The Story So Far

In 2011, Bhubesi Pride Foundation’s founder, Richard Bennett, took a rugby ball – and a camera and camcorder – to Africa. A former teacher and passionate sports fan, Richard spent a year preparing for this reconnaissance mission, where he’d meet children, teachers, head teachers, sports federation representatives and government officials in 10 countries over 7 weeks.

The following year Richard led a small team of volunteers on a 6-month, 30,000km overland expedition from London to Cape Town, coaching 3,687 children and training 33 local teachers in 22 schools.

Bhubesi Pride Foundation (BPF) coordinated a further eight annual expeditions, better and more impactful every year. The organisation – registered as a UK charity in 2013 – built on its established relationships and early success by seeking to deepen its operational focus and support the development of selected community projects, with the help of dedicated volunteers, donors and commercial partners.

In 2017, we registered BPF’s first African NGO, in Malawi, supporting the delivery of a youth rugby community program in Mtema, rural Lilongwe; we’ve since introduced netball. Over the course of four years, we constructed of a transformational sports & education community centre, having begun this ambitious project in early 2018. With the community centre coming to life, in 2022 BPF Malawi formed a game-changing strategic partnership with ChildFund Sport for Development.

Our two registered organisations – BPF UK and BPF Malawi – continue to learn from our dynamic experiences in a fast-changing global environment, maximising our collective resource and expertise, and drawing on the help of our partners, donors and volunteers to achieve our vision and goals.