Leila Janah, founder and CEO of Sama and LXMI, lived and worked her motto: give work. Her organizations provide a wide range of resources. These include job training and placement, scholarships, and an above average wage for people all over the world.
Janah passed away on January 24th of 2020, from complications of epithelioid sarcoma. She faced a relatively short but intense battle. But her legacy continues through the companies she founded in her time as an innovator and philanthropist.
For this legacy of philanthropy and innovation, Hayat selected Janah as Ramadan Top 30 Illuminator.
Leila Janah Provides Career Training and Opportunities
As the founder and CEO of Samasource and Samaschool, Janah spent her life helping poverty-stricken communities in East Africa. She had helped up to 50,000 people lift themselves out of poverty by 2019.
Based in San Francisco, Samasource trains people in digital skills. Janah founded Samasource in 2008 with the motivation that, “talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not.”
As time went on, the company delved into more complex AI tasks, gave significant numbers of people high level technical skills, and opened centers all over the world, including Uganda, Canada, and Costa Rica.
According to the Samasource website, 88% of the leadership roles within the company were filled by internal promotions. Additionally, the company provides academic scholarships, mentorship programs, life skills workshops and much more for its employees.
In addition to technology ventures, Janah founded LXMI, a fair-trade skin care company. She create it after a “chance discovery” of Nilotica, a type of shea butter, at an Ugandan market.
The ethos of the company states, “above all, we exist to engage women to take part in the world in a way that creates lasting beauty.” It also has the motto of all of Janah’s ventures: “giving work is the ultimate solution to global poverty.”
How Leila Janah Turn Hardship into Work Ethic
Jana’s family immigrated from India to New York. But Janah grew up primarily in Arizona and California. “We were the odd ones out,” she describes her and her brother, “ashy-legged, knob-kneed Indian kids who didn’t have TV at home.”
However, with the help of her teachers and her relentless hard work, Janah attended multiple gifted programs, won scholarships, and eventually attended Harvard. At only 17, she won a scholarship which allowed her to teach in Ghana for six months. This drove her decision to graduate with a degree in African Development Studies, and start Samasource.
“Nothing is fair. Good guys are constantly losing,” wrote Janah on her Medium page. “The only way to stay afloat – maybe even alive – is to grow and nourish and spend time in your own garden, where you can cultivate what matters in the face of all the evil.”
In this case, she means a mental garden, a “space in your mind yearning for meaning.” She recommends reading moral philosophy (here is a list of her suggestions), and journeying into the wilderness.
The Global Community Remembers Janah
Janah first got her epithelioid sarcoma diagnosis in April of 2019. From the beginning, she opened up about her treatment journey on her social media. She fought tooth and nail to receive every treatment possible. In November of 2019 she wrote, “my biggest lesson is awe: I’m awe-struck by the complexity of human biology, and equally by the almost mystical power of human connection and love flowing my way.” She passed away on January 24th, 2020, from complications of her illness.
Janah touched many lives in her time on Earth, and so many mourn her.
“I think I’ve done quite a bit and if I can just focus on growing what I’ve created, I’ll be happy with the legacy I’ve created,” Janah told Michelle Martin of Forbes Magazine. She leaves behind a legacy of true altruism. She used her time on Earth on to help as many as she could, improving lives concretely.
The Sama family writes, “we will miss Leila’s infectious laugh, her tenacious spirit, and her ability to inspire all she encountered to be a force for good in the world.” This sentiment is shared by everyone whose lives she touched, and Janah’s drive and passionate work will surely keep having an exponentially growing impact for a long time to come.
May she rest in peace.
