We are donating 40% of the proceeds from the Ubuntu lariat necklace directly to Ubuntu Education Fund. Click our "for a good cause" link to see the specially designed necklace and know that you can feel great about shopping!
ABOUT UBUNTU:
Founded in 1999, Ubuntu Education Fund provides an empowering environment
and access to services and opportunities to vulnerable children and their
families in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. A South African teacher, Banks
Gwaxula, and an American university student, Jacob Lief, developed Ubuntu
Education Fund to improve education and health for impoverished children in
township communities. Today, our 75+ person staff serves over 40,000
children, youth and adults with life-saving HIV services and vital
educational resources.
Ubuntu Education Fund is founded on the philosophy of ubuntu, a universal
bond of sharing that connects all of humanity. Ubuntu translates as "I am
because you are." We have used this philosophy to create the Ubuntu Model -
a community-based strategy for programme development and implementation in
which projects are owned and operated by the people they serve.
Approximately 95% of our staff is from the community we serve - evidence of
our commitment to local ownership and empowerment. These programs develop a
base of skills and resources to change how a community sees itself and
approaches its future.
The Port Elizabeth township communities (population: approximately 400,000)
where Ubuntu works are in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The
Port Elizabeth townships remain haunted by the legacy of systemic
impoverishment and destabilization of apartheid and are reeling from the
devastation wreaked by the AIDS epidemic. Access to adequate nutrition,
sanitation, health care, housing and educational facilities remain a
challenge for most children growing up in our communities. Additionally,
our communities are burdened with an HIV prevalence rate of 40% and an
unemployment rate of approximately 80%. Although general HIV/AIDS
knowledge and awareness is high, most people do not know their HIV status.
Life expectancy has fallen to 46 years for men and 51 years for women. As
a result, there are an estimated 50,000 orphaned and vulnerable children in
the townships of Port Elizabeth.
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