The Ubuntu Charity Gala Dinner

The Ubuntu Education Fund Gala Dinner

5th May 2010

40,000 Children

Reached Over 11 Years of Progress

1 Night to Celebrate Their Future!

The Boiler House, Battersea Power Station

An Evening with Hugh Masekela was a tremendous success and raised over £650,000! This was an impressive mile stone in Ubuntu Education Fund's 11 years of groundbreaking work assisting orphaned and vulnerable children in the townships of Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

I have spent the past week wearing a huge grin on my face! Planning and preparing for this event with the host committee team has been hugely exciting and inspirational. There is something magical about watching teamwork and passion transmute into actions and delivery. The combined force of our efforts has been incredible to watch. It is heart warming to see a group of people collaborate so effortlessly, propelling a massive project like this forward, in so doing, inspiring many other people to show their support. All of us enthusiastically shared the Ubuntu spirit with our friends and colleagues resulting in an impressive turnout and a generous show of support. It was no mean feet to gather over 350 guests in one room. A huge thank you goes out to all of the hands that helped make this possible.

Hugh Masekela Supports Ubuntu Education Fund and the Children of South Africa

South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela was joined by Aaron Mokoena, South African national football team captain and FA Cup Finalist with Portsmouth, Olympic Gold Medallist Dr. Edwin, Dragons' Den Entrepreneur James Caan, South African High Commissioner H. E. Dr. Zola Skweyiya and over 350 guests at London's iconic landmark, Battersea Power Station.

Edwin Moses Supports Ubuntu Education Fund at Battersea Power Station

Other guests included, AaronMokoena and Ubuntu Education Fund included Arsenal Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis, VivianImerman and Lady Caroline Conran.

Founder, Jacob Lief, gives thanks with Phumela Cleopatra Mpongoshe

Ubuntu's third annual gala featured a live performance from Hugh Masekela and personal accounts from two Ubuntu Scholars, Siyasanga Mwanda, a second year student of Social Work at Nelson Mandela Metropole University, and Phumela Cleopatra Mpongoshe, a 16 year-old student in Ubuntu’s After-School Programme both gave powerfully moving speeches of a lifetime to gala guests, explaining the transformative impact that Ubuntu has had on their lives. I have to confess to being a real softy and crying throughout the speeches.

South African High Commissioner Dr. Zola Skweyiya and Ubuntu Education Fund's Founder and Scholars Support the Children of South Africa at Battersea Power Station

Ubuntu’s Live Auction was run by on-screen expert from the BBC’s ‘Flog It’ Charlie Ross, whose wit and energy provided great entertainment for guests and ensured the auction was a tremendous success. Top prizes included a private lunch with Archbishop Desmond Tutu which raised an impressive £35,000, all-inclusive passes to Sundance Film Festival and tickets to the FIFA World Cup Final in South Africa.

Auction Highlights

1. Lunch with the Archbishop: An exclusive private lunch with the Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

2. Sundance 2011: Two 10-day passes for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. To include opening and closing ceremony, entrance to all films PLUS accommodation throughout.

3. Lights, Camera, Fashion!: Two tickets to the 2010 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in New York. To include an exciting weekend getaway.

4. Inside the Dragons’ Den: Lunch with James Caan from the hit television show, Dragons’ Den.

5. South African Adventure: A 10-day trip through South Africa including a 5* safari, indulgence in Cape Town’s finest hotels and a visit to Ubuntu’s headquarters in Port Elizabeth.

6. 007 - Licence to Chill: One-week luxurious retreat at the exclusive Ian Fleming Villa of the Goldeneye Resort in Jamaica, where he wrote the James Bond novels.

The Ubuntu Gala Dinner has been a shining light, a goal, a mile stone and a beacon to which I have measured my life over the past 8 months. Everything either falls into pre or post gala evening. Now that the event is over the only solution is to create and look forward to many more beacons of light, many more fund raisers, gala dinners and educational projects lie ahead of us.

The next exciting step on the journey will be the opening of The Ubuntu Centre in Port Elizabeth in September 2010. The centre will be home to a fully equipped learning facility, pharmacy, clinic, theatre, library and vegetable garden; all providing essential resources for the community. The future is bright. Through our chain reaction of giving we are fundamentally changing people's lives for the positive. "I am because you are" is a says it perfectly.

Ubuntu Scholar, Phumela Cleopatra Mpongoshe Explains Why Ubuntu Education Fund is So Important to the Children of South Africa

Channel 4 News was present on the evening and filmed some exciting footage focussing on Hugh Masekela, South African Jazz and the World Cup:

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/arts_entertainment/masekela+rails+against+music+and+the+world+cup/3638492

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid62612474001?bctid=83388539001

Host Committee

· Farah and Hassan Alaghband

· Fabiola and Andrew Rolfe

· Bonnie and R Derek Bandeen

· Karen and David Brush

· Linda Grosse

· Donna Karan

· Gareth Knight

· Bertrand Lipworth

· Sir Sidney Lipworth

· Alexandra and William Roedy

· Stephen Schaffer

· Katherine Scott

· Kathleen and Scott Simpson

· Tony Tabatznik

· Tracy and Jacques Tredoux

Jami and Bill Voge

Thoughts for your heart: Guests in your house

Thoughts for your heart: Guests in your house

I recently went to a poetry reading in Notting Hill. It was, in fact, held in the utterly idealistic and charming setting of the real travel book store where Anna Scott, the movie star, met Hugh Grant, the book seller in our favourite romantic comedy, Notting Hill. I have to confess, I have always felt a longing affinity with Anna Scott. She is the movie star, who underneath all the glamour is just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.... okay seriously mushy stuff... but that line has been immortalized and is actually very sweet indeed. There is a beauty in being vulnerable. Anna you may notice, also has the same Surname as me and we both spend a lot of time in Notting Hill with intellectual types. All I need to do now is become a movie star and fall in love with an Englishman.

Poetry is something I haven't done in years. It brought me back to that feeling of being in high school, nervous of how people may perceive you, heart pounding with a mixture of fear and excitement, questioning whether your choice in poem would reflect who you are, questioning again whether that matters and again whether I could possibly be reading too much into things. Surely poetry is about expression! whether the topic is big or small, profound or frivolous, serious or silly; it all makes up elements of our world and who we are. Every word is welcomed like a house guest. Every speaker a catalyst for a new concept, a new energy, a new thought.

We were a mixed bag of gems, ranging from every age on the spectrum, some roughly cut and others polished to perfection. There were also some that may not have made it to gem classification, rather sinking rocks. Though how would you be able to appreciate a gem if it were not for the rocks. Rocks for those of you who aren't fond of following my encoded metaphors, are people who are self important, choose the longest piece of whatever writing they can find and insist of reading every line in a slow monotone voice while the audience pretends to look deeply interested but cant remember what you are talking about.

There were poems about the changing seasons, cherry trees, growing old and falling in love. All somehow bringing me back to thoughts of Notting Hill and dreams of being Anna Scott, while walking through the changing seasons of Portabello market (theme music included!). This brings me back to my poem. I chose a Poem by the Sufi Poet, Rumi. It was the only choice as this poem had chosen me.

When I first left Cape Town two years ago. I had a flame in my heart, a thirst for adventure and all I knew is that I wanted to make something of myself. I wanted to be independent. The one nagging problem was that I had no idea what I wanted to do and so I embarked on my quest to find my purpose in life. I knew there must be something for me out there. Like all young people it was essential that I took time out to "find myself" and what better place to do it other than my mother's Guest House in Fes, Morocco.

Me and my mom, Tessa Graaff

Built 600 years ago and nettled into the oldest part of the medi-evil, cobbled stone town that is Fes, the house is a magical hidden gem cleverly concealed in a mystical labyrinth of winding walled streets. The Guest House is a place of sanctuary. A place where you can hear your own heart beating and connect to your thoughts. It is a place where the pace of life is organic and slow. There are no cars and the daily walks have a grounding effect on one's soul. On one of my daily walks I stopped for lunch at the local eatery (a table in the street shared with whomever may choose you). A young ginger haired Scottish man sat next to me and we started talking about finding ones's purpose and my frustration at not know what mine was. To which he replied "oh I know exactly what my purpose is!". Well, I had to know, "What is it?". He told me that he was simply going to plant a shit load of tress! He was a horticulturist and was helping replant the rain forests. Wow, so he was going to plant masses of seeds and watch them grow all over the world?! What a perfect and fulfilling purpose! So rewardingly simple- the concept of physically watching a tree grow. Beautiful.

I was adamant that I would plant my own seeds and find my purpose! I had done the sensible thing and bought a good hand full of self help books at the airport- no laughing matter this- some where rubbish and others are still hold a loving place on my bedside table. I wrote lists and set goals and drew colourful diagrams. I listened to classical music and day dreamed. Then one day, taking a break from my life-mapping and flow charts I took a wonder around the great rooms of the twelve bedroomed house. Admiring the ancient tile work and eager to find something else to read, I rummaged in the spare room and found a book of poems by Rumi the Sufi poet. As a guest in my own guest house... this poem jumped out at me....

The Guest House

Darling, the body is a guest house;
every morning someone new arrives.
Don't say, "O, another weight around my neck!"
or your guest will fly back to nothingness.
Whatever enters your heart is a guest
from the invisible world: entertain it well.

Every day and every moment a thought comes
like an honoured guest into your heart.
My soul regard each thought as a person,
for every person's value is the thought they hold.

If a sorrowful thought stands in the way,
it is also preparing the way for joy.
It furiously sweeps your house clean,
in order that some new joy may appear from the Source.
It scatters the withered leaves from the bough of the heart,
in order that fresh leaves might grow.
It uproots the old joy so that
a new joy may enter from Beyond.

Sorrow pulls up the rotten root
that was veiled form sight.
Whatever sorrow takes away or causes teh heart to shed,
it puts something better in its place-
especially for one who is certain
that sorrow is the servant of the intuitive.

Without the frown of teh clouds and lightning,
the vines would be burnied by the smiling sun.
both good and bad luck become guests in your heart:
like planets traveling from sign to sign.
When something transits your sign, adapt yourself,
and be as harmonious as its ruling sign,
so that when it rejoins the Moon,
It will speak kindly to the Lord of the heart.

Whenever sorrow comes again,
meet it with smiles and laughter,
saying, "O my creator, save me from its harm,
and do not deprive me of its good.
Lord remind me to be thankful,
let me feel no regret if it's benefit passes away."

And if the pearl is not in sorrow's hand,
let it go and still be pleased.
Increase your sweet practice.
Your Practice will benefit you at another time;
someday your need will be suddenly fulfilled.

- "Mathnawi V"

I love the concept that every thought we have is a guest in our own body; our body is merely the guest house. Our bodies may grow old but our thoughts are new everyday. We are as young as our thoughts, we are as happy as our thoughts, as busy, as sad, as our thoughts. We are the sum of our thoughts. I love the idea that a collection of thoughts are like seasons and as our thoughts change so do the seasons in our mind. Much like the seasons in Notting Hill and the Cherry Blossom poem from the poetry reading. Each season has its place in our heart so even when it is winter and our thoughts are sad, what Rumi's poem reminds us of is that without winter we cannot have spring. We need to go through sorrow so that we may feel true joy- to shed our old leaves so that new fresh buds can grow. Now it is spring and the Cherry trees are in blossom.

Balancing the Brain: Finding Happiness

Brain State Technology:


The past year has been a joyous crazy roller coaster with an action packed calendar including; starting a new business, international travel, networking, relationships, business ventures, it’s all very exciting but can at times seem overwhelming. Last year I had a feeling like I wanted to press a giant pause button on life and just take a moment to breath, a moment to calibrate all this new information and be still with my emotions. Often life happens so quickly that our brains literally don’t have enough time to file everything neatly away into the right mental sock drawer, colour coding appropriately so we can find that thought easily the next time we reach for it.


While in Cape Town over December I had the privilege of discovering something that helped me sift through the mental sock drawer of my mind, do a bit of cleaning, find the lost socks and pair them up with their rightful partners ultimately balancing my thoughts and bringing me mental harmony. This process liberated me from old residual stress and anxieties, enabling me to be free from mental agitations and feel completely tranquil and deeply happy for the first time in many years. This incredible and fascinating process is called Brain Training.


Now some people might be asking… what on earth is that? And what do socks have to do with anything? My mother discovered Brain Training through a family friend who is a top psychiatrist specializing in the care of traumatized children. She had done brain training herself and found it so life-changing that she now sends the children she looks after to have the training as a part of their recovery treatment and rehabilitation.


So how does it work? Firstly, while sitting comfortably in a very large reclining chair (you will spend a lot of time in this chair!), electromagnetic pads are placed at strategic points on your brain then pulses are fed through the brain to receive a map of your brains activity. This map then serves as a guide for the practitioner to assess where your brain has stored trauma and how these agitations affect your daily life. The reading is so accurate it can process all your brains activity from the day that you were born, feeding back a record that can tell you at what age you experienced certain traumas and how your brain processed these experiences.


The map shows clearly whether your brain stored that information in the left or right hand cortex, whether you have a tendency to experience flight of freeze or if you are prone to depression, anxiety, sleep disorders or addictive behavior. It is a strangely wonderful and curious process that leaves you eager to learn more. The door to the surreal world of your inner most workings is opened. How fascinating to get a glimpse of the cogs working and also know you can get the mechanic in to grease the engine where needed!


It is recommended that one does at least 16 hours (although some will see results after 5 others may need up to 30 sessions). This would normally be broken down into 8 sessions of two hours each, done over a 3 week period as close together as possible, ideally doing 8 days of 2 hour sessions in a row. When committing to the process it is important not to take any stimulants such as coffee, alcohol or prescription drugs as this could alter the effectiveness of the training. Giving yourself this period of “clean living” makes it the ultimate time to consider doing an overall detox. My homage to the process was a daily vegetable juice and sauna. The body is the temple to the mind!


The way I like to describe Brain Training to my friends is to imagine that you were a humming bird sitting in a tree singing your humming bird song… merrily singing. As a happy humming bird you instinctively know what your own tune is. If, for instance you started tweeting like a nightingale or clucking like a chicken, you would immediately notice that something was wrong and you would re-harmonize until your tune sounded more like your normal humming-bird song.

This is the basic principal of Brain Training. While you are hooked up with electrodes, your brain activity creates electromagnetic energy - captured and observed as brain waves with EEG amplifiers and computers. The computers then process the brain wave information and translate the brain waves into an optimized pattern in the form of sound waves which are then played back to you through earphones. Then for the first time ever, you brain gets the chance to listen to its own tune. It’s like the humming bird listening to its song for the first time and realizing where it is out of tune. Your brain then starts to instinctively re tune itself, balancing brain waves to achieve an ultimate state of harmony. Storing the files where they should be and ironing out agitations. This is the state we all search for in life. That quiet still inner place that sits close to your soul.



I found the experience to be life-changing and am still seeing on going changes three months down the line. My brain maps showed that I had a VERY busy mind, prone to anxiety and sleeplessness. This was true. I had come to Brain Training in the hopes of relieving my anxiety and depression and freeing me from compulsive over-thinking. A virtue if one wants to get a lot done but also a suffocating prison that can take the joy out of spontaneous living. During my first session they made me close my eyes and visualize happy moments in my life. As I listened to my brain waves I could feel ripples of powerful emotion come over me. It felt as though my brain was letting go of old energy, releasing sad emotion without actually having to relive or remember the event that caused the pain.


They told me that I may feel very tired during the first week due to all the information and new neurological connections being made, however, I actually felt unbelievably energetic, waking up at 5h30am, wide-eyed with the sudden urge to spring from my bed, tidy my room and hop onto my bicycle 2 hour cycle rides up the coast (if only this was every day!). Eventually after 5 days of this insanely energetic thirst for life I pleaded that they stimulate my sleep neurons. This did the trick.

After day six I was so very tired I literally could not even get out of my pajamas. I proceeded to shuffled around the house wrapped in a big blanket for three days. CSI crime scene investigations and medical detective re-runs were mercilessly watched for hours. Chocolate was eaten. Thank god it was the Christmas holidays or I may have felt very guilty for my unproductive behavior. We even had a house guest who had met me one day one of my sleepy grumpy blanket shuffling behavior and jokingly named me “blanket girl”. I like to think of this time as the period where my body was cocooning like a caterpillar, resting, nourishing and transforming into a butterfly.


Brain balance and harmony is the first step to well being and optimization. Balance in the brain, is subsequently followed by balance in the body. The condition of balance and harmony for the brain is known as homeostasis. It is a “level playing field” for your brain to respond to thinking, feeling, and healing your body in an optimized state. Your brain acts as the hub of the wheel, your nervous system the spokes and your body the rim. When the hub is out of balance everything else suffers.

“Brainwave Optimization with Real Time Balancing – is based on brain observance. It is based on a Quantum Physics vs.a Newtonian Physics understanding of the individual, and this philosophical difference cannot be too heavily stressed. Brainwave Optimization with RTB seeks to show the brain itself – be a mirror for the brain in its ever more optimized state. The client is not trained with learned behavior. In fact, while not optimal, a client may sleep through a session and still realize results because the brain can view itself without direct client participation.”


On the last day of my training I cried and smiled and then fell asleep in the chair. I drove home from the last session with my radio on full blast and remember staring out the window at these beautiful birds gliding in the blue sky… wow… those birds are so amazing… I couldn’t believe how beautiful being alive felt; like suddenly I was plugged into life. I drove to the sea and sat on a bench staring at the ocean… light glittering off the waves… birds flying in the horizon. I smiled for four hours non-stop. My cheeks hurt and strangers probably thought “what on earth is she so happy about?”. I felt an over whelming joy and ecstasy for no particular reason. This is the best part. Why do we have to have a reason to feel this happy? It occurred to me that this was how we are suppose to feel all the time! It is my wish that every one get to experience this feeling. I hope that as many people as possible discover Braining Training and through the process find their own inner balance and joy.

There is a great link on the BBC website with Matthew Stadlen's, Five Minutes With... philosopher AC Grayling on free will and happiness: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8599728.stm

Brain State Technology has been shown to help with the following:

Anxiety • Depression • Panic Attacks • Lack of focus • Memory Problems Addictions • ADD/ADHD • Sleep Issues • Stress • Anger • PTSD • Brain Injury • Learning Disorders • Pain Mitigation • Dementia • Sexual Function • Sports Performance and more Brain State Technology is currently being used by practitioners in over 17 countries, helping their clients restore balance and harmony for a more effective life.

Bristol / Bath: Symphonic Mind: +44 (0)117 973 3509
Isle of Wight: LIFE'S PaLEtt: +44 (0)1983 531424

Info@BrainStateTech.com

The Good Life- evening celebrations!

A warm welcome to our new experts!

With the clinking of merry glasses, The Glamorous Good life has started the year successfully with the first gathering of our glamorous good-living team!

On Tuesday 16th Feb, we all braved the London rain to get together for our first evening of chit chat, networking and general introductions at the very charming Truc Vert restaurant in Mayfair. It’s important to lay the foundations by getting the right people connected and it’s so rewarding to see how collaborations then grow organically and develop lives of their own.

With an impressive turnout of over 40 people, it was pleasing to listen to the experts discussing linking their projects, inviting each other to up-coming events and cross-referring clients. This is what it’s all about! Coming together as an informed and passionate group of therapists we have the combined power to really make a holistic difference to people’s lives. We are constantly learning about new health and life-style developments and strive to keep each other up-to-date and thirsty for more information.

2010 brings the exciting arrival of five new experts to the panel:

1. Lisa Bathurst- Wardrobe & Style Coach

2. Dannii Johns- Exclusive Personal Assistant

3. Nicky Weston- Massage Therapist

4. Antonia Harman- Energy Healer

5. John Best- Personal Trainer


Our clients will certainly not be short for choice with The Glamorous Good Life’s impressive spectrum of tailored services.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome, the Life Organizer Queen, Dannii Johns to our platform. Danni will be bringing over 10 years Personal Assistant and networking experience to The Glamorous Good Life and will assist us in cross-referring therapists and looking after special clients supporting a multitude of their lifestyle needs.

Dannii Johns

Dannii offers support to private individuals, working from their home or virtually, from as little as a few hours to a full day. She can help simplify your life in many ways; organising your filing, booking your hair and grooming appointments, looking at your domestic supplier bills and reducing outgoing costs, sourcing workmen from a trusted list of suppliers, being at your home for appliance installations and deliveries, organising holidays, planning functions, acting as a concierge service for theatre tickets and restaurant bookings, collecting dry cleaning, taking your car to have it serviced or simply reminding you that your pet needs its annual vaccination.

Having the experience of working for high profile individuals and alongside other staff, Dannii takes the stress out of your life by doing the things that most people either simply don’t have the time to do effectively, or just don’t have the inclination to do regardless of time.

Style Icon and Glamour Goddess, Lisa Bathurst will be waving her style wand over us and giving the Good Life team a fabulous image revamp.

Lisa Bathurst

An expert in image and style, Lisa is one of the country’s leading image consultants. She helps brand clients to achieve specific goals in both their personal and professional lives. Using a holistic approach, Lisa believes that inner confidence and outer style is the key to achieving potential. Following a prosperous modeling career, traveling and working with the worlds most prestigious brands and fashion houses, Lisa experienced first hand what differentiates the ordinary from the extraordinary. Armed with NLP, psychology and coaching qualifications, she began to enjoy helping people to motivate themselves to better things. Ironically, despite trying desperately to get away from the world of image, it soon became apparent that people had to be happy with their outer image to let their inner well-being shine through.

Consequently she set about to design a service that combined her impeccable eye for style with her instinctive desire to help people reach their potential. In 2007, Lisa founded Urbanity London, UK’s only image consultancy for men. With a loyal clientele that includes city executives, media and sports persons around the globe, Urbanity creates distinctive images, giving clients a magnetic presence, whilst staying true to their goals and personalities.


Lisa’s insider trend up-date:

'Brash and Flash' is out; styling with 'insider know-how' is in!

“Yes, in today's modern world, it seems that being able to identify designer details is far more important than blatant logos, which quite frankly, have become common place and a bit cheap. Take Burberry for example, who's easily recognised 'plaid' used to be the pinnacle of British class and sophistication; now its more likely to be associated with chav culture than the lavish well-heeled. Understated details, worn more discreetly, such as furs on the inside or diamonds on the underside of rings and watches, would only be appreciated by those connoisseurs in the know, and that's the bonafide benchmark of affluence.”- Lisa Bathurst

The range of services offered by Lisa include:

• Image analysis
• First impression enhancement
• Personal branding
• Image styling
• Wardrobe design
• Dedicated private shopping
• On-going image management

http://www.urbanitylondon.com/

The Wedding Dance

Happiness is...

I think it is only fitting to celebrate the start of 2010 with The Wedding Dance! Weddings are symbols of new beginnings. 2010 is the year of union and love. I will be skipping to this tune each step of the way!

Jill & Kevin's Wedding- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

This song encapsulates the meaning of pure happiness, exuberance and elated LOVE. It makes you want to dance and sing and cry, to hold you hands up high and smile to the heavens. It is a song that makes you believe in the united joy we all share. All of us can connect to this magical place. It is a moment of that makes me believe in something greater

May this next year fill your hearts with joy. May your dreams come true. May you find your destiny. Always reach of the stars!

LONDON MEMORIES:

I can’t remember the last time I felt this good. It was a moment a pure joy and comes from a place we all have but hardly ever let out. It surprised me to see that this place of happiness was there all along.

“It’s you and me… moving of the speed of light into eternity…”

“tonight is the night and join me in the middle of ecstasy… feel the melody and the rhythm of the music around you…”

I started to look around me and really see what was there. Orange autumn trees swaying, crunching leaves and the most beautiful radiating beams of light shining through crisp morning clouds illuminating the duck pond and happy swans.

“we can go anywhere take my hand and come with me….It’s like I’ve waited my whole life...”

it’s you and me on the dance floor…. double your pleasure double your fun!!

Forever on the dance floor…

My god, had it always been this beautiful? Was it me? I was dancing in Hyde Park like a happy loony with a huge grin on my face… quite frankly I couldn’t care if I looked mad to the cyclists and power-walking office workers. I danced all the way home and decided I wanted to dance some more so I repeated the song and had a right old dance in the kitchen- thinking to myself that I must be crazy but being crazy was a lot of fun.

“Sending for an angel… what a beautiful lady… I won’t let you fall… let you fall

oh yeh yeh”

May 2010 feel like dancing to the wedding song!

x

The UBUNTU education fund

The UBUNTU education fund

The Ubuntu Education Fund- A dream in the making

Fly to Port Elizabeth to visit 10th-11th December

I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Ubuntu through a dear friend and former client, Farah Alaghband. Like a true angel, Farah is known for her generosity and kind spirit and who better than to spread the word. Ubuntu has only recently opened its London fund-raising branch but this hasn’t stopped the good will spreading at a rate of knots. The moment Farah spoke of Ubuntu I immediately got excited tingles and knew that this was a gift; something I had been waiting to do, something connected to my home, South Africa, the land where my heart lies. I endeavoured at that moment to put my heart into making a difference and helping lay a few building blocks on the Ubuntu dream. There is something magical that happens when people come together in the spirit of giving.

The more I learn about Ubuntu the more it becomes clear that this is something special: In 1999 two men, Jacob Lief (meaning LOVE in Afrikaans!) and Malizole “Banks” Gwaxula, founded Ubuntu Education Fund on the philosophy of ubuntu; a universal bond of sharing that connects all of humanity—I am because you are. With the goal of transforming the lives of the children of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Ubuntu Education Fund is a non- profit organisation providing over 40,000 orphaned and vulnerable children in Port Elizabeth, South Africa with life-saving health services and vital educational resources.
Ubuntu has over 80 full time staff in South Africa with fund-raising offices in London and New York. The Ubuntu Model has become a blueprint for organisations around the world that strive for culturally appropriate, community-based development. Ubuntu’s child-centred approach high-lights the difference between merely touching a child’s life versus fundamentally changing it.

Going home to Cape Town for Christmas enabled me to plan the next step of the Ubuntu journey. Jacob and his team kindly invited me to visit their centre in Port Elizabeth for two days. I, in turn, invited my mother to join me! This was not just for her excellent company; she also has twenty years experience running job creation projects for the disadvantaged in the arts and craft sectors.

The director of Montebello Design Centre in Newlands Cape Town, My mother currently oversees a project called Mealie, employing over 180 HIV positive township women. She has a keen eye for business and has a knack for making something of nothing. This is a good thing in Africa when more than often you start off with nothing. What was once a plastic bag or an old T-shirt could be transformed into a well-designed piece of craft that could generate much needed income. I felt lucky having her by my side as her knowledge and experience added much value.
http://www.montebello.co.za/about.html

Qondeakele greeted us at the airport with a big smile. We were going to experience a full “day in the life” of Ubuntu. Qondeakele first drove us to meet the mobile HIV testing van. This ground-breaking concept makes HIV testing more accessible to the public; Testing up to 20 people a day, the van, normally located at the local shopping centres makes getting tested more convenient and discreet, especially for shy individuals who fear the stigma attached to been seen walking into a clinic.

What I was really impressed by was that they had an on site counsellor to provide support and education to individuals who tested positive. They also go a step further and do follow up visits at the patients homes, making sure they have a supportive environment and that they are taking anti-retroviral drugs. The wide spreading impact of their work is mind blowing. It is also apparent that it takes a large dedicated taskforce to deal with the sheer volume of cases. Official figures say there is an 80% unemployment rate in PE and a staggering 60% are HIV positive. This put my life quickly into perspective.

The jovial Gcobani, then showed us around the site where they are constructing a very impressive community centre. The Building rises proudly out of the township as a statement that anything is possible and we must all dream big. A pillar of hope, the centre will house a state-of-the-art clinic, pharmacy, library, counseling centre, computer facilities and even a roof garden. It really is a symbol of forward thinking and a mighty achievement for Ubuntu. It will be finished in 2010 in time for the annual gala in London in May. This will be a pivotal moment in the development of the charity and I hope as many people as possible will contribute to making the dream a reality.

The centre will allow us to expand and strengthen our existing service. The Ubuntu Centre will enable us to provide: 15,000 children with essential lifeskills classes40,000 youth with HIV prevention outreach services600 families with comprehensive case management services600 orphans and vulnerable children with after school programmes and school holiday day camps2200 children and 160 families with a daily, nutritious meal from our community gardens1200 clients with HIV counselling, testing and treatment support each monthClinic management and capacity building in 5 clinics serving 400,000 people4,000 youth with career guidance 15,000 children with weekly computer education 7,000 children with regular access to libraries2,000,000 condoms to local communities

On the plane trip home my mother and I came up with many ideas for how the community could generate income, becoming self sufficient through learning simple business skills and making craft that sells. My mother was seriously impressed with the excellent running of the centre. All of the people involved from the ground up are so passionate, knowledgeable and committed. Each of them has even pledged a percentage of their own salary to go towards the building of the new community centre. There is a real spirit of sharing and giving. Needless to say, after showing us such generosity and dedicating their whole day to us, Qondeakele, Banks and Gcobani definitely invited to come have lunch at Montebello with my mother and I the next time they are in Cape Town.