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Subscribe via EmailMonthly Archives: March 2010
Here’s a Meaningful Easter Gift Idea
Are you looking for a special gift to put in your child’s or grandchild’s Easter basket amidst the brightly colored eggs and chocolates? Consider an OptINnow gift card (starting at just $25) to help teach youngsters about the importance of giving back out of the many blessings your family has received. Later that day, spend a Read more…
Tagged Business Loan, Children, Colombia, Easter, Entrepreneurs, Ghana, Gift Cards, Gift Idea, Holiday, Kenya, Mexico, OptINnow, Philippines
Outrage & Inspire – All Efforts Great and Small by Roger Thurow
Roger Thurow, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal for three decades, spoke at Opportunity International’s recent microfinance conference in Phoenix. His subsequent post, “All Efforts Great and Small,” on the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Global Food for Thought blog, discusses Opportunity’s agricultural finance program and its big impact on farmers in Africa. Read it Read more…
Providing Financial Services to Women Creates a Better World
Opportunity has long known what U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated in a video message to the “Women for a Better World” conference in Spain on Saturday—that empowering women is the key to global progress and prosperity. While Opportunity serves all people regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or gender, we place a special emphasis Read more…
Tagged Empowerment, Financial services, Gender, Hillary Clinton, India, Melanne Verveer, Melinda Gates, Mothers, ONE, Secretary of State, Women, Women for a Better World, Women Leaders, Women's Opportunity Network, Women's Philanthropy, WON
Join ONE, Melinda Gates, & Melanne Verveer
Here’s another opportunity to learn how you can become a more effective advocate in the fight against global poverty. Our friends at ONE are sponsoring an interactive conference next week with Melinda Gates and Melanne Verveer, the first-ever U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. It’s easy to join in. Just RSVP with your telephone number Read more…
Tagged AIDS, Build businesses, Children, Community, Global Poverty, Global Women's Issues, Malaria, Melanne Verveer, Melinda Gates, Microfinanc, ONE, Schools, U.S. Ambassador, Women
An armchair tour of Tanzania at Opportunity’s Spring Conference
The following is a guest post by Ed Kashmarek Opportunity’s Spring Conference, hosted last weekend by the Board of Governors in Scottsdale, Ariz., included a breakout session on Tanzania. Attendees were immediately transported to the country by a giant image of majestic Mount Kilimanjaro towering over bright yellow giraffes, accompanied by the soulful, seductive sounds of Tanzanian music. Read more…
Tagged $2 a day, Banking, Board of Governors, Clients, Conference, Independence, Insurance, Liesel Pritzker, Loans, Mount Kilimanjaro, Poverty, spring 2010 microfinance conference, spring microfinance conference, Tanzania, Training, Trust Groups, Unity, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
College student shares her discovery of microfinance
The following is a guest post by Kelsey McGrath a student at the Univerity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In January, I spent a couple of hours with staff at Opportunity International’s Oak Brook office. Although it was just a lunch break for them, it was a turning point for me. This semester, I’ve decided to Read more…
Tagged Campus, College, Education, Grameen, Grameen Bank, Mobile Banking, Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize, Peace Corps, Students, Students Twodollarchallenge, Women
Young Ambassador Reporting from Tanzania
On Sunday, Feb. 21, I flew from Chicago, Ill., to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. After almost two days of travel, I stepped out of the Julius Nyerere International Airport into humid, 90 degree weather. I knew I was in Tanzania. Thankfully, my luggage arrived with me and I went on to the Opportunity Tanzania head office. Over Read more…
Celebrating the Board of Governors
With a common passion to help people in the developing world work their way out of poverty, the Opportunity International Board of Governors is a vital ingredient in the fight against global poverty. Numbering over 600 families nationwide, the governors believe that by joining together and supporting the work of Opportunity, they can leverage their Read more…
Opportunity LiveBlog: Banking on Africa
Over 75 percent of people in Africa lives on less than $2 per day. So when Opportunity looked at its expansion plan, Africa was the region that began to take priority. In 2008 Opportunity launched an ambitious campaign to make significant impact on the world’s poorest people in sub-Saharan Africa by 2015. Building upon its Read more…
Opportunity LiveBlog: “I cannot make my payment”
Today conference attendees gathered into groups of 10, and each took on a new identity. They became Opportunity International loan recipients, each with a unique situation. In the middle of the Trust Group simulation, they discovered something challenging: one of the members, Edif, could not pay her loan. The president of each Trust Groups alerted Read more…
