Recipients began fondation in honor of slain daugter
By KIFLIN TURNER
News Writer
Notre Dame's Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business named Peter and Linda Biehl as recipients for the inaugural Hesburgh Award for Business.
The Biehls established the Amy Biehl Foundation in memory of their daughter, a human rights advocate murdered by a mob that stoned and stabbed her to death in the township of Guguletu, South Africa in 1993.
"I think she would be glad to know that we have the inner-capacity to continue in her work," Peter Biehl said.
With $500,000 in donations and $1 million in U.S. aid, as well as the Biehls' own contributions, the foundation provides music, art, tutorials and other programs in South Africa that provide students with the preparation to pursue a higher education or to acquire marketable skills.
"We are focused on disadvantaged and marginalized communities," Mr. Biehl said. "We view businesses as a servant of mankind and believe that businesses should be committed to social change."
The idea of changing the role of businesses to take a more responsible foothold in re-shaping society is a goal to which the Biehls remain committed.
"When we hear the word poverty, we mean marginalized South African communities are desperately impoverished — they're impoverished in terms of access to mainstream developments in South Africa," Mr. Biehl said.
The townships in South Africa are impoverished, with poor school systems and other infrastructure in bad shape.
"As a consequence, these people are impoverished in terms of potential careers and impoverished financially," Mr. Biehl said.
The official unemployment rate of South Africa is approximately 45 percent. But Mr. Biehl argued that the real unemployment rate is between 70 and 90 percent.
"When we refer to business enterprises, we refer to grass-roots enterprises," said Mr. Biehl. Statistics show that between 70 to 80 percent of South Africans reside in disadvantaged settings.
"We are trying to follow in Amy's commitment to human rights. A person has a right to hope and dream," Mr. Biehl said.
The foundation maintains a non-profit identity, meaning all proceeds are funneled back into programs such as violence prevention.
"We are trying to harness the efficient powers of businesses to meet a purely social agenda," Mr. Biehl said. "We have discovered the value of harnessing businesses to sustain preventative violence measures in the community."
Housing and infrastructure developments are critical needs in South Africa. To help solve them, the Biehls founded construction firms that provide concrete and other rare materials. They also started a construction services unit to provide an educational trust and further training for its employees.
"We have the opportunity to make the young managers an equity in this business," Mr. Biehl said.
Their employees not only help to reconstruct the community, but they also have the opportunity to acquire skills to compete in an almost non-existent workforce.
"We have learned to view business as a charity. We can organize charities that trade," Mr. Biehl said. "And we are then capable of giving back to our violence prevention programs without creating a taxable event to further the work in a disadvantaged community."
Lack of affordable and accessible groceries is another problem that plagues South African communities, and which the Biehls said they hope to combat.
"There's nothing more fundamental to poor people than bread," Mr. Biehl said. "Bread is very important to the masses in South Africa. We're going to bring bread to 70 to 80 percent of the community. We're going to do this by making bread accessible."
In hopes of attaining this goal, the Biehls have established bakeries that are designed to produce 10,000 loaves a day. These bakeries are now among South Africa's largest baking businesses.
The Community Baking Trust is a "satisfying way to do business," according to Mr. Biehl.
"We have concluded that grass-roots leads to a rediscovery to the new empowerment of businesses. In work, even in its most basic levels, there is dignity," he said. "In business, the daily struggle leaves no room for temptation."
The Biehls hope that by providing the community with more educational and economic opportunities, the overall work ethic of the community will improve and strengthen the relationships of the workers toward creating a more efficient and stable community.
"Facing those who rely on you each day is good on building integrity," he said. "We find that selflessness requires self-esteem as a pre-requisite. Part of the process of creating selflessness is by first creating self-esteem. Our goal is to facilitate human improvement, restore hope and convert that hope to reality."
The ceremony marks the second installment of the Frank Cahill Lecture Series. Father Oliver Williams, a management professor, said the series, and the Hesburgh award will help provide the Notre Dame community with exemplary leaders in business.
Amy Biehl who received a Fulbright Fellowship in 1993, was working on voter registration projects was a Fulbright Fellowship recipient in 1993. She was in the process of working on voter registration projects before South Africa's first-ever all-races election in that year.
All News Stories for Friday, March 24, 2000
