Moving from North America to Africa, Jacqueline Novogratz explores the struggles of African women living in poverty. In her book, The Blue Sweater, Novogratz narrates her mission to provide women with the opportunity to better themselves. While reading Novogratz’s gripping highs and lows on the beginning of her path to success, several points of her mission caught my attention. The first being the tagline of her autobiography, the second being the system of lending that the women figured out amongst themselves, and the final being the fact that gender inequalities exist across many different cultures.
On the cover of Novogratz’s novel underneath the title, it says, “Bridging the gap between rich and poor in an interconnected world”. Prior to reading, I thought that this was just …show more content…
Novogratz’s mission is to empower the women to become financially independent and she mentions an example of how some women are doing so without her help. The Rwandan market women have generated a system of lending and saving amongst themselves, where they bring money to each meeting and is then given to a member as a loan. These women, known as merry-go-rounds or tontines, were taking the initiative to improve themselves financially and instill money saving habits without help from foreigners. The loans are not for extreme amounts of money, but the market women are learning to repay the loans. Novogratz also mentions that charity work is often a failure because it provides people with the help, but doesn’t teach them how to sustain themselves once the donor leaves. What is different about Novogratz’s approach to financial empowerment is teaching these women how to sell and save money that way once she leaves, they will be able to continue on successfully. Making these women learn on their own will change their financial status in society, but male privilege in African society still
On the cover of Novogratz’s novel underneath the title, it says, “Bridging the gap between rich and poor in an interconnected world”. Prior to reading, I thought that this was just …show more content…
Novogratz’s mission is to empower the women to become financially independent and she mentions an example of how some women are doing so without her help. The Rwandan market women have generated a system of lending and saving amongst themselves, where they bring money to each meeting and is then given to a member as a loan. These women, known as merry-go-rounds or tontines, were taking the initiative to improve themselves financially and instill money saving habits without help from foreigners. The loans are not for extreme amounts of money, but the market women are learning to repay the loans. Novogratz also mentions that charity work is often a failure because it provides people with the help, but doesn’t teach them how to sustain themselves once the donor leaves. What is different about Novogratz’s approach to financial empowerment is teaching these women how to sell and save money that way once she leaves, they will be able to continue on successfully. Making these women learn on their own will change their financial status in society, but male privilege in African society still