Jacob Lief is the President and Founder of Ubuntu Education Fund, a non-profit serving over 40,000 vulnerable children and their families in the townships of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Started in 1999 by Jacob, then a student at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Port Elizabeth teacher, Malizole “Banks” Gwaxula, Ubuntu’s programs form an integrated system of social, health and educational programs that enable vulnerable children to reach university and the world of work. 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.

Ubuntu’s ingenuity in the field of international development has been recognized by organizations such as the Clinton Global Initiative and Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2009 Jacob was selected to join the Aspen Institute’s African Leadership Initiative and in March 2010 Jacob was chosen as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

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