Our Mission
Our Mission
Ubuntu Life is a nonprofit business that uses the power of global commerce to create social impact for mothers and children in Kenya.
Pediatric Health & Education
We operate a special needs center and quarterly medical camps that provide life-changing therapy and medical care to hundreds of children in the Maai Mahiu area.
Empowered Employment
We create beautiful products for sale in Kenya and internationally, providing mothers of children with special needs and others in our community with sustainable employment.
Our Mission | From the Founders
We believe the deepest and most permanent way to empower our community is through sustainable enterprises producing high-quality products and experiences. As a non-profit business, we offer our Maker Mums meaningful jobs with above-market wages and benefits, while generating revenue that supports our special needs center.
We are on a path to be financially self-sufficient by 2021.
Today we operate three non-profit enterprises. Café Ubuntu offers visitors the most memorable casual dining experience in the Great Rift Valley, on the road from Nairobi to the Maasai Mara. Our bottled water, the first social-impact water in Kenya, comes from a naturally healthy forest spring. And our shoes and other products are sold internationally and have earned the support of Jimmy Kimmel, Kerri Walsh Jennings, and others.
Our Impact
The Kids
We provide free life-changing therapy to 70 Ubuntu Kids with conditions like cerebral palsy, epilepsy, severe autism, and others. Basic therapy provided at a young age can have a transformative effect on their lives. In 2017, we helped 10 children learn to walk, 18 to read, and 49 to communicate effectively for the first time.
A further 276 pediatric neurological patients receive year-round medication and ongoing medical care through our quarterly medical camps thanks to the incredible support of our healthcare professionals who contribute their time each year.
The Mums
We provide full-time employment to over 80 people in Maai Mahiu (and growing!), mostly mothers of children with special needs. We also provide part-time employment to 200 Maasai Maker Mums from the Ngong Hills, who bead our bracelets and dog collars.
We pay our staff above-market, living wages, and provide health insurance for all employees. This is something we take great pride in considering less than 19% of Kenyans have health insurance. Around half of our team in Kenya own their own land and house, in a country where less than 10% of the people own their own home. These are the markers of effective sustainable change that is breaking the cycle of poverty.
“Life throws to us good things and also challenging things. We need to celebrate together and win the battles together. That is Ubuntu. We need to live consciously that a life of purpose considers others.”
Jeremiah Kuria, Co-founder
Meaning of "Ubuntu"
Ubuntu is an African philosophy that means 'I am, because we are." It describes the interconnectedness among all things. We all depend on every other being on this planet in ways large and small, and we feel those connections now more strongly than ever. To reach our full potential, both individually and as a society, we must help others reach theirs: I am because we are.
