Jean Thomas and his wife, Joy, have lived in Fond-des-Blancs, Haiti, since 1982. Jean was born in central Haiti?the son of a Baptist pastor. Joy grew up in Oregon. They met at Voice of Calvary Ministries in Jackson, Mississippi, and married in 1981. Learn how Jean and Joy have put the principles of relocation, reconciliation, and redistribution to work in Fond-des-Blancs. This account of personal commitment includes hardship and success. It teaches practical Christian involvement as Jean shares the story of projects that minister to the spiritual, physical, educational, economic, and medical needs of their community.
This book opens the doors to the homes of the forgotten poor and traces the goods they owned before, during and after the industrial revolution (c. 1650–1850). Using a vast and diverse range of sources, it gets to the very heart of what it meant to be ‘poor’ by examining the homes of the impoverished and mapping how numerous household goods became more widespread. As the book argues, poverty did not necessarily equate to owning very little and living in squalor. In fact, its novel findings show that most of the poor strove to improve their domestic spheres and that their demand for goods was so great that it was a driving force of the industrial revolution.
With more than 450,000 copies in print, When Helping Hurts is a paradigm-forming contemporary classic on the subject of poverty alleviation. Poverty is much more than simply a lack of material resources, and it takes much more than donations and handouts to solve it. When Helping Hurts shows how some alleviation efforts, failing to consider the complexities of poverty, have actually (and unintentionally) done more harm than good. But it looks ahead. It encourages us to see the dignity in everyone, to empower the materially poor, and to know that we are all uniquely needy—and that God in the gospel is reconciling all things to himself. Focusing on both North American and Majority World contexts, When Helping Hurts provides proven strategies for effective poverty alleviation, catalyzing the idea that sustainable change comes not from the outside in, but from the inside out.
Growing Up Poor explores childhood in late 19th and early 20th century London from a distinctive perspective. Anna Davin has skilfully woven together oral history, school records and other sources to reconstruct daily life among the labouring poor.
There are plenty of books on how to buy, sell, or invest in real estate. But there isn’t one that brings together homeownership with money management investing and retirement planning. This is that book.” — Bruce Sellery, author of Moolala and CEO of Credit Canada This handbook for smart homeownership explains how to... ✔️ Proactively maintain your home ✔️ Increase property value with smart renos ✔️ Reduce monthly expenses ✔️ Take advantage of debt ✔️ Live life as a happy homeowner What this book will give you Just because you buy a home—or buy stock or save money—doesn't make it smart. It's what you do with the asset—whether it's a home or stock purchase or savings in some account—that is smart. It's whether the asset ends up being an investment that works to grow your net worth or just an expensive product you own. What you'll find in this book are strategies for maintaining, protecting and increasing the value of your home, while finding small and big ways to save money. Broken down into eight steps, with the final ninth step that wraps up what you've learned. What people are saying about the book Personal finance experts agree, this is a must read for homeowners There are plenty of books on how to buy, sell or invest in real estate. There isn’t one that brings together homeownership with money management, investing and retirement planning. This is that book. – Bruce Sellery, author of Moolala and CEO of Credit Canada House Poor No More is the perfect handbook to prepare yourself as a homeowner. After reading House Poor No More, I know what renovations are worth the investment and how to prioritize maintenance, plus so many other homeownership secrets you could never find with a Google search or internet-deep-dive. Romana King's 20 years of real estate experience and homeownership knowledge are pared down into digestible takeaways extremely valuable for the average homeowner. – Alyssa Davies, author of The 100-Day Financial Goal Journal and MixUpMoney Romana offers readers important tools for making strategic real estate decisions. She shows how to fulfil our emotional desire for homeownership while also building long-term wealth — without having to pinch our lifestyle or compromise other financial goals. – Rita Silvan, former Editor-in-Chief at ELLE CANADA and Golden Girl Finance In her new book, Romana King dismisses the notion that homeownership is either a good decision or a bad decision. Instead, she helps us acknowledge the emotional need for owning a home and then sets out a plan to help all homeowners make smarter, more strategic decisions when it comes to their home. – Karin Mizgala, author of Unstuck: How to Get Out of Your Money Rut and Start Living the Life You Want and CEO Money Coaches Canada Romana King helps readers understand if homeownership is the right decision for them (right now.) House Poor No More, King discusses how to set a goal of homeownership and to use it to build your wealth long term. Most importantly she provides much-needed tools to help you navigate today’s overheated housing market. – Rubina Ahmed-Haq, creator of Always Save Money, 20-year business and finance reporter House Poor No More does an excellent job of explaining how and why homeownership is a smart, strategic tool for our emotional and financial well-being. Following the tips and tactics outlined in this book, anyone can become a smarter homeowner and grow their personal net worth. – Robert R. Brown, author of Wealthing Like Rabbits
The real-life Nickel and Dimed—the author of the wildly popular “Poverty Thoughts” essay tells what it’s like to be working poor in America. ONE OF THE FIVE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS OF THE YEAR--Esquire “DEVASTATINGLY SMART AND FUNNY. I am the author of Nickel and Dimed, which tells the story of my own brief attempt, as a semi-undercover journalist, to survive on low-wage retail and service jobs. TIRADO IS THE REAL THING.”—Barbara Ehrenreich, from the Foreword As the haves and have-nots grow more separate and unequal in America, the working poor don’t get heard from much. Now they have a voice—and it’s forthright, funny, and just a little bit furious. Here, Linda Tirado tells what it’s like, day after day, to work, eat, shop, raise kids, and keep a roof over your head without enough money. She also answers questions often asked about those who live on or near minimum wage: Why don’t they get better jobs? Why don’t they make better choices? Why do they smoke cigarettes and have ugly lawns? Why don’t they borrow from their parents? Enlightening and entertaining, Hand to Mouth opens up a new and much-needed dialogue between the people who just don’t have it and the people who just don’t get it.
The inspirational story of how Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus invented microcredit, founded the Grameen Bank, and transformed the fortunes of millions of poor people around the world. Muhammad Yunus was a professor of economics in Bangladesh, who realized that the most impoverished members of his community were systematically neglected by the banking system -- no one would loan them any money. Yunus conceived of a new form of banking -- microcredit -- that would offer very small loans to the poorest people without collateral, and teach them how to manage and use their loans to create successful small businesses. He founded Grameen Bank based on the belief that credit is a basic human right, not the privilege of a fortunate few, and it now provides $24 billion of micro-loans to more than nine million families. Ninety-seven percent of its clients are women, and repayment rates are over 90 percent. Outside of Bangladesh, micro-lending programs inspired by Grameen have blossomed, and serve hundreds of millions of people around the world. The definitive history of micro-credit direct from the man that conceived of it, Banker to the Poor is the moving story of someone who dreamed of changing the world -- and did.
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • A “vivid and devastating” (The New York Times) portrait of an indomitable girl—from acclaimed journalist Andrea Elliott “From its first indelible pages to its rich and startling conclusion, Invisible Child had me, by turns, stricken, inspired, outraged, illuminated, in tears, and hungering for reimmersion in its Dickensian depths.”—Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Atlantic, The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, Library Journal In Invisible Child, Pulitzer Prize winner Andrea Elliott follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani, a girl whose imagination is as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn shelter. In this sweeping narrative, Elliott weaves the story of Dasani’s childhood with the history of her ancestors, tracing their passage from slavery to the Great Migration north. As Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis has exploded, deepening the chasm between rich and poor. She must guide her siblings through a world riddled by hunger, violence, racism, drug addiction, and the threat of foster care. Out on the street, Dasani becomes a fierce fighter “to protect those who I love.” When she finally escapes city life to enroll in a boarding school, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning your family, and yourself? A work of luminous and riveting prose, Elliott’s Invisible Child reads like a page-turning novel. It is an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family and the cost of inequality—told through the crucible of one remarkable girl. Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize • Finalist for the Bernstein Award and the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award
"A single mother's personal, unflinching look at America's class divide (Barack Obama)," this New York Times bestselling memoir is the inspiration for the Netflix limited series, hailed by Rolling Stone as "a great one." At 28, Stephanie Land's dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer quickly dissolved when a summer fling turned into an unplanned pregnancy. Before long, she found herself a single mother, scraping by as a housekeeper to make ends meet. Maid is an emotionally raw, masterful account of Stephanie's years spent in service to upper middle class America as a "nameless ghost" who quietly shared in her clients' triumphs, tragedies, and deepest secrets. Driven to carve out a better life for her family, she cleaned by day and took online classes by night, writing relentlessly as she worked toward earning a college degree. She wrote of the true stories that weren't being told: of living on food stamps and WIC coupons, of government programs that barely provided housing, of aloof government employees who shamed her for receiving what little assistance she did. Above all else, she wrote about pursuing the myth of the American Dream from the poverty line, all the while slashing through deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor. Maid is Stephanie's story, but it's not hers alone. It is an inspiring testament to the courage, determination, and ultimate strength of the human spirit. "A single mother's personal, unflinching look at America's class divide, a description of the tightrope many families walk just to get by, and a reminder of the dignity of all work." -PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, Obama's Summer Reading List
