By Kayla Vestergaard Undeveloped nations have long been overlooked as potential money-making hotspots for large corporations. Recently, more corporations have been recognizing that low-money transfers in poorer areas add fluidity and strength to nations’ economies. Kenya, for instance, rebased its GDP after realizing that slums actually have a much larger Read more…
By Cayman Macdonald What does life look like living on $2 a day in America? Kathryn J. Edin and Luke Shaefer try to answer that question by following American families living virtually cashless in their 2015 book $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America. The U.S. government considers Read more…
Nathan Cutler is second year student in International Affairs and Environmental Studies with a minor in Latin America Studies. Currently he is doing an international Co-op in Bolivia, Cochabamba in Fundación Pro Hábitat, an NGO which strives to improve the wellbeing of impoverished people by housing, legal paperwork and legal advocacy. However, his social work started at LIFT-Boston, a social advocacy organization that works to empower people lacking economic opportunities. Since the beginning Nathan was interested in empowering immigrants and less fortune people. Although he is currently in Bolivia he had some time to talk with me about his magnificent work in Cochabamba.
Formal and dignified employment eludes billions of people around the world, but Samasource, a highly innovative social business, acknowledges the internet as a democratizing and empowering force that can provide dignified work. Samasource connects women and youth earning under $3 a day to microwork: computer-driven piecework conducted over the internet that provides a fair wage and valuable job training skills to the those formerly excluded from the formal sector.