Leila Janah

Leila Janah is a social entrepreneur using technology to promote social and economic justice. The concept of “sama,” the root word for equality or fairness in many languages, is the guiding principle behind the Sama Group, a family of impact enterprises Janah founded and runs. The first of these is Samasource, an award-winning non-profit business that connects women and youth living in poverty to microwork — computer-based tasks that build skills and generate life-changing income, now part of the broader field of impact sourcing. Samasource has moved 20,000 people over the poverty line and spun out a domestic program, SamaUSA. In 2011, Janah co-founded Samahope, a crowdfunding site for medical treatments in developing countries.