UAE | Education

Khalifa Foundation and Virgin Unite to work together on education, health

Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, in his capacity as Chairman of the Board of the Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation signed an agreement with Richard Branson of the Virgin Unite foundation on Thursday to work on joint education and health initiatives.

  • Staff Report
  • Published: 22:48 July 2, 2009
  • Gulf News

  • Shaikh Mansour and Richard Branson discuss the agreement focusing on launching education and health initiatives around the world.
  • Image Credit: WAM

Abu Dhabi: Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, in his capacity as Chairman of the Board of the Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation signed an agreement with Richard Branson of the Virgin Unite foundation on Thursday to work on joint education and health initiatives.

Shaikh Mansour said, "The UAE is determined to improve the lives of people all over the world and has already contributed significant funds through the Khalifa Foundation. We are delighted to be announcing this partnership with Richard Branson and Virgin Unite, who share our passion for creating opportunities to help people lift themselves out of poverty."

Branson said, "We are very pleased to be partnering with the UAE through the Khalifa Foundation, which does brilliant work in helping to alleviate poverty and suffering all over the world.

"The two foundations will form a great team to work closely with people and organisations on the frontline to create entrepreneurial approaches to ending poverty."

The partnership will focus initially on education initiatives to help create job opportunities for young people. Both organisations have a wealth of experience in creating education opportunities.

The Khalifa Foundation has successfully achieved a qualitative movement in its humanitarian and charitable activities through its local and foreign projects.

The foundation's activities have covered all the state and more than 35 countries around the globe.

Locally, it supported more than 30,000 students in their tuition fees, meals, stationery, clothes shoes and other needs. Regionally, it is planning to launch a number of initiatives in vocational education in selected countries.

Virgin Unite works all over the world to bring people together to tackle tough environmental and social issues in an entrepreneurial way. This includes helping to incubate and launch global initiatives such as the Elders and frontline projects such as health clinics in Africa.

In the area of education, Virgin Unite launched the Branson School of Entrepreneurship in Johannesburg, South Africa, three years ago and has since trained thousands of young people and helped to incubate and fund their small businesses.

The Branson School of Entrepreneurship is in the process of expanding into Kenya and several other countries.

The two foundations will work closely together in the coming months to build a strategic plan and conduct due diligence for relevant educational initiatives with local and international partners. These joint initiatives will help create thousands of jobs and provide young people in poverty a chance for true economic freedom.

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