1. Relationships:

As people of God we believe strongly in the power of human relationships to enact powerful change in the world.

We care deeply about issues of poverty, disease, and conflict, but the driving force behind These Numbers Have Faces is the connection we have with our students.

Numbers, statistics, figures, and data are important ways to evaluate and measure complex social issues. However, we believe transforming statistics into human relationships is one of the most effective and powerful pathways to change. It is in these relationships where hope comes alive, where God is real, and where our lives find significance greater than ourselves.

We believe there are people behind the statistics. A number is difficult to connect with, but when we see those numbers as real people, we find purpose that compels us to action.These Numbers Have Faces.

2. Responsibility:

When These Numbers Have Faces was formed in 2007, it was motivated by a sense of responsibility coupled with compassion. We believe the opportunity of higher education is a gift that endows the recipient with responsibility. This responsibility is what links us to our neighbors around the world.

Furthermore, These Numbers Have Faces works to pass on this same sense of responsibility to our students. With each scholarship comes responsibility. We require all of our students to participate in community service, leadership, and financial literacy training while they are in the program. Upon completion of their degree, every student commits to reinvesting one year’s worth of tuition back into the program.

3. Reconciliation:

The heart of the gospel is a people who are reconciled to God and to one another. It is this spirit that drives us in our work to promote reconciliation among our students.

In South Africa, there is a term, Ubuntu, which refers to our common humanity as being beautifully bound up together. It roughly translates, “I am what I am because of who we all are.”

Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of an Ubuntu-like belief system when he said,

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

It is the spirit of Ubuntu that drives These Numbers Have Faces. Please join us and share in the opportunity to act upon a belief system in which we are all tied together, all matter to one another, and are all desperately loved by a God who is at work unifying his people regardless of nationality, skin color, or social status.