Stories
Follow-up: Lydia’s Olympic Torch Moment
On Tuesday, Opportunity-UK’s Lydia Baffour Awuah made us all very proud when she carried the Olympic flame in Abingdon, U.K.–at 7:58 a.m. local time. Below, check out some photos of her big moment, provided by Harry Turner, CEO of Global Microfinance Operations. The British bank Lloyds TSB is an Olympic sponsor and a strategic partner of Opportunity-UK, and they had a spot available for a torchbearer. So Lydia’s Opportunity colleagues nominated her, telling the story of her upbringing and her…
Read MoreThe Passing of Ross Clemenger, a Pioneer of Opportunity Colombia
We were saddened to learn that one of Opportunity International’s earliest supporters, Ross Clemenger, died unexpectedly on Sunday morning at the age of 88. More than forty years ago, Ross helped Opportunity make its first loan to client Carlos Moreno in Colombia, and the Canadian native was the first executive director and the founder of AGAPE, our microfinance partner in Colombia. Ross’s commitment to eradicating poverty in that country has continued with his efforts to help us secure a bank…
Read MoreOpportunity UK’s Lydia Baffour Awuah Will Be Olympic Torchbearer Tomorrow!
Opportunity International-UK’s Lydia Baffour Awuah has been chosen to be one of the torchbearers in the Olympic torch relay. Lydia will be carrying the flame tomorrow–Tuesday, July 10–at 1:41 a.m. Central Standard Time (7:41 a.m. BST, local time) from the town of Abingdon, U.K., just south of Oxford. Tomorrow is day 53 of the relay, which culminates on July 27 at the Olympic stadium in London. Lydia is a program manager at Opportunity-UK, overseeing special projects in Ghana and Malawi. Previously,…
Read MoreEvangelism is More Than Words
The following post was written by Bob Lupton–a community developer, entrepreneur, and a member of the Board of Directors for Opportunity’s Nicaragua Community Economic Development Project–who brings together communities of resource with communities of need. He’s the founder of the nonprofit FCS Urban Ministries and in the past 40 years has developed housing, congregations, and a number of businesses for hundreds of families, initiating a wide range of human services in inner-city Atlanta.…
Read MoreTo Nurture the Freedoms of People
The Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has spoken of how true development in any society (in affluent as well as developing countries) needs to be thought of in terms of the progress made in the different kinds of freedoms experienced by individuals. This goes beyond freedom from tyranny to include the range of goods that bring about human flourishing and the expression and increase of human capacity in the Aristotelian sense. Sen argues that freedoms can build upon each other: political freedoms…
Read MorePhoto Blog: Happy Fourth of July
For Opportunity clients, freedom is… Education Feeding your children Trusting each other Always learning Planning for the future Access to healthcare Having a job Improving your community Having a home What does freedom mean to you? Leave us your comments below. Happy Independence Day!
Read MoreDo We Know Who These Smallholder Farmers Are? And Do We Care?
Francis Mamati. Leonida Wanyama. Rasoa Wasike. Zipporah Biketi. Roger Thurow, author of The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change, implores us to get to know these farmers–and to support their development–if we are to meet the challenge of doubling food production by 2050 to meet the demands of a growing population. Roger spoke last Thursday at a Chicago Council on Global Affairs event attended by several Opportunity staff members. Roger serves as the…
Read MoreWhat We’re Reading: Darcy Deane on How Great Women Lead in Teen Vogue and More
Seventeen-year-old Darcy Deane and her mom, Bonnie St. John, wrote the book on inspiring female leaders. In How Great Women Lead: A Mother-Daughter Adventure into the Lives of Women Shaping the World, the co-authors profile some of the world’s most inspiring women–from Hillary Rodham Clinton; to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; to Sharon Allen, the first female board chair at Deloitte LLP; to Opportunity Nicaragua’s regional manager, Noemi Vivas Ocaña–documenting their rises to the top and…
Read MoreSuccess Story: Banking on Africa Campaign
In 2008, Opportunity embarked on its most ambitious effort to date, a $123.6 million Banking on Africa campaign to expand financial services for impoverished families throughout sub-Saharan Africa. With the partnership of our committed supporters, we’re celebrating the successful completion of this campaign and we’re confident we’ll reach our Banking on Africa goal: to reach five million African clients by 2015, impacting families, communities, and an estimated 30 million people in total. Banking…
Read MoreWhat We’re Reading: Rio +20 and the Role of Women in Economic Development
Last week, June 20-22, over 45,000 people–including world leaders, NGOs, and other policymakers–came together in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as “Rio +20.” (So named because it has been 20 years since the seminal 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), known as “The Earth Summit,” was held in Rio.) Participants at Rio +20 came to discuss solutions for reducing poverty, increasing social equality, and…
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