Jacob Lief

Who is Jacob Lief?

In 1999, Jacob Lief and Malizole Banks Gwaxula founded Ubuntu Education Fund with the goal of transforming the lives of the children of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Ignoring the traditional development models, they redefined the theory of “going to scale” ;rather than expanding geographically Ubuntu drew a perimeter 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 provides orphaned and vulnerable children with life-saving HIV support services and essential educational resources. The organization was started in a broom closet with a raffle on a university campus and today has over 80 full-time staff in South Africa and fundraising offices in London and New York. The Ubuntu Model has become a blueprint for organizations around the world that strive for culturally appropriate, community-based development. Ubuntu’s child-centered approach highlights the difference between merely touching a child’s life versus fundamentally changing it.