Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26984 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Customer Reviews

Stories from the Trenches about Going Beyond Active Compassion to Effective Assistance for the Poorest of the Poor

Surely you care about poor people. You may pray for them. You may send some money.

If you are an unusual person, you also serve poor people directly. If you are very caring and unusual you go to where most people are very poor and devote your life to helping them.

In the process, you can discover the joy of giving of yourself . . . and the wisdom to understand how to actually help.

Ms. Jacqueline Novogratz provides a compelling series of stories well designed to explain how she has traveled along that path of contribution and learning . . . and to explain what she now knows.

It makes for compelling reading, even if the lessons aren't nearly as concentrated as they might be.

As the book opens, she recounts the synchronicity of jogging in Rwanda and seeing a sweater she had given away 25 years earlier on a child there. The world is more interconnected than we think, and we each can make a difference: That's the message.

In her early days, the African women she wanted to help didn't want her help. Eventually, she was able to help found and develop a microfinance organization in Rwanda and a bakery before the genocide. In heartbreaking detail, she recounts the before and after . . . including what happened to many of the people she worked with . . . as well as the fate of the microfinance operations and bakery.

Eventually, she shifted focus to providing patient capital through the Acumen Fund whose equity investments and loans could either help fund innovations or speed expansion of worthy business models to help the poorest of the poor . . . on their own terms and from their own perspectives. She recounts the learning experiences and challenges that the organization has faced and makes a convincing case for a new type of philanthropy that emphasizes carefully considered social impact on poor people as the marker rather than implementing the vague compassionate notions of the donors.

There are really three books here: Ms. Novogratz's autobiography (so far), the story of Rwanda's genocide and how it affected the country from one person's perspective, and connected tales of learning how to lift very poor people up from the lowest rungs of poverty. It's difficult to turn such a book into one that tells each book's story equally well. The book's main weakness, as a result, is that it tells a little too much memoir at the expense of getting across the bigger and more important message of how each reader can make a contribution to eliminating the worst instances of poverty.

You'll come away from this book with great respect for Ms. Novogratz. She personifies patience and perseverance in unremitting commitment to lifting people out of extreme poverty. Brava, Ms. Novogratz for the masterpiece of your life!

On how to change the world
I can understand why some people would think that capitalism is the wrong way to go about changing the world, but this book has compelled me to think again. Its a book about the nature of being human in the worse conditions possible, with all the pitfalls and strengths and unexpected kindness that brings. What J Novogratz has done, with the help of many others is working, and is making a difference. Because it utilities human nature for the betterment of itself.
The book itself, and each of the stories within it made me stop and think, i kept wanting them to have happy ending, like in the movies... but this is a book about real life and so sometimes, there was not. I personally like the authors writing style, it helps make the book feel more like real life again, this is not a fantasy story book! All in all i thoroughly enjoyed this book, both as a story and as a commentary on developing nations, aid, and personal improvement of those trying to help others do something about it all. I would recommend this to anyone.