Why one NGO founder has chosen to go against the grain

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. 

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