The Blue Sweater
Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A visionary book . . . devoted to providing opportunity to poor people in all countries in an interconnected world.”—Deepak Chopra
“An inspiring book by a remarkable woman.”—People
It all started with the blue sweater, the one my uncle Ed gave me. . . . The blue sweater had made a complex journey, from my closet in Alexandria, Virginia, to a young child in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. . . . The story of the blue sweater has always reminded me of how we are all connected. Our actions—and inaction—touch people we may never know and never meet across the globe.
Jacqueline Novogratz left a career in international banking to spend her life on a quest to understand global poverty and find powerful new ways of tackling it. From her first stumbling efforts as a young idealist venturing forth in Africa to the creation of the trailblazing organization she runs today, Novogratz tells gripping stories with unforgettable characters. She shows how traditional charity often fails, but how a new form of philanthropic investing called “patient capital” can help make people self-sufficient and can change millions of lives.
More than just an autobiography or a how-to guide to addressing poverty, The Blue Sweater is a call to action that challenges us to grant dignity to the poor and to rethink our engagement with the world.
Jacqueline will donate her paperback royalties to Acumen Fund and other organizations fighting for social change.
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Novogratz combined her twin passions for banking and philanthropy after she left a lucrative corporate banking position to work with women's groups in microfinance, the pioneering banking strategy that won Muhammad Yunus a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Her work merging market systems with development and social empowerment led her to create the Acumen Fund for entrepreneurs in developing nations, which she describes as "the opposite of old-fashioned charity." Novogratz also focuses on her own developmental path as she charts her evolving views of capitalism and how she will "change the world." Unfortunately, she stumbles when she strays into biographical territory, relying on clich s to bolster her professional decisions through a personal lens. The book is most interesting when it touches on the difficult decisions that Novogratz and her team must make about financial empowerment should they charge interest on loans to poor women? can working women find acceptance in a patriarchal society? but these dilemmas are facilely glossed, keeping the book in an uncomfortable limbo between a personal narrative and a primer on globalization.
