Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
-9% $14.56$14.56
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: KyncStore
$7.50$7.50
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: -OnTimeBooks-
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Image Unavailable
Color:
-
-
-
- To view this video download Flash Player
- VIDEO
Audible sample Sample
The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World Paperback – January 1, 2009
Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
There is a newer edition of this item:
Purchase options and add-ons
“An inspiring book by a remarkable woman.”—People
It all started with the blue sweater, the one my uncle Ed gave me. . . . The blue sweater had made a complex journey, from my closet in Alexandria, Virginia, to a young child in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. . . . The story of the blue sweater has always reminded me of how we are all connected. Our actions—and inaction—touch people we may never know and never meet across the globe.
Jacqueline Novogratz left a career in international banking to spend her life on a quest to understand global poverty and find powerful new ways of tackling it. From her first stumbling efforts as a young idealist venturing forth in Africa to the creation of the trailblazing organization she runs today, Novogratz tells gripping stories with unforgettable characters. She shows how traditional charity often fails, but how a new form of philanthropic investing called “patient capital” can help make people self-sufficient and can change millions of lives.
More than just an autobiography or a how-to guide to addressing poverty, The Blue Sweater is a call to action that challenges us to grant dignity to the poor and to rethink our engagement with the world.
Jacqueline will donate her paperback royalties to Acumen Fund and other organizations fighting for social change.
- Print length306 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherRodale Books
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 2009
- Dimensions5.48 x 0.84 x 8.38 inches
- ISBN-109781605294766
- ISBN-13978-1605294766
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now
Frequently bought together
Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
Editorial Reviews
Review
“The decency of Jacqueline Novogratz shines through these pages and so does her strength. The stories she shares about the people she has met show the nobility of the human spirit and the breadth of the desire to stop suffering, to feed the hungry, to care for the sick, to empower the poor - in short, to make the world a better place. The Blue Sweater is a book of hope written by a practical idealist who won't take "no" for an answer when it comes to building a better world. Jacqueline breathes new life into the phrase "a life of meaning" and she is living one everyday even as she asks us to join her.” —Senator Bill Bradley
“The Blue Sweater will inspire people around the world by seeing the difference one person can make in taking on challenges with courage, curiosity, drive and a great sense of possibility. It is a story for all of us, regardless of the country in which we were born.” —Mary Robinson, Chair of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative
“Jacqueline's book and her work represent an entirely new way to look at things, a vivid opportunity for change and most of all, an obligation to spread the word about the way the world has evolved. We need to wake up and listen to what she has to say. Hurry!” —Seth Godin, author of Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us and Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
“Jacqueline is a national treasure. Her pioneering work at Acumen Fund is positively influencing a whole generation of donors and recipients.” —Seth Berkley, President and founder of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
“A captivating first-person account of a young woman's quest to close the gap between rich and poor. If one person can change the world, this is your window into how it's done.” —Chee Pearlman, former Editor in Chief, I.D. Magazine
“If you believe in the worth and capacity of individual initiative and in group commitment, or if you believe that our lives can be transformed by the events we live through, then you must read this book.” —Daniel Toole, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
INNOCENT ABROAD
"There is no passion to be found playing small in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." --NELSON MANDELA
It all started with the blue sweater, the one my uncle Ed gave me. He was like Santa to me, even in the middle of July.
Of soft blue wool, with stripes on the sleeves and an African motif across the front--two zebras walking in front of a snowcapped mountain--the sweater made me dream of places far away. I hadn't heard of Mount Kilimanjaro, nor did I have any idea that Africa would one day find a prominent place in my heart. Still, I loved that sweater and wore it often and everywhere. I wrote my name on the tag to ensure that it would be mine forever.
In our neighborhood in Virginia in the 1970s, new clothing was a once- or twice-a-year event. We would shop in September for school and at Christmastime and then make do for the year. As the eldest of seven children, at least I didn't have to wear many hand-me-downs, and I liked choosing my own clothes; still, I loved that blue sweater. I wore it for years--right through middle school and into my freshman year in high school- -though it started to fit me differently then, hugging adolescent curves I fought mightily to ignore.
But then my high school nemesis (who would burn down the school in our senior year by throwing a Molotov cocktail into the principal's office) ruined everything. At our school, the cool kids and athletes hung out in "Jock Hall," the area right outside the gym. During football season, the cheerleaders would decorate the hall with crepe paper streamers while the guys strutted around like peacocks in green and gold jerseys. Only a freshman, I was breathless just to be admitted to the scene. One Friday afternoon, the captain of the team had asked me on a date right there in the middle of the hall. The very air seemed to crackle with expectation.
And there was that mean kid, standing right beside me, talking to boys from the junior varsity football team about the first ski trip of the winter. He stared at my sweater, and I gave him the coldest look I could muster. "We don't have to go anywhere to ski," he yelled, pointing at my chest. "We can do it on Mount Novogratz."
The other boys joined him in laughter. I died a thousand deaths.
That afternoon, I marched home and announced to my mother that the vile sweater had to go. How could she have let me walk out of the house looking so mortifyingly bad? Despite my high drama, she drove me to the Goodwill in our Ford station wagon with the wood panels on the sides. Ceremoniously, we disposed of the sweater; I was glad never to have to see it again and tried hard to forget it.
FAST-FORWARD TO EARLY 1987: Twenty-five years old, I was jogging up and down the hilly streets of Kigali, Rwanda. I'd come to the country to help establish a microfinance institution for poor women. With my Walkman playing Joe Cocker singing "With a Little Help from My Friends," I felt as if I were in a music video. On the road, women walked with bunches of yellow bananas on their heads, their hips swaying in time with the song's rhythm. Even the tall cypress trees at the roadsides seemed to shimmy. I was in a dream on a sunny, big-sky Kigali afternoon, far away from home.
From out of nowhere, a young boy walked toward me, wearing the sweater--my sweater, the beloved but abandoned blue one. He was perhaps 10 years old, skinny, with a shaved head and huge eyes, not more than 4 feet tall. The sweater hung so low it hid his shorts, covering toothpick legs and knobby knees. Only his fingertips poked out of baggy sleeves. Still, there was no doubt: This was my sweater.
Excitedly, I ran over to the child, who looked up at me, obviously terrified. I didn't speak a word of Kinyarwanda, nor did he speak French, the language on which I relied in Rwanda. As the boy stood frozen, I kept pointing to the sweater, trying not to become too agitated. I grabbed him by the shoulders and turned down the collar: Sure enough, my name was written on the tag of my sweater that had traveled thousands of miles for more than a decade.
The blue sweater had made a complex journey, from Alexandria, Virginia, to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. It may have gone first to a little girl in the United States, then back to the Goodwill once more before traveling across the ocean, most likely to Mombasa, on the coast of Kenya, one of Africa's most active ports. It would have arrived after being fumigated and packed into 100-£d bales along with other pieces of cast-off clothing, everything from T-shirts sold at bars at the Jersey shore to overcoats to evening gowns. The bales would have been sold to secondhand clothing distributors, who would allow retailers to discard the useless pieces and buy what they thought they could sell. Over time, many of those secondhand clothing traders would move into the middle class.
The story of the blue sweater has always reminded me of how we are all connected. Our actions--and inaction--touch people we may never know and never meet across the globe. The story of the blue sweater is also my personal story: Seeing my sweater on that child renewed my sense of purpose in Africa. At that point in my own journey, my worldview was shifting. I'd begun my career as an international banker, discovering the power of capital, of markets, and of politics, as well as how the poor are so often excluded from all three. I wanted to understand better what stands between poverty and wealth.
It had been a long and winding road getting to Rwanda in the first place-- an unimagined outcome of choices made, sometimes with a sense of purpose, at times with reason, and sometimes simply by choosing the less traveled paths.
WHEN I WAS 5, our family lived in Detroit. It was the mid-1960s and the city was plagued by race riots and protests against the Vietnam War. My dashing father, a lieutenant in the army, had the unenviable job of helping the mothers of dead soldiers bury their sons. I remember hearing my father's strained voice as he told my mother about the injustice of so many young soldiers being economically disadvantaged. My mother, young and beautiful, would hug me close when I'd ask so many questions about why people weren't all treated the same way.
The next year, my father was serving his second of three tours in Vietnam and Korea, and we'd moved to a town outside of West Point, New York. I would walk to school early to meet my first-grade teacher, Sister Mary Theophane, and help her clean the sacristy. She was a jolly woman with round, wire-rimmed glasses that matched her apple face, and I adored being near her. I'd run past little mom-and-pop shops on the quiet streets, dressed in the dark green pleated skirt and pressed white cotton blouse I would have laid out the night before to ensure I wouldn't be late.
Sacred Heart was an old school, right next door to the church, with little wooden desks for the students and a concrete playground outside. Sister was known as one of the kindest of the nuns, though she had high expectations for content--and handwriting. If we earned a perfect test score, she'd hand us a card with a summary of the life of a saint printed on it, and I studied diligently to collect as many cards as I could. I found their lives an inspiration, even if some of them did end up in vats of boiling oil.
A poster of two hands holding a rice bowl hung on the classroom wall, making me think about faraway places, trying to imagine the lives of children in China, wanting to see it for myself. When I told Sister Theophane I wanted to be a nun, she enfolded me in her thick black robes and told me I was just a child, but it was a lovely idea.
"Regardless of what you become," she said, "remember always that to whom much is given, much is expected. God gave you many gifts and it is important that you use them for others as best you can."
Though we moved again and again throughout the United States until I was 10 years old, my mother and father masterfully created a sense of home, making us feel safe and rooted no matter where we lived. By the time I entered high school, our brood was living in a four-bedroom house in suburban Virginia: It was the place all the neighborhood kids wanted to be. Dreams of the convent had long passed, and I thought much more about boys and parties, though I still expected to change the world.
In summertime, my uncle Ed who gave me the sweater would throw big parties for our extended family, which meant my grandmother and her five sisters, their children, and their children's children. We were a tribe of hundreds made larger by close friends who came to feel like they shared the same blood in their veins. We called my grandmother and her sisters, all from good peasant stock in Austria, the Six Tons of Fun. They worked hard, but they knew how to enjoy themselves, dancing with full glasses of beer balanced on their heads and laughing as they whispered stories to one another. Meanwhile, their offspring would play competitive games and drink and dance till the wee hours of the morning. If there was a family ethic, it was to work hard, go to church, be good to your family, and live out loud. We learned from our elders to be tough, to not complain, and to always show up for one another. I didn't understand then how much about tribe and community I learned from this American family.
The strained finances at home meant that my siblings and I had no choice but to be scrappy and enterprising. At 10, I babysat and sold Christmas ornaments door-to-door. By 12, I was shoveling snow in the winter and mowing grass in the summer. At 14, I spent the summer working the midnight shift behind the ice cream counter at Howard Johnson's until a toppled bucket of boiling water sent me to the hospital with third-degree burns. Not long after, I was bartending, earning $300 in tips on a good night.
These jobs--plus a series of student loans--allowed me to finance my education at the University of Virginia. As I was about to graduate, I remember feeling a deep sense of pride in knowing that I would forever have the tools to support myself, no matter what happened in life. But I wanted a break and hoped to take some time off to tend bar and ski and then figure out how I would change the world. My parents agreed to the plan, provided that I promise to go through the interview process--"just for practice."
At the University Career Center, I dutifully dropped my resume in all of the boxes labeled for job seekers in international relations or economics, and I was surprised when the center called to tell me I had an interview with Chase Manhattan Bank. I walked into the first interview of my life, dressed in a drab gray, masculine wool suit that made me feel like an imposter, and met a young man with sandy blond hair and piercing blue eyes who didn't look much older than me.
"Tell me why you want to be a banker," he suggested after introducing himself.
I looked at him for a moment, not knowing what to say. Being a terrible liar, I told him the truth.
"I don't want to be a banker," I said. "I want to change the world. I'm hoping to take next year off, but my parents asked me to go through the interview process. I'm so sorry."
"Well," he said with a grin, shaking his head, "that's too bad. Because if you got this job, you would be traveling to 40 countries in the next 3 years and learning a lot not only about banking, but the entire world."
I gulped. "Is that really true?" I asked, my face completely red. "You know, part of my dream is to travel and learn about the world."
"It is really true," he sighed.
"Then do you think we might start this interview all over again?" I asked.
"Why not?" he shrugged, raising his eyebrows and smiling.
I walked out the door and closed it, counted to 10, walked back in, and introduced myself with a big handshake.
"So, Miss Novogratz," he smiled. "Tell me, why do you want to be a banker?"
"Well, ever since I was 6 years old, it has been my dream . . . ," I started.
And it went from there.
Miraculously, I got the job, and thus began 3 of the best years of my life. I moved to New York City and, after completing the credit training program, joined a group called Credit Audit, a division of 60 young bankers, most just out of university, who would fly first-class around the world and review the quality of the bank's loans, especially in troubled economies. The first time I ever left the United States, I landed in Singapore; the second, Argentina. Life had become a dream.
In Chile, we would spend the day reviewing loans made to copper mines and industrial concerns. In Peru, I came to understand the danger capital flight presented to already unstable economies. In Hong Kong, we studied the great trading houses such as Jardine Matheson and saw firsthand how Asia was rapidly changing. It was a stunning, privileged education. I began to see myself as a wanderer and a wonderer, a true citizen of the world. But no place changed my life like Brazil.
The minute I landed in Rio, I felt I'd arrived in a magical place that somehow already lived inside me. We walked off the plane and across the tarmac in a light summer rainstorm while just beyond us there was not a cloud in the bright blue sky. Though our job at the bank was to write off millions of dollars in debt that would never be collected, the Brazilians there were friendly and warm, never taking themselves, or us, too seriously. I worked till late during the week, always to the dismay of my Brazilian colleagues, who tried hard to explain that "Americans live to work while we work to live." I used the weekends to explore.
Product details
- ASIN : 1605294764
- Publisher : Rodale Books; First Edition (January 1, 2009)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 306 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781605294766
- ISBN-13 : 978-1605294766
- Item Weight : 11.5 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.48 x 0.84 x 8.38 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #270,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #132 in Poverty
- #267 in Social Activist Biographies
- #8,543 in Memoirs (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Videos
Videos for this product
2:36
Click to play video
The Blue Sweater
Merchant Video
About the author
Until May 26th, your purchase of Manifesto for a Moral Revolution will give you free access to Jaqueline's class "The Path of Moral Leadership." Visit acumenacademy.org to redeem and learn important practices from leaders who have broken boundaries and improved how the poor, the vulnerable, and the earth are treated.
Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Acumen. She has been named one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy, one of the 25 Smartest People of the Decade by the Daily Beast, and one of the world’s 100 Greatest Living Business Minds by Forbes, which also honored her with the Forbes 400 Lifetime Achievement Award for Social Entrepreneurship.
More information at www.acumen.org/moralrevolution. All proceeds from the book sales go to Acumen to fight poverty and support moral leaders.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Although Novogratz may not view herself as a change maker, it is obvious that after reading her story, she changed many people's lives. Not only did she change those lives she worked with, but I believe she changes readers' lives after hearing her story. In The Blue Sweater, Novogratz explains her story of leaving a corporate banking position to go to Africa and help women. The fact that she was able to take that leap of faith to go to Africa and work for a nonprofit corporations says enough about her. She is not interested in wealth or recognition; she clearly wanted to help others. Her account is certainly one of the most inspiring stories I've heard, and it was even more touching because I was able to relate to her passion in wanting to change the world. After reading this book, I was left with the message that I should not only continue pursuing my dreams, but help others accomplish their by providing them with a means to do so. No matter how badly you think you're failing, reading The Blue Sweater is like Novogratz whispering in your ear, "Don't dwell on your failures, you've come such a long way and you still have so much to accomplish."
I would 100 percent recommend reading this book. Not only will it open your eyes to some of the world's most pressing social problems, Novogratz will inspire you to want to make a change within the world - and she encourages you to believe that it is possible.
A persistent and growing sense of frustration with traditional charity in Africa, the US and elsewhere caused the author to investigate the failures of philanthropy. Many resources were misapplied and leading struggling people down the wrong path towards dependency and not self sufficiency. It was honest conversations about what did not work that helped guide Novogratz's new efforts - to create a dynamic in philanthropic giving that did not follow the norm and that included buy in, support and participation from both sides of the coin.
That "all human beings are created equal" is a significant guiding principle reiterated in the book - a moral concept and economic imperative underscored by the devastating Rwandan genocide. This includes opportunities for basic services for rich and the poor alike. Access to services for the poor in addition to Novogratz's frustration with traditional philanthropy led her to explore a new paradigm. Traditional charity, she argued, created passive "givers" and "takers," but did not build accountability and did not strengthen institutions to keep providing tools for change. Rather, handing out grants essentially became the source of income rather than the catalyst for a healthy, sustained, market-driven organization. It created a cycle of dependence and corruption rather than reinforcing the moral compass of those doing the work or supporting the innovative drive of nonprofits and governments. Ultimately, philanthropy was doing a disservice to the people it was suppose to help. After years of this frustration, she embarked on a social change venture that was a significant risk to herself and her partners. She put together like-minded people with ideas, drive and access to capital - large amounts of it - and created her own fund. Acumen Fund formed a new relationship between "investors" and inventive institutions with the potential to deliver dividends quantified in terms of the "change" they could make in serving poor communities, whether through clean water access, alternative energy creation, healthcare and more.
Today, Rwanda has more women in parliament than any nation and stands as a model to the world. Many of the opportunities for women that the author sought to create at the beginning of the book have become real. She took her lessons learned, her frustration with the status quo and her hope and belief in human nature to create a new, vibrant and influential fund that changes the landscape of philanthropic giving in Africa and around the world.
Top reviews from other countries
I recommend this book to any one who is interested in social impact and international development. I also believe this should be mandatory reading for any course on Leadership, as Jacqueline Novogratz puts forward a compelling case for why values such as humility, vulnerability, empathy and dignity are the pillars of true leadership.
A great read!
特に「なるほどなぁ」と思ったのは、技術志向の社会起業家と地域密着型の社会起業家をペアにして活動させた方が、結果を出せるということ。実際の事例に基づいた説明は非常に説得力があった。新技術に未来を観た起業家と、具体的な効果をイメージできない貧困層の顧客との間にギャップが生じるであろうことは想像に難くないが、それに対する処方箋は実戦の裏付けがないと描き出せないだろう。
Social Entrepreneurshipに興味ある方は、是非一度手に取ってみてください。