http://www.leader.co.za/printarticle.aspx?s=1&f=1&a=2066
6/15/11 12:15 PM
11 JUNE 2010
Transforming lives through ubuntu In 1999, Malizole Banks Gwaxula and Jacob Lief founded Ubuntu Education Fund with the goal of transforming the lives of the children of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. One was a South African teacher from Port Elizabeth; the other an American graduate visiting South Africa to explore the country. Together, they discovered a shared passion for education and the power it has to change people's lives. Seven kilometres of care 'Ubuntu' is probably best described by Archbishop Desmond Tutu when he said: "We Africans speak of Ubuntu... what it means to be truly human, to know that you are bound up with others in the bundle of life, for a person is only a person through other people". Banks invited Jacob, a travelling student, to live in his home as family and work with him as a teacher in his township school. In the townships, Jacob witnessed people overcoming the desperation of poverty through the power of community. Despite the lack of resources within the townships schools, say the founders, "children shared the few available desks and fewer chairs and listened attentively to their teachers for hours on end. For despite the immeasurable hardships, the communities remained dedicated to the belief that education would allow their children to overcome Apartheid's legacy of poverty, disease and inequality." Six months after their meeting, Banks and Jacob founded Ubuntu Education Fund which, today, is reaching over 40,000 children with life-saving health and educational resources and services. In the beginning, the focus of the organisation was on education and on providing computers, careers guidance, internet access and so on. Ignoring the traditional development models, they redefined the theory of "going to scale": rather than expanding geographically, Ubuntu drew a seven-kilometre radius around a community of 400,000 people. Ubuntu created an integrated system of medical, health, educational and social interventions that would ensure that a child who was either orphaned or vulnerable could, after several years, succeed in the worlds of education and employment. "Ubuntu works with children to get them into education and the world of work," says Kealy Prager, the organisation's UKbased Development Manager. "The young people are provided with life saving healthcare services and the educational tools they need to succeed while keeping healthy." Why does Ubuntu work only within this community of 7 kilometres? "We want to ensure that a holistic approach is applied and that there is a deep and focused commitment to a group of children," says Prager. "This focus enables us to tunnel down into the community and you can really see the change. In 11 years, 136 students are now in university and just this year, another 25 have gone to university, so the model of remaining focused has worked well." Page 1 of 3