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I Am Because You Are: How the Spirit of Ubuntu Inspired an Unlikely Friendship and Transformed a Community
I Am Because You Are How the Spirit of Ubuntu Inspired an Unlikely Friendship and Transformed a Community Author:Jacob Lief, Andrea Thompson In 1998, Jacob Lief, a 21-year-old American university student, met a grade-school teacher named Malizole "Banks" Gwaxula in a township tavern in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. After bonding over beers and their shared passion for education, Gwaxula invited Lief to live with him in the township. Inspired by their fortuitous meeting?which brought ... more »together two men separated by race, nationality, and age?and by the spirit of ubuntu, roughly translated as "I am because you are," the two men founded Ubuntu Education Fund. Teach for America and City Year weren?t yet popular post-graduate options, and no one talked about social entrepreneurship as a career path. But with persistence, long hours, and the input of the community, Lief quickly established Ubuntu as a different kind of grassroots organization. Its approach redefines the concept of scale, focusing on how deeply Ubuntu affects each child?s life, rather than how many it might reach. From pregnant mothers to students heading to university, Ubuntu aims to provide everything each child needs and deserves, from cradle to career. I Am Because You Are offers an unflinching portrayal of the rewards and challenges of the non-profit world, while setting forth a vision for a new model of development.« less