Higherlife Foundation launches book

Higherlife Foundation, founded by Tsitsi and Strive Masiyiwa, has released a new book, chronicling the organisation’s 30-year journey in supporting livelihoods across the continent.  

The book titled And Still We Rise, explores how African-led, long-term investment in people, rather than short-term aid, is shaping the continent’s development future. 

“We became philanthropists not by design but by doing,” said Tsitsi Masiyiwa, chairperson of Higherlife Foundation. 

“This book is our attempt to be honest about what that means, the failures as well as the breakthroughs, and to show what becomes possible when you commit to a community for the long term.”  

The book draws on personal narratives and reflections from scholars, health professionals, educators and development practitioners from Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Burundi, South Africa and beyond. 

When Zimbabwe’s HIV/AIDS crisis left hundreds of thousands of children without parents or the means to continue their education, Tsitsi and Strive Masiyiwa did founded Higherlife Foundation to ease the hardships.

The foundation has awarded close to 500,000 scholarships and grown into one of Africa’s most influential philanthropic institutions.  

The book how Higherlife Foundation evolved from an emergency scholarship programme into a broader platform spanning health, rural transformation, sustainable livelihoods and cultural preservation, offering lessons for philanthropy across the Global South.

Tanya Masiyiwa, the Higherlife president and CEO, said the Foundation’s work continues to be driven by long-term investment in people. 

“Only through continued investment in health and education can we create an environment that will help this generation capture the opportunities of tomorrow.” 

Angeline Murimirwa, CAMFED CEO, who wrote the book’s foreword, said the stories in the book are more than individual success stories. 

“The stories you are about to read are more than individual success stories,” she writes. 

“They are a testament to what is possible when philanthropy moves beyond charity to genuine investment in human potential.”