At Ubuntu Life we believe passionately about the meaning of our name, Ubuntu, that we are all connected & in need of each other. There are numerous ways that we live into this interdependent ecosystem like the way that we source majority of our raw materials for our Ubuntu Life products from trusted longstanding local Kenyan partners to the way that we utilize our organic farm on the Ubuntu Campus for ingredients used at Café Ubuntu.
Scenes from the Kijabe Forest Trust Clean Up Day
This past weekend we were proud to partner with Kijabe Forest Trust to take part in a local environmental clean up day with that same Ubuntu spirit. Kijabe Forest is the nearest forest to our Ubuntu Campus and the source of our Ubuntu Life natural spring bottled water. One of our core values is to “Source Responsibly – keeping in mind the overall sustainable impact our products and materials used has and will have on the people and the earth.” As we provide Africa’s very first social impact bottled water, we take it very seriously how we care for the actual source of our bottled water as well as how we care for our team that bottles that water and ultimately those that drink our water. In a very real and tangible sense we are embracing the full ecosystem from source to bottling to those who take our water into their bodies. Each part depends on the integrity of each other for the collective wellness of the whole.
Kijabe Forest Trust Rangers unpacking our collaborative KFT & Ubuntu Life reusable water bottle
Kijabe Forest Trust has become our highly valued partner as their primary purpose is to protect, conserve and restore the Kijabe Forest. Their activities safeguard water and other ecosystem services and enhance opportunities for sustainable livelihoods. We are excited to continue building this partnership and to bring awareness to the needs that exist to keep the Kijabe Forest and those who live within it’s ecosystem thriving.
The Ubuntu Life Water team supplying our natural spring water directly from the Kijabe Forest for all volunteers at the KFT Cleanup Day. Directly from the source, directly to the future!
It is deeply fulfilling when the entrepreneurial journey takes you into unknown spaces that require a trusting understanding of the process: that with focus, a compassionate heart, a curious mind to solve real world problems and an evolving passion to iterate your ideas into something better and better with each day that you can find yourself surrounded by others that catch you into a mutually beneficial wave that resonates that purpose into the next generation. That is exactly what we find happening with our Ubuntu Life water program and now our expanding impact through our partnership with the Kijabe Forest Trust. When we started bottling our Ubuntu Life Water the KFT did not yet exist. But as God, fate, the universe or whatever you may like to call it intended our collective consciousness has grown over the years to produce something even more impactful together by intentionally living into our shared ecosystem…by living Ubuntu!
One of the local schools participating in the KFT Cleanup Day
To learn more about the Kijabe Forest Trust and ways that you can get involved please check out their website, https://www.kijabeforest.org. Ubuntu Life Water can be enjoyed at Café Ubuntu, and is available in Maai Mahiu shops, and in hotels, safari camps, and schools throughout the region. If you would like to order Ubuntu Life Water, email us at ubuntuwater@ubuntu.life. We’re looking forward to sharing more about this powerful collaboration as we continue to iterate and grow.
Big love,
Z