Leila Chirayath Janah, a friend of GOOD, recently launched a nonprofit venture called Samasource. Samasource aims to connect educated workers in disadvantaged communities in India and Africa with Silicon Valley companies that need people to do small, web-based tasks like data entry. Think of it as Kiva for work.One of her first tests of this concept was in a refugee camp in Kenya. Boing Boing reports:Shortly after launching Samasource, [Leila] read an Oxfam report that mentioned a Dutch non-profit had set up a computer lab in the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya. "I thought, how crazy would it be if i can get these refugees to do real work for clients in San Francisco? What if we could prove to the world that these people who have been written off completely as only good for receiving handouts, who are stuck in this camp receiving food rations, can be productive to the global economy?"She did prove it-her initial trial in the Dadaab camp was a success-and Samasource has been growing ever since. It now has 520 workers doing jobs for a variety of clients in tech and education and getting paid for their services. Head over to Samasource to learn more and help out.
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