Blue Sweater Free Essay

The Story of Jacqueline Novogratz

Blue Sweater is an autobiography that makes an inspiring story of a woman who left her international banking career as Acumen Fund Founder on a quest to understand global poverty and find ways of providing solutions. Developing countries are experiencing poverty, and Jacqueline Novogratz wanted to provide solutions to this problem in the best way she could, it shows that with the required knowledge, courage, and resilience one could effect change anywhere in the world even in the remote of places. Novogratz’s goal was to use the power of markets to provide economic opportunity to the poor.

Jacqueline has always been someone who loves to give to the poor, she graduated from college and worked in a bank where she flew around the world to review bank loans. When she realized her bank would not lending money to the poor, she resigned and joined a nonprofit that uses the platform of the African Development Bank (ADB) to promote economic development in Africa. The nonprofit is based in Cote d’Ivoire, and she had no knowledge of the French language neither did she know how she was going to cope with the new culture in Africa. Her first conference, however, would be in Nairobi, Kenya where the women made it clear to her that she was not welcome, the women did not agree with her taking a position of power in the ADB. In her first few months in Kenya, she helped a woman open a bank account for the first time. After she was treated poorly in the Ivory Coast, she decided to leave but asked why she was being treated poorly, one of the women said they liked her but didn’t like what she represented. This made her understand that if she wanted to help  Africa, she needed to understand herself and accept Africa on its own terms.

If one is going to effect change, there is a need to understand one’s self and the people you are going to be involved with, knowledge is power, but it means nothing if you are trying to impose this knowledge on others without asking if the people already possess this knowledge or even if they need it. This is what happened to Jacqueline with the women of Rwanda and Ivory Coast. She was brave to leave her well-secured Job in the United States and take on a project that seems impossible. When she arrived in Rwanda, she studied the situation of the Rwandan and understood that if you support a woman, you support a whole family. Therefore, she worked together with the Rwandan women to set up a micro-finance bank that would loan money to women with a chance or repaying the loan. This microfinance bank called Duterimbere has helped the people of Rwanda 20 years after it was established (Novogratz, 2010). This was due to the determination and sheer will of Novogratz.

It takes someone willing to put down time and effort to effect change in any situation. Jacqueline Novogratz was willing to bridge a gap between the poor and the rich something she saw in Brazil and Gambia. In her bid to achieve this even though she has started in Rwanda with the Micro-finance bank and a bakery, she still wanted to update herself on management which she believes will equip her to help the poor even better. These are the efforts it takes to be a better person, to make a difference in a difficult situation. In the end, the success is definitely going to arrive as Jacqueline was able to establish the Acumen Fund, an organization that invests in social entrepreneurs to help the poor. The book blue sweater shows that whatever mission you set yourself if you are focused and passionate, you would achieve it as this “ordinary” extraordinary woman has done.

References

Novogratz, J. (2010). The blue sweater: Bridging the gap between rich and poor in an interconnected world. Rodale.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
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