ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jacqueline Novogratz - Investor and advocate for moral leadership
Jacqueline Novogratz works to enable human flourishing. Her organization, Acumen, invests in people, companies and ideas that see capital and networks as means, not ends, to solving the toughest issues of poverty.

Why you should listen

Jacqueline Novogratz writes: "I want to build a movement in which we define success based on the amount of human energy we release in the world.

"I started my career on Wall Street and soon discovered that markets are efficient, but by themselves they too often overlook or exploit the poor. So I moved to Rwanda in 1986 to help found the country’s first micro-finance bank. There I saw the humanitarian ethos of philanthropy, and also how often top-down solutions too often create dependency, the opposite of dignity. Through 30 years of working on solutions to poverty, I have come to redefine it for myself, seeing it not as how much income a person earns, but how free they are to make their own choices and decisions, how much agency they have over their own lives.

Acumen was founded to change the way the world tackles poverty in 2001. Our mission was simple – to raise philanthropy and invest it as patient capital – long-term investment in intrepid entrepreneurs willing to go where markets and government had failed the poor. We enable companies to experiment and fail, never wavering from a commitment to stand with the poor, yet understanding that profitability is necessary for sustainable solutions. We’ve invested more than $110M across South Asia, Africa, Latin America and the US, and have seen entire sectors disrupted and hundreds of millions served.

The work also taught that it was critical to invest in talent. To date, we’ve supported nearly 400 Acumen Fellows across lines of race, class, ethnicity, religion and ideology. They are a beautiful group, full of vision and grit, and a determination to do what is right, not easy. The group itself enables individual leaders to endure the loneliness that is part of the work.

And then we measure what matters rather than just what we can count. Take this all together and you see our mission to do what it takes to build a world in which all of us have the chance to dream and to flourish, not from a place of easy sentimentality but through a commitment to using the tools of capitalism and the attributes of moral leadership to focus on doing what it takes, and no less.

More profile about the speaker
Jacqueline Novogratz | Speaker | TED.com
TED2009

Jacqueline Novogratz: An escape from poverty

Jacqueline Novogratz comenta sobre a fuga da pobreza.

Filmed:
1,298,963 views

Jacqueline Novogratz conta uma história comovente sobre um encontro em uma favela de Nairóbi, com Jane, uma ex-prostituta, cujo sonho de escapar da pobreza, de se tornar uma médica e de casar-se foram realizados de uma forma inesperada.
- Investor and advocate for moral leadership
Jacqueline Novogratz works to enable human flourishing. Her organization, Acumen, invests in people, companies and ideas that see capital and networks as means, not ends, to solving the toughest issues of poverty. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
I've been working on issues of poverty for more than 20 years,
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Eu tenho trabalhado com questões de pobreza por mais de 20 anos,
00:16
and so it's ironic that the problem that and question that I most grapple with
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e é tão irônico que o problema e a questão que eu mais lido
00:21
is how you actually define poverty. What does it mean?
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é como você define a pobreza. O que ela significa?
00:24
So often, we look at dollar terms --
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Muitas vezes, nós olhamos em termos de dinheiro --
00:26
people making less than a dollar or two or three a day.
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pessoas que ganham menos de um dólar ou dois ou três por dia.
00:28
And yet the complexity of poverty really has to look at
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E ainda a complexidade da pobreza tem que realmente olhar
00:33
income as only one variable.
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para a renda, apenas como uma única variável.
00:35
Because really, it's a condition about choice,
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Porque realmente, ela é uma condição de escolha,
00:37
and the lack of freedom.
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e a falta de liberdade.
00:39
And I had an experience that really deepened and elucidated for me
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E eu tive uma experiência que realmente aprofundou e esclareceu para mim
00:42
the understanding that I have.
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o entendimento que eu tenho.
00:44
It was in Kenya, and I want to share it with you.
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Foi no Quênia, e eu quero compartilhar isso com você.
00:46
I was with my friend Susan Meiselas, the photographer,
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Eu estava com minha amiga Susan Meiselas, a fotógrafa,
00:48
in the Mathare Valley slums.
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nas favelas de Mathare Valley.
00:50
Now, Mathare Valley is one of the oldest slums in Africa.
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Agora, Mathare Valley é uma das favelas mais antigas da África.
00:53
It's about three miles out of Nairobi,
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Esta a cerca de quatro quilometros de Nairobi,
00:55
and it's a mile long and about two-tenths of a mile wide,
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e tem 1,6 quilômetro de comprimento e cerca de trezentos metros de largura,
00:58
where over half a million people
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onde mais de meio milhão de pessoas
01:00
live crammed in these little tin shacks,
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vivem apertadas nesses barracos de lata,
01:02
generation after generation, renting them,
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geração após geração, alugando-as,
01:05
often eight or 10 people to a room.
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geralmente de oito ou 10 pessoas por quarto.
01:07
And it's known for prostitution, violence, drugs:
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E é conhecido pela prostituição, violência, drogas.
01:13
a hard place to grow up.
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Um lugar difícil de crescer.
01:15
And when we were walking through the narrow alleys,
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E quando estávamos caminhando pelas ruas estreitas,
01:17
it was literally impossible not to step in the
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era literalmente impossível não pisar no
01:20
raw sewage and the garbage alongside the little homes.
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esgoto e no lixo ao lado das casas pequenas.
01:24
But at the same time it was also
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Mas, ao mesmo tempo, foi também
01:26
impossible not to see the human vitality,
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impossível não ver a vitalidade humana,
01:29
the aspiration and the ambition of the people who live there:
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a aspiração e a ambição das pessoas que vivem ali.
01:32
women washing their babies, washing their clothes, hanging them out to dry.
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Mulheres lavando seus bebês, lavando suas roupas, pendurando-as para secar.
01:35
I met this woman, Mama Rose,
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Eu conheci essa mulher, Mama Rose,
01:37
who has rented that little tin shack for 32 years,
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que alugou seu barraco de lata por 32 anos,
01:40
where she lives with her seven children.
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onde ela vive com os seus sete filhos.
01:42
Four sleep in one twin bed,
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Quatro dormem em uma cama de solteiro,
01:44
and three sleep on the mud and linoleum floor.
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e três dormem na lama e piso de linóleo.
01:47
And she keeps them all in school by selling water from that kiosk,
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E ela mantém todos na escola com a venda de água daquele quiosque,
01:51
and from selling soap and bread from the little store inside.
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e da venda de sabão e pão de uma loja pequena no interior.
01:55
It was also the day after the inauguration,
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Foi também um dia depois da posse (de Obama),
01:57
and I was reminded how Mathare is still connected to the globe.
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e eu fui lembrada como Mathare ainda está conectado ao mundo
02:01
And I would see kids on the street corners,
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E eu viria as crianças nas esquinas,
02:03
and they'd say "Obama, he's our brother!"
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e eles diziam " Obama, ele é nosso irmão!"
02:05
And I'd say "Well, Obama's my brother, so that makes you my brother too."
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E eu dizia: "Bem, Obama é meu irmão, isso faz com que você seja meu irmão também."
02:08
And they would look quizzically, and then be like, "High five!"
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Eles olhavam com desconfiança e, em seguida, estavam assim, "High five!"
02:12
And it was here that I met Jane.
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E foi aqui que conheci Jane.
02:15
I was struck immediately by the kindness and the gentleness in her face,
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Fiquei imediatamente impressionada com a bondade e gentileza em seu rosto,
02:18
and I asked her to tell me her story.
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e eu pedi que me contasse sua história.
02:21
She started off by telling me her dream. She said, "I had two.
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Ela começou me contando sobre o seu sonho. Ela disse: "Eu tinha dois.
02:24
My first dream was to be a doctor,
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Meu primeiro sonho era ser uma médica,
02:26
and the second was to marry a good man
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e o segundo era de casar com um homem bom
02:28
who would stay with me and my family,
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que iria ficar comigo e minha família.
02:30
because my mother was a single mom,
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Porque a minha mãe era uma mãe solteira,
02:32
and couldn't afford to pay for school fees.
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e não tinha recursos para pagar as taxas escolares.
02:34
So I had to give up the first dream, and I focused on the second."
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Então eu tive que desistir do primeiro sonho, e me concentrei no segundo."
02:38
She got married when she was 18, had a baby right away.
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Ela se casou quando tinha 18 anos, teve um bebê imediatamente.
02:41
And when she turned 20, found herself pregnant with a second child,
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E quando ela completou 20 anos, descobriu-se grávida do segundo filho,
02:45
her mom died and her husband left her -- married another woman.
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sua mãe morreu e seu marido a deixou - foi se casar com outra mulher.
02:49
So she was again in Mathare, with no income, no skill set, no money.
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Então, ela estava novamente em Mathare, sem renda, nenhuma educação, sem dinheiro.
02:53
And so she ultimately turned to prostitution.
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E assim como último recurso ela foi para a prostituição.
02:56
It wasn't organized in the way we often think of it.
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Não foi organizado na forma como muitas vezes nós pensamos
02:58
She would go into the city at night with about 20 girls,
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Ela iria para a cidade à noite, com cerca de 20 meninas,
03:01
look for work, and sometimes come back with a few shillings,
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procurava trabalho, e às vezes voltavam com alguns xelins
03:04
or sometimes with nothing.
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ou algumas vezes com nada.
03:06
And she said, "You know, the poverty wasn't so bad. It was the humiliation
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Ela disse: "Você sabe, a pobreza não era tão ruim assim. Era a humilhação
03:09
and the embarrassment of it all."
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e a vergonha de tudo. "
03:11
In 2001, her life changed.
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Em 2001, sua vida mudou.
03:15
She had a girlfriend who had heard about this organization, Jamii Bora,
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Ela tinha uma amiga que tinha ouvido falar sobre esta organização, Jamii Bora
03:19
that would lend money to people no matter how poor you were,
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que empresta dinheiro a pessoas pobres não importa o quão pobre seja,
03:22
as long as you provided a commensurate amount in savings.
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contanto que você reserve uma quantia proporcional na poupança.
03:26
And so she spent a year to save 50 dollars,
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E assim ela passou um ano para economizar 50 dólares,
03:29
and started borrowing, and over time she was able to buy a sewing machine.
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e começou a tomar emprestado, e com o tempo ela foi capaz de comprar uma máquina de costura.
03:34
She started tailoring.
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Ela começou a costurar.
03:35
And that turned into what she does now,
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E isso se transformou no que ela faz agora
03:38
which is to go into the secondhand clothing markets,
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que é para ir para a roupa de segunda mão nos mercados
03:40
and for about three dollars and 25 cents she buys an old ball gown.
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e por cerca de três dólares e 25 centavos, ela compra um vestido de baile
03:44
Some of them might be ones you gave.
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Alguns deles podem ser aqueles que você deram.
03:46
And she repurposes them with frills and ribbons,
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E ela os adapta com babados e fitas,
03:50
and makes these frothy confections that she sells to women
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e faz com que essas confecções espumosas venda para as mulheres
03:54
for their daughter's Sweet 16 or first Holy Communion --
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para a sua filha querida para os 16 anos ou para a Primeira Comunhão
03:58
those milestones in a life that people want to celebrate
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para esses marcos de uma vida que as pessoas querem celebrar
04:01
all along the economic spectrum.
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juntamente com o espectro econômico.
04:03
And she does really good business. In fact, I watched her
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E ela sabe fazer negócios muito bem. Na verdade, eu a assisti
04:06
walk through the streets hawking. And before you knew it,
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andando pelas ruas e vendendo. E antes de você perceber,
04:08
there was a crowd of women around her, buying these dresses.
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havia uma multidão de mulheres à sua volta, comprando esses vestidos.
04:12
And I reflected, as I was watching her sell the dresses,
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E eu pensei, quando eu estava observando-a vender os vestidos,
04:15
and also the jewelry that she makes,
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e também para as bijouterias que ela faz
04:17
that now Jane makes more than four dollars a day.
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que agora Jane ganha mais do que quatro dolares por dia.
04:20
And by many definitions she is no longer poor.
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E que por definição ela não é mais pobre.
04:23
But she still lives in Mathare Valley.
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Mas ela ainda vive no Mathare Valley.
04:25
And so she can't move out.
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E assim, ela não pode crescer.
04:28
She lives with all of that insecurity,
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Ela vive com toda essa insegurança
04:30
and in fact, in January, during the ethnic riots,
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e, de fato, em janeiro, durante os motins étnicos,
04:33
she was chased from her home and had to find a new shack
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Ela foi expulsa de sua casa e teve que encontrar um novo barraco
04:35
in which she would live.
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no qual ela pudesse viver.
04:37
Jamii Bora understands that and understands
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Jamii Bora entende isso. E entende
04:39
that when we're talking about poverty,
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que quando estamos falando sobre pobreza,
04:41
we've got to look at people all along the economic spectrum.
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temos que olhar para todas as pessoas ao longo do seu espectro econômico.
04:44
And so with patient capital from Acumen and other organizations,
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E assim, com o capital da paciência da Acumen e outras organizações,
04:47
loans and investments that will go the long term with them,
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empréstimos e investimentos irão, a longo prazo estar com eles,
04:50
they built a low-cost housing development,
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Eles construíram um conjunto habitacional de baixo custo,
04:54
about an hour outside Nairobi central.
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cerca de uma hora fora de Nairóbi
04:58
And they designed it from the perspective of
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E eles desenharam o projeto a partir da perspectiva de
05:00
customers like Jane herself,
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clientes como a Jane,
05:02
insisting on responsibility and accountability.
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insistindo na responsabilidade e prestação de contas.
05:04
So she has to give 10 percent of the mortgage --
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Então, ela tem que dar 10 por cento das hipotecas
05:08
of the total value, or about 400 dollars in savings.
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do valor total, ou cerca de 400 dólares em economias.
05:12
And then they match her mortgage to what she paid in rent for her little shanty.
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E então eles combinam a sua hipoteca com o que ela paga de aluguel no seu pequeno barraco.
05:17
And in the next couple of weeks, she's going to be
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E nas próximas duas semanas, ela vai ser
05:19
among the first 200 families to move into this development.
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uma dentre as primeiras 200 famílias a mudar para esse empreendimento.
05:22
When I asked her if she feared anything,
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Quando eu perguntei se ela temia algo,
05:26
or whether she would miss anything from Mathare,
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ou se ela iria sentir saudades de Mathare,
05:28
she said, "What would I fear
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ela disse, "do que posso temer
05:30
that I haven't confronted already?
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da qual eu já não tinha confrontado?
05:32
I'm HIV positive. I've dealt with it all."
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Eu sou HIV soropositiva. Eu lidei com tudo isso."
05:36
And she said, "What would I miss?
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E ela disse, "O que eu poderia sentir saudades?
05:39
You think I will miss the violence or the drugs? The lack of privacy?
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Você pensa que eu iria sentir falta da violência ou das drogas? A falta de privacidade?
05:42
Do you think I'll miss not knowing if my children are going to come home
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Você acha que eu vou sentir falta de não saber se meus filhos vão voltar para casa
05:44
at the end of the day?" She said "If you gave me 10 minutes
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no final do dia?" Ela disse "Se você me desse 10 minutos
05:46
my bags would be packed."
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minhas malas estariam prontas".
05:48
I said, "Well what about your dreams?"
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Eu disse, "bem e quanto aos seus sonhos?"
05:51
And she said, "Well, you know,
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e ela disse, "Bom, você sabe,
05:53
my dreams don't look exactly like I thought they would when I was a little girl.
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meus sonhos não se parecem exatamente como o que eu pensava que seria quando eu era uma garotinha.
05:57
But if I think about it, I thought I wanted a husband,
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Mas se eu pensar sobre isso, eu pensava que queria um marido,
06:01
but what I really wanted was a family
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mas na verdade eu realmente queria uma familia
06:04
that was loving. And I fiercely love my children, and they love me back."
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que fosse carinhosa. E eu amo os meus filhos ferozmente, e eles me amam de volta. "
06:08
She said, "I thought that I wanted to be a doctor,
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Ela disse, " Eu pensei que eu queria ser uma médica,
06:11
but what I really wanted to be was somebody
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mas o que eu realmente queria era ser alguém
06:13
who served and healed and cured.
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que sirva e sara e cura.
06:16
And so I feel so blessed with everything that I have,
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E assim eu me sinto tão abençoada com tudo o que eu tenho,
06:19
that two days a week I go and I counsel HIV patients.
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que dois dias por semana eu vou aconselhar os pacientes de HIV.
06:23
And I say, 'Look at me. You are not dead.
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E eu digo: "Olhe para mim. Você não está morto.
06:26
You are still alive. And if you are still alive you have to serve.'"
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Você ainda está vivo. Se você ainda estiver vivo você tem que servir"
06:29
And she said, "I'm not a doctor who gives out pills.
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E ela disse: "Eu não sou uma médica que dá pílulas.
06:33
But maybe me, I give out something better
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mas talvez eu dê algo melhor
06:35
because I give them hope."
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porque eu dou esperança para eles"
06:37
And in the middle of this economic crisis,
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E no meio dessa crise econômica,
06:41
where so many of us are inclined to pull in
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onde tantos se inclinam a se deixar viver
06:44
with fear, I think we're well suited to
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com medo, eu acredito que nós estamos bem preparados
06:48
take a cue from Jane and reach out,
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para seguir o exemplo da Jane e estender a mão,
06:51
recognizing that being poor doesn't mean being ordinary.
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reconhecendo que o fato de ser pobre não significa ser qualquer pessoa.
06:55
Because when systems are broken,
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porque quando os sistemas são demolidos,
06:57
like the ones that we're seeing around the world,
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como os que estamos vendo no mundo,
06:59
it's an opportunity for invention and for innovation.
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é uma oportunidade para invenção e para inovação.
07:02
It's an opportunity to truly build a world
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É uma oportunidade para construir realmente um mundo
07:05
where we can extend services and products
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onde poderemos oferecer serviços e produtos
07:08
to all human beings, so that they can
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para todos os seres humanos, para que eles possam
07:11
make decisions and choices for themselves.
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tomar decisões e escolhas para eles mesmos.
07:13
I truly believe it's where dignity starts.
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Eu verdadeiramente acredito que isso é onde dignidade começa.
07:15
We owe it to the Janes of the world.
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Nós devemos isso às Janes do mundo.
07:18
And just as important, we owe it to ourselves.
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E o mais importante, devemos isso a nós mesmos.
07:21
Thank you.
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Muito obrigada.
07:23
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
Translated by Cassandra Alexandra
Reviewed by Volney Faustini

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jacqueline Novogratz - Investor and advocate for moral leadership
Jacqueline Novogratz works to enable human flourishing. Her organization, Acumen, invests in people, companies and ideas that see capital and networks as means, not ends, to solving the toughest issues of poverty.

Why you should listen

Jacqueline Novogratz writes: "I want to build a movement in which we define success based on the amount of human energy we release in the world.

"I started my career on Wall Street and soon discovered that markets are efficient, but by themselves they too often overlook or exploit the poor. So I moved to Rwanda in 1986 to help found the country’s first micro-finance bank. There I saw the humanitarian ethos of philanthropy, and also how often top-down solutions too often create dependency, the opposite of dignity. Through 30 years of working on solutions to poverty, I have come to redefine it for myself, seeing it not as how much income a person earns, but how free they are to make their own choices and decisions, how much agency they have over their own lives.

Acumen was founded to change the way the world tackles poverty in 2001. Our mission was simple – to raise philanthropy and invest it as patient capital – long-term investment in intrepid entrepreneurs willing to go where markets and government had failed the poor. We enable companies to experiment and fail, never wavering from a commitment to stand with the poor, yet understanding that profitability is necessary for sustainable solutions. We’ve invested more than $110M across South Asia, Africa, Latin America and the US, and have seen entire sectors disrupted and hundreds of millions served.

The work also taught that it was critical to invest in talent. To date, we’ve supported nearly 400 Acumen Fellows across lines of race, class, ethnicity, religion and ideology. They are a beautiful group, full of vision and grit, and a determination to do what is right, not easy. The group itself enables individual leaders to endure the loneliness that is part of the work.

And then we measure what matters rather than just what we can count. Take this all together and you see our mission to do what it takes to build a world in which all of us have the chance to dream and to flourish, not from a place of easy sentimentality but through a commitment to using the tools of capitalism and the attributes of moral leadership to focus on doing what it takes, and no less.

More profile about the speaker
Jacqueline Novogratz | Speaker | TED.com