Alice Springs’ Purple House, which spearheaded remote community renal dialysis in the Western Desert, has won the inaugural Ethical Enterprise Award 2013.
Left: The famed Western Desert artist Patrick Tjungurrayi having dialysis in the Purple Truck’s mobile dialysis unit at his home community Kiwirrkurra in WA.
This is a national awards program recognising and celebrating Australia’s most inspirational enterprise for the positive social and economic impact they have had through their innovative ethical practices.
Also known as Western Desert, the Purple House is a not-for-profit, non-government Indigenous-governed health organization. It offers holistic care and support for people needing renal dialysis who would otherwise be forced to leave their communities to access treatment in Alice Springs.
“We offer primary health care, social support such as patient advocacy, housing assistance, dialysis education and wellbeing activities, as well as assisting with social issues associated with kidney disease, across more than twenty remote Central Australian communities,” says Christy van der Heyden, Co-Ordinator Wellbeing Program, Western Desert.
“Our enterprise not only benefits the wider communities with our products, services and workshops but also generates employment for Indigenous people by self determining how cultural and intellectual knowledge is used, ” she says.
Founder of the Ethical Enterprise Award and Director of Moral Fairground Susanna Bevilacqua says Purple House is “has shown just what can be achieved when a community comes together to provide a service for its own members.”
Moral Fairground is a Melbourne-based social enterprise and organiser of the annual Fair@Square, Australia’s largest ethical and fair-trade festival.
The award, announced at at the opening of Fair@Square 2013, will help Purple House gain national recognition throughout the business, non-profit and social enterprise sector for their contribution to society, and their unique vision and leadership as well as having access to an array of networking and media opportunities.
The major sponsor of the award is Australian Ethical, a superannuation and investment fund manager committed to investing funds in a way that aims to provide financial security for the investor and positive, sustainable impact for society and the environment.