A conversation at a bar 18 years ago in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with school teacher Malizole Banks Gwaxula, started Jacob Lief's journey into global development. What followed were years of sleeping on couches while bootstrapping to raise funds for his startup. He imagined a world where a child’s birthplace doesn’t have to determine her future and together with Gwaxula created the Ubuntu Education Fund to work toward that goal.
Lief was just named one of Fortune Magazine’s “40 Under 40”, an annual award recognizing young business leaders and innovators; he was one of the few from the social good space. The Ubuntu Education Fund provides household stability, health, and educational services to 2,000 orphaned and vulnerable children in Port Elizabeth’s townships.
Lief is not looking to expand their work to other geographies because he believes that depth is more important than scale in development work. To that end Ubuntu is expanding its campus, building a vocational training college and doubling the size of its early childhood program.
Read more stories on education:
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► Privatized education's growing role requires data, attention and planning
► An early look at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's investments in education
► Julia Gillard on new 'information and data journey' for education
► Universal education champions fight 'primary' battle of their own
About the author
Jennifer Piettedisgeneration
Jennifer Ehidiamen is a Nigerian writer who is passionate about communications and journalism. She has worked as a reporter and communications consultant for different organizations in Nigeria and overseas. She has an undergraduate degree in mass communication from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, and M.A. in business and economics from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, New York. In 2014, she founded Rural Reporters (www.ruralreporters.com) with the goal of amplifying underreported news and issues affecting rural communities.
