In the second half of the book, The Blue Sweater, Jacqueline recounts many of her past encounters from her 20 years of experience in Africa, India, Pakistan and other disadvantaged countries. She quotes a poignant line from Tennyson’s Ulysses, “I am a part of all that I have met”, summing up how her life is flipped upside down and she has been changed herself as much as she changed lives.
I want to comment on her approach to charity and solution to poverty. After the trial and errors, she figured out that the solution to poverty must be driven by discipline, accountability, and market strength, not easy sentimentality. The last point is one that costed her quite dearly to figure out. A blind kind of giving without knowing the local needs and without thought on economic sustainability is doomed to fail. A great example in the last chapter illustrated this well: Charity is not just handing out crisp notes to the two little girls in a Pakistani town she visited, but using the note to buy some of their proud creations, and in the act teaching them the virtue of hard work, as well as giving them the dignity that they need to grow up to be strong, independent women.
This is the best kind of charity in my opinion, a subject previously discussed on the genius of money. Giving loses meaning if it is only done to gratify the donors. It becomes a kind of consumption of others misery and the poor compete for a soured compassion.
In the end, Jacquline found a happy balance between entrepreneurship and philanthropy. By supporting local entrepreneurs who have the same values in creating solutions that will enable the poor to help themselves. The hierarchy does not create distance, but rather serve as a knowledgeable link that translate investments into applicable resources, and infusing the people with qualities of leadership.
As told on a story of bed nets in a village in Zanzibar, the saleswomen pitched their sales using only languages that appeal to beauty, family, vanity and comfort; never once did they use “musts” or “shoulds”, and the effect was evident. The local people work with the mindset and a level of empathy that outside forces cannot compete, and in this case it is better to give them the chance to better their lives with their own hands. Learning to let go is as important as the will to act, and the focus for drive to fulfill the ambitions.
I love how you were able to tie this idea of charity back to the Genius of Money book because it really was important for the people she helped to feel like they were just given hand outs. While living with and trying to understand the needs of the people she realized that they wanted to work to make their community better. Jacqueline is able to learn this an take this idea into her nonprofit but also helping those she saw on the street by buying their products.
ReplyDeleteI like how you brought up charity as being more than just giving money. Because so many charities only ask for donations, it's kind of hard to see past that. But I agree that it's important that Novogratz learned to give in a way that not just maintained but elevated the dignity of those she was helping.
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