Western Desert wins inaugural Ethical Enterprise Award

Holistic community health enterprise Western Desert has been announced winner of the inaugural Ethical Enterprise Award 2013. The national awards program was launched in July to celebrate the achievements of Australia’s most inspirational enterprise - a business or organisation which has had a positive social and economic impact through its innovative ethical practices.

Western Desert, also known as the Purple House, won the award for showing the benefits of tackling a major health issue at a community level. The not-for-profit, non-government, Indigenous-governed health organisation offers a holistic model of 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 healthcare, 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 20 remote Central Australian communities,” said Christy van der Heyden, coordinator 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.”

Karel Boele, Ethical Enterprise Award judge and director of EcoDirectory, said, “Western Desert’s uniquely creative ‘mobile dialysis’ for remote Indigenous communities has been developed on a good business model and strives to deliver a positive social and economic impact.”

Susanna Bevilacqua, director of social enterprise Moral Fairground and founder of the Ethical Enterprise Award, added that Western Desert has shown “just what can be achieved when a community comes together to provide a service for its own members”. As the Ethical Enterprise Award winner, the organisation will gain national recognition and have access to an array of networking and media opportunities.

The Ethical Enterprise Award, an initiative of Moral Fairground and Australian Ethical Investment, is claimed by Bevilacqua to be “the first of its kind in Australia”. She said the award “celebrates the importance of informed ethical leadership, conscious business and innovation and demonstrates how organisations that seek a fair, just and sustainable offering can also provide great financial returns too”.