Will Extreme Poverty Ever End? February 2, 2012

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Google Tech Talk
January 13, 2012

Presented by Jake Harriman.

ABSTRACT

$2.3 trillion in aid and thousands of NGOs have worked to ease the suffering of the poor; yet 1.4 billion people still remain locked in the cycle of extreme poverty. In the face of such an enormous, global challenge, why on earth would anyone start another NGO?

Hear Jake Harriman, former Force Recon Platoon Commander for the Marine Corps, share his riveting story on how he was awakened to the crisis of extreme poverty while fighting the war on terror in Iraq; how he enrolled at Stanford's Graduate School of Business to begin Nuru International; and how 10,000 people in Kuria, Kenya have already lifted themselves out of extreme poverty. Jake will give insight on Nuru's unique approach to fighting extreme poverty.

http://www.nuruinternational.org/

Speaker Info:

Jake Harriman attended the U.S. Naval Academy and served over seven years in the Marine Corps as a Platoon Commander in both the Infantry and an elite unit of Special Operations called Force Recon. During his career Jake completed two combat tours in Iraq, assisted in disaster relief operations in Indonesia and Sri Lanka after the Asian tsunami, and witnessed the fight against terror firsthand around the world. From Jake's experiences he came to believe that the war against terrorism won't be won on the battlefield alone. It must be won by eradicating the contributing causes of terrorism: disenfranchisement, lack of education, and extreme poverty. Jake left his career in the Marine Corps and dedicated himself to studying humanitarian development, organizational leadership, innovation, and the problem of extreme poverty. He enrolled in Stanford University's Graduate School of Business (GSB) where he studied at the Center for Social Innovation. Upon graduating with his MBA, Jake formed Nuru International.