The Blue Sweater is not only a deeply personal coming-of-age story of a young idealist determined to change the world, but it is also a call to action to all those concerned with growing inequality around the globe. Novogratz relates her experiences over two decades, first in Africa and later in India and Pakistan. Her story is a true testament to the indomitable quality of the human spirit and the power of hope and optimism to create real change.
This book is filled with remarkable stories. The title of the book refers to a distinctive blue sweater that the author wore as a child and eventually gave to Goodwill. Ten years later, when jogging in Kigali, Rwanda, she saw a native boy wearing her sweater, which she verified by seeing her name on the tag. She writes: "The story of the blue sweater has always reminded me of how we are all connected."
Another remarkable story is about Rwanda, where the author helped found a microfinance institution for women, with the support of Rwanda's three female parliamentarians, and became particularly involved with a bakery and the women who worked there. Years later, after the Rwandan genocide, she returned to see what became of the women who worked at the bakery and the female politicians. Some of the women had been killed, others had lost their families, and others were in prison for their roles in the genocide. After visiting these women, the author struggled to understand how someone who had done so much good could be involved in such evil.
Through swift-moving chapters rich with detail and memory, Novogratz makes the argument over and over again: “One way to solve poverty (is) to link grassroots organisations to the resources and skills of mainstream corporations.”
The reader travels with her through Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, learning along the way about how the poor are trapped in a downward spiral of poverty, and how government and international aid often makes the problem worse.
Novogratz happened to be in some interesting places at interesting times - Rwanda just before the genocide, NYC on 9/11, Pakistan soon after - so her stories and the people she meets are not only interesting but topical to the headlines. It's a personal book and at least half of it is human interest story which, while usually engaging, can be tedious in the amount of extraneous detail - while some authors use food to spice up their memoirs, Novogratz uses clothing descriptions throughout to give it color.
Novogratz made and saw a lot of mistakes and the central lessons she has to offer are as follows: Giving money like a traditional charity for free doesn't work, the recipients have to be treated as equals and not victims. Institutions have to be built in the country, owned and run by the people who will benefit - with oversight help and funding from outside until they become large enough to become self-sufficient. It should be run as a company with a profit motive. Finding entrepreneurs and giving them the tools to invest their energies is the key to scalability.
Novogratz makes this easy to grasp by telling us how she learned, through her own successes and failures, about the intricacies of working in countries that have a completely different business and cultural ethos. This makes the story both deeply instructive and personal at the same time.
Through swift-moving chapters rich with detail and memory, Novogratz makes the argument over and over again: “One way to solve poverty (is) to link grassroots organisations to the resources and skills of mainstream corporations.”
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