TED2009
Jacqueline Novogratz: An escape from poverty
Jacqueline Novogratz, per nje arratisje nga varferia.
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Jacqueline Novogratz tregon nje histori rrenqethese te takimit me Xhejn ne nje lagje te varfer ne Nairobi, nje ish prostitute, qe enderronte t'i shpetonte varferise, te behej mjeke dhe te martohej, te cilat ju permbushen ne menyre te papritur.
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. Full bio
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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Une kam punuar ne ceshtjet e varferise per me shume se 20 vjet,
00:16
and so it's ironic that the problem that and question that I most grapple with
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dhe eshte ironike qe problemi dhe pyetja me te cilen ballafaqohem me teper
00:21
is how you actually define poverty. What does it mean?
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eshte sesi ju me te vertete e perkufizoni varferine. Cfare nenkupton ajo?
00:24
So often, we look at dollar terms --
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Keshtu shpesh, ne e shohim termat e dollarit --
00:26
people making less than a dollar or two or three a day.
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njerez qe bejne me pak se nje, dy apo tre dollare ne dite.
00:28
And yet the complexity of poverty really has to look at
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Dhe ende kompleksiteti i varferise me te vertete duhet te shohi tek
00:33
income as only one variable.
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te ardhurat si vetem e vetem nje ndryshim.
00:35
Because really, it's a condition about choice,
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Sepse me te vertete, eshte nje gjendje ne lidhje me zgjedhjet
00:37
and the lack of freedom.
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dhe mungeses se lirise.
00:39
And I had an experience that really deepened and elucidated for me
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Dhe kam patur nje pervoje qe me te vertete thelloi dhe sqaroi per mua
00:42
the understanding that I have.
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njohurite qe une kam.
00:44
It was in Kenya, and I want to share it with you.
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Ajo ndodhi ne Kenia, dhe dua ta ndaj ate me ju.
00:46
I was with my friend Susan Meiselas, the photographer,
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Une isha me miken time fotografe, Susan Meiselas,
00:48
in the Mathare Valley slums.
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ne lagjet e varfera te Mathare Valley.
00:50
Now, Mathare Valley is one of the oldest slums in Africa.
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Tashme, Mathare Valley eshte nje nder lagjet me te vjetra ne Afrike.
00:53
It's about three miles out of Nairobi,
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Kjo eshte rreth tre milje nga Nairobi,
00:55
and it's a mile long and about two-tenths of a mile wide,
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nje milje e gjate dhe rreth dy te dhjetat milje e gjere
00:58
where over half a million people
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ku mbi gjysem milion e njerezve
01:00
live crammed in these little tin shacks,
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jetojne te mbipopulluar ne keto kasolle te vogla teneqeje,
01:02
generation after generation, renting them,
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brez pas brezi, duke i marre me qera,
01:05
often eight or 10 people to a room.
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shpesh tete ose dhjete njerez ne dhome.
01:07
And it's known for prostitution, violence, drugs:
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Dhe eshte e njohur per prostitucionin, dhunen, drogen.
01:13
a hard place to grow up.
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Nje vend i veshtire qe te rritesh.
01:15
And when we were walking through the narrow alleys,
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Dhe kur ne po ecnim ne rrugicat e ngushta,
01:17
it was literally impossible not to step in the
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ishte vertet e pamundur te mos shkelje ne
01:20
raw sewage and the garbage alongside the little homes.
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ujerat e zeza dhe ne mbeturinat anash shtepive te vogla.
01:24
But at the same time it was also
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Por ne te njejten kohe ishte gjithashtu
01:26
impossible not to see the human vitality,
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e pamundur per te mos pare vitalitetin njerezor,
01:29
the aspiration and the ambition of the people who live there:
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aspiratat dhe ambicien e njerezve qe jetojne atje.
01:32
women washing their babies, washing their clothes, hanging them out to dry.
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Grate qe lajne femijet, qe lajne rrobat e tyre, e qe i varin ato jashte per ti thare.
01:35
I met this woman, Mama Rose,
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Une e takova kete gruan, Mama Rose,
01:37
who has rented that little tin shack for 32 years,
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e cila ka marre me qera ate kasolle te vogel teneqeje per 32 vjet,
01:40
where she lives with her seven children.
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e ku jeton me shtate femijet e saj.
01:42
Four sleep in one twin bed,
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Kater prej te cileve flene ne nje krevat tek,
01:44
and three sleep on the mud and linoleum floor.
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dhe tre flene ne balte dhe dysheme linoleumi.
01:47
And she keeps them all in school by selling water from that kiosk,
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Dhe ajo i mban te gjithe ne shkolle duke shitur uje nga nje kioske,
01:51
and from selling soap and bread from the little store inside.
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dhe duke shitur sapun dhe buke nga nje dyqan i vogel.
01:55
It was also the day after the inauguration,
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Ishte gjithashtu nje dite pas zgjedhjeve presidenciale,
01:57
and I was reminded how Mathare is still connected to the globe.
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dhe me beri te kujtoj sesi Mathare eshte ende e lidhur me globin.
02:01
And I would see kids on the street corners,
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Dhe une do te shihja femije ne qoshet e rrugeve,
02:03
and they'd say "Obama, he's our brother!"
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dhe ato do te thone "Obama, ai eshte vellai jone!"
02:05
And I'd say "Well, Obama's my brother, so that makes you my brother too."
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Dhe une do te them "Obama eshte vellai im, keshtu qe kjo te ben edhe ty vellain tim."
02:08
And they would look quizzically, and then be like, "High five!"
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Ato do te te shohin cuditshem, dhe me pas do te thone, "Qepalla!"
02:12
And it was here that I met Jane.
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Dhe ishte pikerisht ky momenti qe takova Xhejn.
02:15
I was struck immediately by the kindness and the gentleness in her face,
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Me beri pershtypje menjehere miresia dhe butesia e fytyres se saj,
02:18
and I asked her to tell me her story.
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dhe i kerkova te me tregonte historine e saj.
02:21
She started off by telling me her dream. She said, "I had two.
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Ajo filloi duke me thene endrren e saj. Ajo tha, "Une kisha dy".
02:24
My first dream was to be a doctor,
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Endrra ime e pare ishte te behesha mjeke,
02:26
and the second was to marry a good man
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dhe e dyta te martohesha me nje njeri te mire
02:28
who would stay with me and my family,
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qe do te qendronte me mua dhe familjen time.
02:30
because my mother was a single mom,
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Per shkak sepse mamaja ime ishte beqare,
02:32
and couldn't afford to pay for school fees.
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dhe nuk mundi te perballonte pagesat per taksat e shkolles.
02:34
So I had to give up the first dream, and I focused on the second."
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Keshtu qe mu desh qe te hiqja dore nga endrra e pare, dhe u fokusova tek e dyta."
02:38
She got married when she was 18, had a baby right away.
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Ajo u martua kur ishte vetem 18, dhe lindi menjehere femije.
02:41
And when she turned 20, found herself pregnant with a second child,
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Dhe kur beri 20, e gjeti veten shtatzene me nje femije te dyte,
02:45
her mom died and her husband left her -- married another woman.
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mamaja e saj vdiq dhe i shoqi e la ate -- duke u martuar me nje femer tjeter.
02:49
So she was again in Mathare, with no income, no skill set, no money.
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Pra, ajo ishte perseri ne Mathare, pa te ardhura, pa nje profesion, pa para.
02:53
And so she ultimately turned to prostitution.
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Dhe keshtu ajo u kthye ne prostitute.
02:56
It wasn't organized in the way we often think of it.
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Nuk ishte ashtu sic e mendojme ne.
02:58
She would go into the city at night with about 20 girls,
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Ajo shkonte ne qytet gjate nates me rreth 20 vajza,
03:01
look for work, and sometimes come back with a few shillings,
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duke kerkuar pune, dhe ndonjehere kthehej me ca para
03:04
or sometimes with nothing.
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ose ndonjehere pa gje.
03:06
And she said, "You know, the poverty wasn't so bad. It was the humiliation
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Ajo tha, "E dini cfare, varferia nuk ishte dhe aq e keqe. Por, ishte poshterimi
03:09
and the embarrassment of it all."
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dhe sikleti i gjithe kesaj."
03:11
In 2001, her life changed.
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Ne 2001, jeta e saj ndryshoi.
03:15
She had a girlfriend who had heard about this organization, Jamii Bora,
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Ajo kishte nje miken e saj, qe kish degjuar per organizaten, Jamii Bora,
03:19
that would lend money to people no matter how poor you were,
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qe u jepte para hua njerezve pavaresisht sa te varfer ishin,
03:22
as long as you provided a commensurate amount in savings.
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me kusht që te kishin siguruar nje shume proporcionale ne kursime.
03:26
And so she spent a year to save 50 dollars,
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Dhe keshtu ajo u mundua nje vit per te ruajtur 50 dollare,
03:29
and started borrowing, and over time she was able to buy a sewing machine.
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dhe filloi te merrte borxh, dhe me kalimin e kohes ajo arriti te blinte nje makine qepese.
03:34
She started tailoring.
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Ajo filloi te qepte.
03:35
And that turned into what she does now,
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Dhe kjo e shnderroi ne ate qe eshte tani,
03:38
which is to go into the secondhand clothing markets,
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ajo shkon ne tregjet e dores se dyte,
03:40
and for about three dollars and 25 cents she buys an old ball gown.
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dhe per rreth tre dollar e 25 cent ajo blen nje fustan te vjeter mbremje.
03:44
Some of them might be ones you gave.
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Disa prej tyre mund te jene ato qe keni dhene ju.
03:46
And she repurposes them with frills and ribbons,
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Dhe i ndryshon modelin me rrudha dhe shirita,
03:50
and makes these frothy confections that she sells to women
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dhe i ben keto rroba te gatshme qe ja shet grave
03:54
for their daughter's Sweet 16 or first Holy Communion --
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per vajzat e tyre per 16 vjetorin ose per Kungaten e pare --
03:58
those milestones in a life that people want to celebrate
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ato momente historike ku njerezit duan te festojne
04:01
all along the economic spectrum.
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te gjithe se bashku pertej spektrit ekonomik.
04:03
And she does really good business. In fact, I watched her
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Dhe ajo ben me te vertete nje biznes te mire. Ne te vertete, une e pashe ate
04:06
walk through the streets hawking. And before you knew it,
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qe ecte rrugeve duke shitur. Dhe pa e kuptuar,
04:08
there was a crowd of women around her, buying these dresses.
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nje turme grash u mblodh rreth saj, te blinte keto veshje.
04:12
And I reflected, as I was watching her sell the dresses,
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Dhe une reflektova, nderkohe qe shihja ate duke shitur fustanet
04:15
and also the jewelry that she makes,
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dhe gjithashtu bizhute qe ajo vete bente,
04:17
that now Jane makes more than four dollars a day.
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qe tani Xhejn ben me shume se kater dollare ne dite.
04:20
And by many definitions she is no longer poor.
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Dhe nga shume percaktime ajo nuk eshte me e varfer.
04:23
But she still lives in Mathare Valley.
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Por ajo akoma jeton ne Mathare Valley.
04:25
And so she can't move out.
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Ajo nuk mund te levize.
04:28
She lives with all of that insecurity,
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Ajo jeton me gjithe ate pasiguri,
04:30
and in fact, in January, during the ethnic riots,
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dhe ne te vertete, ne janar, pergjate trazirave etnike,
04:33
she was chased from her home and had to find a new shack
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ajo ishte perzene nga shtepia e saj dhe i duhej te gjente nje kasolle te re
04:35
in which she would live.
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ne te cilen ajo do te jetonte..
04:37
Jamii Bora understands that and understands
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Jamii Bora e kupton ate. Dhe kupton gjithashtu
04:39
that when we're talking about poverty,
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qe kur ne jemi duke folur rreth varferise
04:41
we've got to look at people all along the economic spectrum.
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ne kemi marre parasysh te gjithe njerezit e niveleve te ndryshem ekonomik.
04:44
And so with patient capital from Acumen and other organizations,
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Dhe keshtu me kapitalin e pacientit nga Acumen dhe organizatat e tjera,
04:47
loans and investments that will go the long term with them,
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kredive dhe investimeve qe do te shkojne per nje afat te gjate me ta,
04:50
they built a low-cost housing development,
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ato ndertuan strehime me kosto te ulet,
04:54
about an hour outside Nairobi central.
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rreth nje ore jashte qendres se Nairobit.
04:58
And they designed it from the perspective of
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Ata e projektuan ate nga prespektiva e
05:00
customers like Jane herself,
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klienteve sic ishte Xhejn,
05:02
insisting on responsibility and accountability.
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duke insistuar tek pergjegjesite dhe pergjegjshmerite.
05:04
So she has to give 10 percent of the mortgage --
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Keshtu ajo kishte per te dhene 10 perqind te hipotekes --
05:08
of the total value, or about 400 dollars in savings.
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te vleres se pergjithshme, ose rreth 400 dollar te kursimeve.
05:12
And then they match her mortgage to what she paid in rent for her little shanty.
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Dhe me pas ato pershtatin hipoteken e saj per cfare ajo ka paguar per baraken e saj te vogel.
05:17
And in the next couple of weeks, she's going to be
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Dhe ne javet e ardhshme, ajo do te jete
05:19
among the first 200 families to move into this development.
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ndermjet 200 familjeve te para qe levizin drejt ketij strehimi.
05:22
When I asked her if she feared anything,
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Kur e pyeta ate nese i trembej dickaje,
05:26
or whether she would miss anything from Mathare,
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ose nese asaj i mungonte dicka nga Mathare,
05:28
she said, "What would I fear
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ajo mu pergjigj, "Cfare mund te kem frike
05:30
that I haven't confronted already?
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qe nuk e kam ballafaquar tashme?
05:32
I'm HIV positive. I've dealt with it all."
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Une jam mbartese pozitive ndaj HIV. Une kam luftuar me te gjitha."
05:36
And she said, "What would I miss?
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Dhe ajo tha, "Cfare mund te me mungoje?
05:39
You think I will miss the violence or the drugs? The lack of privacy?
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Ju mendoni se do te me mungoje dhuna apo droga? Mungesa e intimitetit?
05:42
Do you think I'll miss not knowing if my children are going to come home
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Ju mendoni se do te me mungoje meraku nese femijet e mi do te kthehen ne shtepi
05:44
at the end of the day?" She said "If you gave me 10 minutes
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ne fundin e dites?" Ajo tha "Nese me jep 10 minuta
05:46
my bags would be packed."
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cantat e mia do te paketohen."
05:48
I said, "Well what about your dreams?"
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Une e pyeta, "Po rreth endrrave te tua?"
05:51
And she said, "Well, you know,
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dhe ajo mu pergjigj, "Epo ju e dini,
05:53
my dreams don't look exactly like I thought they would when I was a little girl.
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qe endrrat e mia nuk duken me ashtu sic ishin kur isha e vogel.
05:57
But if I think about it, I thought I wanted a husband,
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Por nese e mendoj tani, une mendoja se doja te kisha nje burre,
06:01
but what I really wanted was a family
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por ajo qe doja ne te vertete ishte nje familje
06:04
that was loving. And I fiercely love my children, and they love me back."
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qe te kishte dashuri. Dhe une i dua femijet e mi me tere forcen time, dhe ato me duan gjithashtu."
06:08
She said, "I thought that I wanted to be a doctor,
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Ajo tha, "Une mendoja se doja te behesha mjeke,
06:11
but what I really wanted to be was somebody
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por ajo cka ne te vertete une doja ishte te isha dikush
06:13
who served and healed and cured.
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qe do i sherbente, qetesonte dhe sheronte njerezit.
06:16
And so I feel so blessed with everything that I have,
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Keshtu qe une ndihem e bekuar me cdo gje qe kam,
06:19
that two days a week I go and I counsel HIV patients.
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dhe qe 2 here ne jave une shkoj dhe keshilloj pacientet HIV mbartes.
06:23
And I say, 'Look at me. You are not dead.
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Dhe i them, "Me shikoni mua. Ju nuk jeni te vdekur.
06:26
You are still alive. And if you are still alive you have to serve.'"
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Ju jeni akoma gjalle. Nese ju jeni akoma gjalle ju duhet te sherbeni."
06:29
And she said, "I'm not a doctor who gives out pills.
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Dhe ajo vazhdoi, "Une nuk jam nje mjeke qe jep ilace.
06:33
But maybe me, I give out something better
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Por ndoshta une, jap dicka me te mire
06:35
because I give them hope."
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sepse i jap shprese."
06:37
And in the middle of this economic crisis,
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Dhe ne mes te kesaj krize ekonimike,
06:41
where so many of us are inclined to pull in
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ku shume prej nesh jane prirur per te terhequr
06:44
with fear, I think we're well suited to
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friken, une mendoj qe ne jemi te mirepershtatur
06:48
take a cue from Jane and reach out,
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per te marre nje sinjal nga Xhejn dhe te arrijme
06:51
recognizing that being poor doesn't mean being ordinary.
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te kuptojme qe te qenit i varfer nuk do te thote te jesh i rendomte.
06:55
Because when systems are broken,
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Sepse kur sistemet nuk funksionojne,
06:57
like the ones that we're seeing around the world,
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si ato te cilat jemi duke pare rreth botes,
06:59
it's an opportunity for invention and for innovation.
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eshte nje mundesi me teper per shpikje dhe per risi.
07:02
It's an opportunity to truly build a world
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Eshte nje mundesi e vertete per te ndertuar nje bote
07:05
where we can extend services and products
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ku ne mund te perhapim sherbimet dhe produktet
07:08
to all human beings, so that they can
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tek te gjithe qeniet njerezore, ne menyre qe ato te mund
07:11
make decisions and choices for themselves.
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te marrin vendime dhe te bejne zgjedhje per veten e tyre.
07:13
I truly believe it's where dignity starts.
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Une sinqerisht besoj qe kjo eshte rruga ne te cilen dinjiteti fillon.
07:15
We owe it to the Janes of the world.
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Ne ja kushtojme kete Xhejnit dhe botes se saj.
07:18
And just as important, we owe it to ourselves.
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Dhe eshte po aq e rendesishme, t'ja kushtojme kete vetes tone.
07:21
Thank you.
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Faleminderit.
07:23
(Applause)
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(Duartrokitje)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jacqueline Novogratz - Investor and advocate for moral leadershipJacqueline 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.
Jacqueline Novogratz | Speaker | TED.com