Microwork gives marginalized people a chance to earn a living by playing a vital role in the business processes of big companies. In parallel, the organization assists local entrepreneurs in running microwork centers, helping to grow a new pool of business talent across the developing world.

Leila Janah

Categorized in : World People Business Talent

Handouts are not going to end global poverty, but work - real work - just might.

Leila Janah

poverty real might

Talent is equally distributed but opportunity is not.

Leila Janah

talent opportunity

The greatest challenge of the next 50 years, I believe, will be to create dignified work for everyone... not through handouts and charity, but through market forces.

Leila Janah

challenges believe years

Don’t underestimate the ripple effect of what you do. These kinds of actionshave toppled empires.

Leila Janah

empires underestimate kind

Time and again we’ve seen that reducing poverty comes down to economic opportunity-not just connecting the poor to services like banking, but ensuring they can be producers on fair terms in the global economy.

Leila Janah

banking poverty opportunity

The best way to end poverty is to simply give people work, which isn't considered 'sexy' among donors who want to fund a preschool or cure a disease.

Leila Janah

sexy giving people

You can use principles of the free market to drive social change.

Leila Janah

principles social use

I really love travelling to places where I get to learn something new about a new group of people or a new place. Learn some history, contemplate some business ideas, and sort of get off the beaten track a little bit.

Leila Janah

business love history people

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In the nonprofit world, the right picture is worth tens of thousands of dollars. I use PhotoPad to sync our Samasource Flickr account to my iPad and slip it out of my purse at cocktail parties to tell our story.

Leila Janah

picture words story world

I always loved fashion and clothes. Not because I think that's a woman's place, but because I care about aesthetics. I like art; I like going to art museums, and to me, these things are just manifestations of one's aesthetic sense.

Leila Janah

woman me fashion art

Samasource creates jobs in regions where more traditional forms of employment in low-income economies, such as manufacturing, are difficult to scale because of poor infrastructure. In a village in Rukka, India, for example, our small data entry partner employs over 60 people doing various types of Internet research for Samasource.

Leila Janah

partner village research people

The challenges that the homeless face aren't dissimilar to those in developing countries.

Leila Janah

those face homeless challenges

So often, we leave the selfless side of ourselves for nights and weekends, for our charity work. It is our duty to inject that into our day-to-day business, into the work that we do, to improve corporations, to improve civil society, and to improve government.

Leila Janah

society government business work

Every woman that dies or loses her baby on a threadbare cot in the heart of Uganda, while her sisters on the other side of the world enjoy first-class care, is a threat to our collective humanity.

Leila Janah

woman humanity heart world

I love adventure. When I'm not working or on the road, you can find me in my favorite spots around the Mission neighborhood of S.F., kitesurfing in the Bay or dancing.

Leila Janah

me you adventure love

I grew up believing in meritocracy and the American dream. My parents came here from India. They had no connections. My brother and I went to public schools, and both of us succeeded.

Leila Janah

parents american-dream brother dream

Migration is the story of my life: my parents and grandparents journeyed across four continents to flee war and find jobs, eventually finding their way to the U.S.

Leila Janah

my-life parents war life

The core concept of Samasource is essentially that technology helps us unlock human talent wherever it may happen to reside. That we should no longer be victims of the birth lottery. That no one should be stuck in a poor place where they don't have a job simply because of an accident of birth.

Leila Janah

place job talent technology

I'm the founder and CEO of Sama Group, a family of social enterprises - Samasource, Samahope and SamaUSA - that are working to alleviate poverty by connecting the global community to opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean and here in the U.S.

Leila Janah

poverty family community opportunity

I love dancing and practiced ballet for ten years until I realized I wouldn't make it professionally - then I started taking salsa classes. I learned to dance samba in Rio and Salvador when I lived in Brazil.

Leila Janah

brazil dance love years