Stories
Spotlight on the Annual Report: Microfinance Helps Communities Thrive
The Opportunity Progressive Trust Group in Kampala, Uganda provides the perfect example for how http://www.opportunity.org/our-work/trust-groups/Trust Groups[/intlink] can strengthen a community, helping families provide for themselves, send their children to school and build for their futures. http://www.opportunity.org/media-center/stories/the-opportunity-progressive-trust-group/Charity Namutebi[/intlink] is an Opportunity http://www.opportunity.org/our-work/where-we-work/microfinance-in-africa/microfinance-in-uganda/Uganda[/intlink]…
Read MoreMelinda French Gates on the Impact of Agricultural Finance
Want to do more to impact global poverty? In an interview in the August issue of Smithsonianmagazine, Melinda Gates outlines the techniques the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is using to fight global poverty in the 21st century. (“Melinda French Gates on Saving Lives,” by Terence Monmaney) It’s part of the magazine’s 40th-anniversary issue, featuring ”40 Things You Need to Know About the Next 40 Years.” If you ever feel that poverty in the developing world is an inevitable fact…
Read MoreSpotlight on the Annual Report: Empowering Emerging Women Leaders in Microfinance
Meet Beatrice William. Beatrice is undergoing training through Opportunity International’s Emerging Leaders Program – part of Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Women Initiative–which trains talented women in banking and finance to help them establish or advance careers in microfinance as loan officers and bank managers. “When I heard that I had been chosen to come to Nairobi for the Emerging Leaders Program, I knew that it was going to change me. And it has,” Beatrice says. Beatrice graduated from…
Read MoreWhat We’re Reading: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Looking for a summer read? At Opportunity, we’re reading The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, written by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. It’s the story of a young boy with an entrepreneurial spirit who was able to transform the lives of the people in his community. Young William Kamkwamba and his family grew up in Malawisurrounded by poverty. With just an idea and a few resources he was able to make a windmill out of scrap material that eventually generated enough electric power for his…
Read MoreNotice anything different?
Regular visitors to the Opportunity blog will notice it has a different look and format than before. Go further. http://www.opportunity.org/Opportunity.org[/intlink] has been completely refreshed and upgraded. Here are a few of our favorite features on the new site: 1. Photos at Your Fingertips On every page, including the http://www.opportunity.org/homepage[/intlink], there is a slideshow of thumbnail pictures of our clients, our banks, and our staff. Get to know us better by clicking on one…
Read MoreKnowledge Leads to Understanding: Getting to Know Uganda
Women’s Opportunity Network (WON) supporter Debby Farrington and her 16-year-old nephew Matt Statman contributed this final post about their trip to Uganda, summing up the unforgettable people they met and places they saw on their journey. The Mighty Nile River Debby: Uganda is a beautiful country: Winston Churchill described it as “the pearl of Africa” because of its green hills, the shores of Lake Victoria, and the Nile River, which flows north through the country. When we had the…
Read MoreMeet Betty Mutua of Opportunity Kenya
“Working in microfinance has transformed me. We use the word ‘transformation’ to describe our client training, but that word also describes how I feel,” says Betty Mutua, a regional manager at Opportunity International Kenya. Mutua began working for Opportunity as a loan officer in 2001, which was also the year she got married. “I’ve been married as long as I’ve been in microfinance!” she laughs. Today, she is based in Nairobi and supervises five regional bank branches. She…
Read MoreSpotlight on the Annual Report: Harvesting Hope
Providing access to clients living in the world’s most geographically remote areas is an important part of what Opportunity does. Reaching clients like Malawian farmer Jakobo Chikayiko, or Jakob as he’s known, who live hours from urban areas is crucial to connecting them with financial services, access to markets for agricultural goods, and economic sustainability. Through financial services like crop insurance and loans, clients like Jakob are better able to protect their futures. Read Jakob’s…
Read MoreVote for OptINnow in the Paperless Choice Challenge
Opportunity International’s fundraising campaign,OptINnow, is entered in the Paperless Choice Challenge funded by the Overbrook Foundation. The contest is looking to reward non-profits with innovative digital fundraising techniques. The winners receive $5,000! OptINnow is an innovative, multi-functional digital fundraising campaign. Help optinnow.org win the contest, so Opportunity International can receive $5,000 to help end global poverty. Faster. How can you help? Here are several ways. Through…
Read MoreRwandan Women are Crucial to Economy — A Story on CNN.com
Check out CNN.com where Lisa Desai wrote a piece, accompanied by a video, that highlights the integral role that women play in the growing economy of Rwanda since the genocide in 1994. Today, women outnumber men in Rwanda and, according to the piece, “there are more women in Rwanda’s parliament than any other country in the world. Laws have been passed so they can own land and wives can legally keep their assets separate from their husbands. All steps the government is taking to help Rwandese…
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