Its founder, Leila Janah, says helping people get jobs is a better way to end poverty than simply giving them money as charity.
LEILA JANAH: "I really don't like charity. I think charity does a disservice to the people that it tries to help."
Samasource uses the Internet to employ hundreds of people living in poverty around the world.
Ms. Janah graduated from Harvard University. She has spent much of the past ten years working in development and visiting poor countries.
FAITH LAPIDUS: She was seventeen when she made her first trip to Ghana. She says she was surprised to discover that many of the poor children she met were smart and spoke English.
LEILA JANAH: "I really flipped my understanding of economic development and poverty on its head and I realized that we don't live in a global meritocracy."
In a meritocracy, people are recognized and rewarded with advancement based on their skills.
The idea for Samasource was born when Ms. Janah was working for a management firm. She visited an outsourcing center in India. If people could use the Internet to work for that company, she thought, so could others living in rural areas.
Samasource has its headquarters in San Francisco, California. It negotiates contracts for projects with big technical organizations. Then it breaks down large projects into "microwork." This can include creating content for websites and working with data. Samasource workers can complete this work anywhere they have a computer and an Internet connection.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25