&Beyond's Innovative World Cup Soccer Initiative

Three soccer teams from &Beyond 's 42 African lodges will realise dreams of a lifetime when they travel to Nelspruit to see their heroes in action at the 2010 Soccer World Cup match between Italy and New Zealand on June 20, 2010.

The teams have qualified for the trips and tickets courtesy of the multi-pronged corporate social investment programme, Goal is Life, started by the company for staff members seven years ago. The three winning teams in the programme are the Ngala Lions from &Beyond Ngala Private Game Reserve on the western border of the Kruger National Park in South Africa, the Matetsi Football Club from formally &Beyond Matetsi Water Lodge in Zimbabwe and the Kichwa Tembo Football Club from &Beyond Kichwa Tembo in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve.

In 2003 &Beyond launched a preventative health programme for staff called Positive Health. Five years ago the company launched their competitive soccer programme Goal is Life under the Positive Health umbrella. It was developed to inspire staff to have goals and promote physical and mental wellbeing - and with it a challenge.

The challenge issued to the 22 participating &Beyond teams, drawn from the company’s lodges and regional offices throughout Africa, was that the winning teams from each of the annual competitions in the three years prior to the World Cup would travel to South Africa (if they weren't in South Africa) to attend a World Cup match.

The competition has included soccer tournaments with matches played against other &Beyond lodges, against competitive lodges and against local community soccer clubs plus ongoing motivational and coaching sessions hosted on site by legends of the ilk of former Bafana Bafana players Mark Fish and Andre Arendse. Since the inception of Goal is Life the programme has reached 30 000 people in communities surrounding the company’s lodges.

Soccer and winning matches are two of the scorecard elements of the programme. A third, important element has been the collection of stars for the scorecard earned from their community initiatives. Initiatives that have been implemented include: teaching orphanages and communities about nutrition and home remedies, setting up vegetable gardens at orphanages, assisting schools in uplifting their facilities, the hosting of soccer clinics at local schools and driving community, environmental clean-ups.

In addition to the three soccer teams, 31 non-soccer playing staff members, have also won trips and tickets to the Italy versus New Zealand match. They are the winners of the &Beyond 's internal Bateleur Awards from the last five years. The Awards celebrate excellence and motivation based on the criteria of: conservation, integrity, service and people skills.