South Africa: Ubuntu Education Fundraising and Pen Pals

Our plan

We wanted our children to think beyond the borders of Burlingame, CA and not just when there is a hurricane or earthquake somewhere in a reactive way. But to be proactive and gain insight into the plight of children in other countries--that want an education, but because of lack of buildings or widespread illnesses such as Aids--their ability to learn properly is hampered. Enter: Ubuntu. A small--but growing education non-profit with the goal of providing education to as many children in South Africa as possible. We teamed up with this organization, started a pen pal program and raised several hundred dollars over several years from bake sales.

What we did

To kick-off the program we started a club called: Ubuntu Global Outreach. We wrote letters which were shipped to NY and then hand-carried to South Africa by an Ubuntu staff member on a future trips. Letters from our pen pals were delivered in the same way back. We held several bake sales for the whole school and on several occasions, the PTA matched our earnings from the bake sale. When letters came back from our pen pals in South Africa we hosted a club meeting and read through all of them and responded. We posted the letters on the main bulletin board so those not in the club could learn from our experience. We also had the founder, Jacob Leif speak at a school assembly 2X! The students were able to ask about Aids and understand that many children must walk 1-2 hours to the nearest classroom and get up very early to wash and iron their uniforms. As pen pals, photos and stickers were exchanged too.