Creating reliable, self-sustaining systems to feed children and lift communities.
Whenever crisis strikes — social injustice, political unrest, climate disaster or disease — distressed communities bear the heaviest toll. These are the places Ubuntu Mundo seeks out. We target areas where a majority of the population lives at or below the poverty line, and focus on the most vulnerable community members -- the children.
We strive to create sustainable solutions that create real value for the communities we serve.
We provide an essential service, and ensure that our program is reliable and sustainable, strategically growing at a pace supported by our gardens and financial resources.
Key to our mission is that our programs become self-sustaining over time.
- Each project is operated by local Ubuntu affiliates or by independent NGOs with missions that align with Ubuntu Mundo.
- Each project grows and prepares its own food to feed children every day.
- Surplus produce is sold in local markets at fair prices, making fresh farm products available to the community, and generating revenue for the project.
- We partner with local artists and entrepreneurs to grow business initiatives within the community. These partnerships provide additional funding for the feeding program and the educational enrichment classes, as well as create jobs, support community business owners and boost the local economy.
We start with food, improving the lives of children, and create sustainable operations, empowering and lifting entire communities.
Feeding Children
Tragically, in too many parts of the world, children do not have reliable access to the most basic human rights, including regular access to nutritious food. In South Africa, the government provides children with one meal at school, and for many of these children that is their only meal of the day.
Enter Ubuntu Mundo. We step in with one simple but impactful action — providing food insecure children a nutritious hot meal daily. Each meal includes homegrown vegetables picked from Ubuntu Mundo's local gardens as well as a protein, a carbohydrate and, once a week, a piece of fresh fruit. We operate 5 days a week, even during school breaks and holidays.
The day begins early on the Ubuntu land, with workers arriving to water and cultivate the garden and the greenhouses, followed by the cooks to prepare that day’s hot meal. Children, ages 4 to 14, arrive at 2pm to eat and socialize before heading home. Older children participating in the after school program stay for an additional hour of arts instruction.
During Covid, we have had to adopt strict protocols to prevent the spread of the virus. Children wear face masks, wait in line 6 feet apart, and receive their meal to go in plastic containers. All onsite meals and after school classes have been suspended during Covid. We will resume our normal operations as soon as it is safe to do so.
Better nutrition leads to improved health and better outcomes -- increased school attendance and performance -- yielding greater opportunities for the future.
Empowering Communities
Lasting change can only be realized when it comes from within, so the local community is the heartbeat of the program, and Ubuntu Mundo plays a supporting role — we mobilize the community, help them find solutions that make sense for them, fund the projects that are created and share their stories and accomplishments.
Ubuntu Mundo works in distressed communities with high unemployment and other structural and economic hurdles that prevent local families and community members from thriving. See Our Projects to read about regional statistics facing the communities we serve.
Ubuntu Mundo creates jobs and supports local artisans and entrepreneurs, generally women who often struggle to get traction in places facing severe social and economic challenges.
Ubuntu Mundo addresses immediate needs by feeding children. To achieve this in a sustainable way, it builds kitchens, establishes local gardens, and creates income generating businesses that support the feeding program. Those businesses improve the local economy by creating jobs, supporting local artisans and investing in infrastructure. Ubuntu Mundo helps struggling communities create an economic engine to power the health and opportunity for all community members.
In addition, Ubuntu Mundo builds partnerships with other NGOs with similar missions and vision, and with local healthcare facilities or clinics.
Enriching Education
As vital as a daily meal is, Ubuntu Mundo is not just about food. We offer the children after school programs in the arts, teaching skills and creating space for the children to express themselves, find their voices, and share their joy. Individual talent, great beauty and enormous creativity already live within all children. Ubuntu Mundo supports the children in our programs, with nutritious food and arts education, that unlock their individual strengths and lets them shine.
During Covid, we have had to adopt strict protocols to prevent the spread of the virus, and have suspended all after school classes. We will resume our normal operations as soon as it is safe to do so.