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  • Give Work

  • Reversing Poverty One Job at a Time
  • By: Leila Janah
  • Narrated by: Leila Janah
  • Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (13 ratings)

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Give Work

By: Leila Janah
Narrated by: Leila Janah
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Publisher's Summary

Despite trillions of dollars in Western aid, 2.8 billion people worldwide still struggle to survive every day. We need a better solution. Founder and CEO of Samasource, Leila Janah, shows that poverty is a problem we can solve - not just hope to alleviate - by giving work.

When asked if they'd rather receive aid or work, the world's poorest people will always choose work. But the world's richest countries continue to send aid, targeting the symptoms, not the causes of poverty. Western countries have the best intentions, but charity-based aid often does more harm than good, and billions of people continue to suffer.

According to Leila Janah, giving dignified, steady, fair-wage work is the most effective way to eradicate poverty. Samasource, a nonprofit she founded with the express purpose of outsourcing work from the tech industry to the bottom billions, has provided over $10 million in direct income to tens of thousands of people the world had written off, changing the trajectory of their lives for the better. Janah and her team go into the world's poorest communities - from the refugee camps of Kenya to rural Arkansas to the blighted neighborhoods of California - and train people to do digital work for companies like Google, Walmart, and Microsoft. She is making a real difference, breaking the cycle of poverty at its source.

Picking up where Dambisa Moyo's Dead Aid leaves off, Give Work debunks traditional and cutting-edge aid models and offers much needed solutions. From a school for the blind in Ghana to the World Bank, Janah has tested various Give Work business models in all corners of the world. She shares the poignant stories of many who have benefited from Samasource's work and offers us a blueprint to change the world for good.

We can end extreme poverty. And in Give Work, Janah shows us how. Give work, and you give the poorest people on the planet a chance at happiness. Give work, and you give people the freedom to choose how to develop their own communities. Give work, and you create infinite possibilities.

©2017 Leila Janah (P)2017 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

“An audacious, inspiring, and practical book about how to drive meaningful change. Leila shows how it’s possible to build a successful business that lifts people out of poverty - not by giving them money but by giving them work. It’s required reading for anyone who’s passionate about solving real problems.” (Adam Grant, author of Give and Take and Originals, coauthor [with Sheryl Sandberg] of Option B)

“Living-wage digital work targeted to the world’s poorest people is a transformational force for good. Leila’s pioneering work in this realm is as instructive as it is inspiring. An essential read!” (Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn; coauthor of The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age)

"Leila Janah’s new book is a call to action to focus on the poor not as passive recipients waiting for charity but as full human beings wanting to solve their own problems. She reminds us through powerful examples that we can all do more to enable human flourishing. And so we must.” (Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO, Acumen)  

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Give work, not aid

This book is consistently in my top 5 reads! It takes a very holistic look at poverty and development, with Janah's authentic voice beautifully weaving solutions and reflections to these themes from a place of humility and compassion. It's a far cry from the cold, often disconnected, academic-centred sources that loudly echo in this space.

This book radically shifted something inside me when Janah wrote 'How can aid be accountable to the poor if we don't treat them as primary stakeholders?... Whenever I have asked foreign aid recipients whether they would prefer aid or work, they almost always choose work.' As I travelled across Asia and Latin America, I kept this question in the forefront of conversations, and was curious to know if business and jobs were the best acupuncture solution (a small point, with a large healing impact) to solve poverty. Low and behold it was! People passionately and eagerly wanted to get jobs to build their self worth, provide stability, and be empowered through this means. This book helped me decondition this belief that people in poverty are helpless victims.

I'm super keen to get behind Janah's call to 'give work, not aid'. For any endeavour or success I will have in this lifetime, I am keen to extend that into collaborative business ventures in these regions, to reverse poverty one job at a time. What an exciting time to be a changemaker!

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An incredible book by an inspiring leader

I loved reading this! Leila Janah’s story is eye opening, her persistent and relentless pursuit of making an impact is inspiring. She’s articulate, intelligent and brave - her stories are fascinating, hilarious at times and keep you gripped. The only thing I wish there was more of was personal stories.

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excellent theory + attitude to social investment

Lived it. Brlliant idea, easy to apply + positive creative options for an equitable work. Give work is not charity, give work is reciprocal positive energy flow.

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