The Blue Sweater
Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World
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Narrated by:
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Jacqueline Novogratz
About this listen
The Blue Sweater is the inspiring story of a woman who 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.
It all started back home in Virginia, with the blue sweater, a gift that quickly became her prized possession - until the day she outgrew it and gave it away to Goodwill. Eleven years later in Africa, she spotted a young boy wearing that very sweater, with her name still on the tag inside. That the sweater had made its trek all the way to Rwanda was ample evidence, she thought, of how we are all connected, how our actions - and inaction - touch people every day across the globe, people we may never know or meet.
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 - women dancing in a Nairobi slum, unwed mothers starting a bakery, courageous survivors of the Rwandan genocide, entrepreneurs building services for the poor against impossible odds.
She shows, in ways both hilarious and heartbreaking, 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.
©2009 Jacqueline Novogratz (P)2010 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Editorial reviews
What a joy to hear humanitarian and founder of the Acumen Fund Jacqueline Novogratz tell her story of how she evolved from a bright, young international banker to a remarkable philanthropist working to close the gaps between rich and poor across continents. Novogratz, now in her 40s, narrates her journey in The Blue Sweater with an awareness of her personal growth over the years. She approaches the beginning of her journey as a young women sent to Africa with great naiveté and excitement in her voice. As the story advances, leading up to her greatest accomplishment, the founding of the non-profit Acumen Fund to fight global poverty, her narration reflects the understanding and character development her experiences offered her.
The Blue Sweater is both autobiographical and informative, a memoir of someone with striking conviction to make a difference in the most depressed of economic climates. Novogratz is likable from the start, and her story becomes more inspiring as the chapters progress. To most of us, global poverty seems too big of an issue to even comprehend, much less to tackle from home. Novogratz brings the issue closer to the listener by exploring the inadequacies of our current approaches and offering solutions that she works to implement with the Acumen Fund. The Blue Sweater is an accessible listen for everyone, financially inclined or otherwise, and Novogratz never carries a tone of condescension. (She is just as quick to acknowledge her failures as her achievements.) Rather, she offers her story of discovery and eye-opening experiences as a call to arms.
Novogratz is a true citizen of the world, an idealist driven by her belief that we are all “interconnected”. The Blue Sweater is a riveting account of her journey towards the Acumen Fund; to hear Novogratz narrate her memoir is to embark upon that journey right alongside her. —Suzanne Day
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Find Me Unafraid tells the uncommon love story between two uncommon people whose collaboration sparked a successful movement to transform the lives of vulnerable girls and the urban poor. With a foreword by Nicholas Kristof.
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A difficult and rewarding listen
- By R. MCRACKAN on 08-23-18
By: Kennedy Odede, and others
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China's Second Continent
- How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa
- By: Howard W. French
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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An exciting, hugely revealing account of China’s burgeoning presence in Africa - a developing empire already shaping, and reshaping, the future of millions of people. A prizewinning foreign correspondent and former New York Times bureau chief in Shanghai and in West and Central Africa, Howard French is uniquely positioned to tell the story of China in Africa. Through meticulous on-the-ground reporting, French crafts a layered investigation of astonishing depth and breadth.
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He knows Both Africa and China
- By Malick Tchakpedeou on 12-01-16
By: Howard W. French
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Dreams from My Father
- A Story of Race and Inheritance
- By: Barack Obama
- Narrated by: Barack Obama
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a Black African father and a White American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a Black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father - a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man - has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey - first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family.
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Powerful
- By Gene R. on 10-26-21
By: Barack Obama
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Factory Girls
- From Village to City in a Changing China
- By: Leslie T. Chang
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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A book of global significance that provides new insight into China, Factory Girls demonstrates how the mass movement from rural villages to cities is remaking individual lives and transforming Chinese society, much as immigration to America's shores remade our own country a century ago.
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Living in Shenzhen - and What A Disappointment
- By Abstraction on 03-01-10
By: Leslie T. Chang
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Preemptive Love
- Pursuing Peace One Heart at a Time
- By: Jeremy Courtney
- Narrated by: Jeremy Courtney
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In the middle of the Iraq War, Jeremy and Jessica Courtney found themselves with their two children caught up in the turmoil, just hoping to make a difference. After an encounter with a father whose little girl was dying from a heart defect, they began to investigate options for helping and learned that untold thousands of children across Iraq were in similar need, waiting in line for heart surgery in a country without a qualified heart surgeon.
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Recommended Highly!
- By Zak on 06-13-18
By: Jeremy Courtney
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Country Driving
- A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory
- By: Peter Hessler
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 2001, Peter Hessler, the longtime Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, acquired his Chinese driver's license. For the next seven years, he traveled the country, tracking how the automobile and improved roads were transforming China.
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Pass the white rice please
- By Nick on 02-18-10
By: Peter Hessler
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Under Red Skies
- Three Generations of Life, Loss, and Hope in China
- By: Karoline Kan
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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A deeply personal and shocking look at how China is coming to terms with its conflicted past as it emerges into a modern, cutting-edge superpower.
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An intimate view of real life in China
- By Lonnie G. Hardy, Jr. on 08-15-19
By: Karoline Kan
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The Monk of Mokha
- By: Dave Eggers
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Mokhtar Alkhanshali grew up in San Francisco, one of seven siblings raised by Yemeni immigrants in a tiny apartment. At age 24, unable to pay for college, he works as a doorman. Until: a statue of an Arab raising a cup of coffee awakens something in him. He sets out to learn the rich history of coffee in Yemen and the complex art of tasting and identifying varietals. He travels to Yemen, collects samples of beans, eager to bring improved cultivation methods to the farmers. And he is on the verge of success when civil war engulfs Yemen in 2015 and he is trapped in Sana'a.
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MOVING THE NEEDLE
- By Dog Fish on 02-20-18
By: Dave Eggers
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Thrive
- Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way
- By: Dan Buettner
- Narrated by: Michael McConnohie
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first book to identify demographically proven happiness hotspots worldwide, researcher and explorer Dan Buettner documents the happiest people on earth and reveals how we can create our own happy zones. Detailing extraordinary new discoveries and meticulous research on four continents, Buettner observes happiness in unlikely places and gleans surprising insight into what generates contentment and what it means to thrive.
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Around the world with circular reasoning
- By Andy on 05-17-11
By: Dan Buettner
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Fast Times in Palestine
- A Love Affair with a Homeless Homeland
- By: Pamela J. Olson
- Narrated by: Julia Farhat
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Pamela Olson, a small town girl from eastern Oklahoma, had what she always wanted: a physics degree from Stanford University. But instead of feeling excited for what came next, she felt consumed by dread and confusion. This irresistible memoir chronicles her journey from aimless ex-bartender to Ramallah-based journalist and foreign press coordinator for a Palestinian presidential candidate.
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Palestine from the Inside—and Out
- By Susie on 11-04-13
By: Pamela J. Olson
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Unbowed
- A Memoir
- By: Wangari Maathai
- Narrated by: Chinasa Ogbuagu
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, Wangari Maathai has been fighting for environmental responsibility and democracy in her native Kenya for over 35 years. Unbowed recounts the incredible journey that culminated in her appointment to Parliament in 2002. Despite repeated jailings, beatings, and other obstacles along the way, Maathai created the Green Belt Movement and never relented in her goal to bring democracy to Kenya.
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Amazing story of this woman, but missing something
- By Peter on 06-29-11
By: Wangari Maathai
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China Road
- A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power
- By: Rob Gifford
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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National Public Radio's Beijing correspondent Rob Gifford recounts his travels along Route 312, the Chinese Mother Road, the longest route in the world's most populous nation. Based on his successful NPR radio series, China Road draws on Gifford's 20 years of observing first-hand this rapidly transforming country, as he travels east to west, from Shanghai to China's border with Kazakhstan. As he takes listeners on this journey, he also takes them through China's past and present while he tries to make sense of this complex nation's potential future.
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An Outstanding Book on China
- By Sarda on 08-13-07
By: Rob Gifford
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River Town
- Two Years on the Yangtze
- By: Peter Hessler
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident.
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Peter Berkrot Again?
- By Abstraction on 07-10-11
By: Peter Hessler
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The Idealist
- Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty
- By: Nina Munk
- Narrated by: Susan Nezami
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Jeffrey Sachs - celebrated economist, special advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations, and author of the influential best seller The End of Poverty - disagrees. In his view, poverty is a problem that can be solved. With single-minded determination he has attempted to put into practice his theories about ending extreme poverty, to prove that the world's most destitute people can be lifted onto "the ladder of development."
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Sachs tries hard but the system is not there
- By Amazon Customer on 11-13-15
By: Nina Munk
What listeners say about The Blue Sweater
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Michelle Friess
- 09-02-21
Why money is NOT the answer
She shows great inside on how we may go about making great changes and why many of the current programs do not and will not work.
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- Jo
- 11-09-16
one of the most inspiring books on development
I loved this book and the author's views on how to help and aid the poor through lending . The stories she tells are incredibly heartwrenching and thought provoking
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- Caitlin
- 01-04-12
Inspiring, Honest Read. Highly Recommended
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes. This is a beautiful, honest memoir, as well as a crash course on micro-lending and development for the poor. Novogratz is very good at describing her experiences, missteps, and successes without revision; she writes about what she learned, the people she met, the places she grew to love. I especially like the parts involving Rwanda. The audio quality is also good, and Novogratz is fun to listen to.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Some dude
- 02-17-21
Amazing!
Just read or listen to it. It is one of the best books I have ever encountered. An amazing and inspired journey.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-29-16
Must read for anyone
I read this as supplement to an international studies class, but it was so compelling I would have read it voluntarily. Novogratz addresses the flaw in the current system of foreign aid and using her long compelling experience in the field suggests a superior long lasting system.
In addition to this niche topic she addresses in so many words the human condition and tells her first and second hand accounts of major world events she was tied to: Rwandan Genocide, 9/11, others.
This book is above all else an easily digestible story that forever one to question their beliefs and develop character.
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- Andrea Forbes Johnson
- 04-12-15
Inspiring!!
This was one of the most inspiring books I have ever read. As an educator I hope to pass on her message to my students.
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1 person found this helpful
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- LAW
- 09-13-16
Read this book
Everyone should read this book. Especially those who live by the status quo - too many Americans take clean water & health & housing for granted & all they do is complain about their favorite football team or how much gas cost. Enough already.
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- Christina Fahy
- 12-31-21
Not for me
I admire the author’s journey and accomplishments. She also offered some wonderful insights. However, this book was extremely hard to follow with multiple names and side stories. I feel the story could have been simplified and it would have been easier to follow. I couldn’t finish it.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-31-19
great read!
It was a great read! The uganda portion was slower to follow though. Loved following her journey!
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- Migdalia Salazar
- 12-15-22
Enlightening and Inspiring
Ms. Novogratz has woven together a story that takes the reader/listener inside her experiences in a way that makes one appreciate the depth of her understanding of the people she is helping enable themselves to realize their own potential to better their lives for a more sustainable and successful future.
Excellent by any measure.
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