The Khalifa Foundation and Virgin Unite announce partnership

H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Presidential Affairs and Board Chairman of Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation and Sir Richard Branson signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Abu Dhabi to commence the partnership.

H.H. Sheikh Mansour, said:

"The United Arab Emirates (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."

Sir Richard Branson said, "We are very pleased to be partnering with the UAE through the bin Zayed Al Nahyan Khalifa Foundation, who do 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 activities have covered all the state & more than (35) countries around the globe.

Locally it supported more than 30.000 thirty thousand students in their tuition fees, meals, stationary, clothes shoes & 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.