
During the mission, audiologists and staff from the Starkey Foundation fitted each of the hard-of-hearing people from the community with custom-mold hearing devices. Branson said, “It was absolutely amazing to watch someone hear their first sounds. Starkey Foundation has profoundly impacted the lives of these 490 people and enabled them to live even fuller lives.
In addition to Branson, guests from Virgin Unite also observed the hearing aid fitting session. They included the actor Christian Slater.
While this was the Starkey Foundation’s first mission in Bushridge, it has conducted several hearing missions to Africa, including a 24-day mission through Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania earlier this year.
