VOA标准英语2011--Samasource Provides Jobs for Poor Via the Internet

Samasource Provides Jobs for Poor Via the Internet

The World Bank says 1.3 billion of the world's seven billion people live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $1.25 a day. Aid organizations have long relied on charitable contributions to help the world's poor. But the head of one aid group argues that giving to charity is the wrong approach.

"I really don't like charity. I think charity does a disservice to the people that it tries to help," said Leila Janah, founder¹ and chief executive officer of Samasource, a non-governmental organization that uses the Internet and the abundance of digital work to employ hundreds of people living in poverty around the world.

"People want to earn their own money and make their own decisions about how they spend it and I think the biggest tragedy in the development world, the development community is that we've often dictated² to poor people what they should or should not do and I think it's belittling³."

A graduate of Harvard University, Janah has spent much of the past 10 years working in the development sector⁴ and visiting poor countries. But it was during her first trip to Ghana, at age 17, that she discovered an untapped resource, human brainpower. Many of the poor children she met were smart and spoke⁵ English they had potential and skills.

"It really flipped⁶ my understanding of economic development and poverty on its head and I realized that we don't live in a global meritocracy," added Janah.

The idea for Samasource was born later when Janah visited an outsourcing center in India while working for a management firm. If people from impoverished⁷ places could use the Internet to work, Janah thought, why couldn't countless⁸ others living in rural areas do the same.

That's where Samasource comes in.

Working from its headquarters in San Francisco, Samasource secures digital work contracts from big technical organizations, and then breaks down large-scale projects into what they call "microwork," accessible to Samasource workers anywhere there is access to computers and an Internet connection.

Tasks can include content generation for websites and data enrichment such as captioning⁹ images and verifying information.

So far Samasource collaborates¹⁰ with 16 work centers throughout Africa, South Asia and Haiti. Since the business began in 2008, Janah says Samasource has paid more than $1 million to more than 1,500 people, many of them women.

Much of the violence inflicted¹¹ against women, Janah says, stems from their inability to earn an independent income. But when women are given computer-oriented work, Janah says all sorts of benefits follow,

"They start getting respected for their brains rather than their bodies," noted¹² Janah.

Some criticize outsourcing of this sort as a threat to U.S. economic growth. Janah says Samasource is looking for ways to use its technology to help the increasing number of Americans falling below the poverty line. But she says anti-poverty efforts need a more globalized point of view.

"I think it's important to remember that a person is a person, whether it's a poor person in Bangladesh or a poor person in rural Mississippi, each deserves our consideration," noted Janah.

For the future, Janah envisions growing Samasource into a world-class social business, fostering a family of similar enterprises that employ thousands if not millions of otherwise-poor men and women, giving them a dignified¹³ way to lift themselves out of poverty.

1 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

2 dictated   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• He dictated a letter to his secretary. 他向秘书口授信稿。
• No person of a strong character likes to be dictated to. 没有一个个性强的人愿受人使唤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 belittling   

使显得微小，轻视，贬低( belittle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• We must be realistic in our self-estimation, neither being conceited nor belittling ourselves. 我们对自己的估计应该实事求是， 不要自高自大，也不要妄自菲薄。
• I find it belittling to be criticized by someone so much younger than me. 有个比我年轻许多的人批评了我，我觉得是小看了我。

4 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 flipped   

轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转，撞毁了。
• The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。

7 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

9 captioning   

v.给（图片、照片等）加说明文字( caption的现在分词 )

参考例句：

10 collaborates   

合作( collaborate的第三人称单数 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Third, main economy Central Bank collaborates to cut the interest rate. 第三，主要经济体央行联手降低利率。
• Any one who collaborates should be shot. 与敌人勾结者一律枪决。

11 inflicted   

把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They inflicted a humiliating defeat on the home team. 他们使主队吃了一场很没面子的败仗。
• Zoya heroically bore the torture that the Fascists inflicted upon her. 卓娅英勇地承受法西斯匪徒加在她身上的酷刑。

12 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

13 dignified   

a.可敬的，高贵的

参考例句：

• Throughout his trial he maintained a dignified silence. 在整个审讯过程中，他始终沉默以保持尊严。
• He always strikes such a dignified pose before his girlfriend. 他总是在女友面前摆出这种庄严的姿态。