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What We’re Reading: The Launch of Roger Thurow’s New Book The Last Hunger Season
If you’re looking for a summer read that inspires, Roger Thurow just released his new book, The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change. The Last Hunger Season gives you a look into the lives of four smallholder farming families in western Kenya as they work to move from subsistence Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Ending Hunger, Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty, Farmer, farming, Food security, Global Agriculture and Food Policy, Global Food for Thought blog, Hunger, Kenya, Loans, Microfinance, Opportunity International, Opportunity International Microfinance Conference, Poverty, Roger Thurow, Smallholder farmer, what we're reading, Women, women farmers
Remembering All Heroes Who Fight for a Cause Greater Than Themselves
Memorial Day, although a domestic U.S. holiday, calls to my mind a universal theme: the honor and reverence due to the men and women who have fought and died for a cause bigger than themselves. Though our focus at is most often on international issues such as chronic poverty; empowerment of women and the disenfranchised; Read more…
Obama Announces Food Security Partnership at Chicago Council on Global Affairs Symposium Before the G8
Last Friday, agricultural finance took center stage at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs symposium, “Advancing Food and Nutrition Security,” in Washington, D.C. on the eve of the G8 Summit. President Obama announced a partnership among the G8 member nations, African countries and the private sector called the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, which has a Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Alliance to End Hunger, Board of Advisors, Bono, Cargill, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Ending Hunger, Food security, G8, Global Agricultural Development Initiative, global hunger, Hillary Clinton, Hunger, Microfinance, Monsanto, ONE blog, Opportunity International, President Obama, Tony Hall
Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Freedom for One Another
In my work as a writer for , I think a lot about what inspires people, and I spend at least an equal amount of time considering what inspires me. To be truthful, when I look at the world around me, I often feel as though we (as a collective) have no heroes. Or, rather, Read more…
Tagged anti-Semitism, Christa Countryman, christian, christianity, Christians, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Easter, Ending Poverty, faith, Faith in Action, Germany, Global Poverty, God, Jesus Christ, justice, Microfinance, pastor, Poverty, racial injustice, social justice, theologian, theology
Not Just Global, But Local: Opportunity-US Staff Day of Service
For 364 days of the year at , our focus is global–global communities and the global issue of chronic poverty–but we also know how important it is to give back to our local community. So on Friday, May 11, Opportunity-US closed our Oak Brook, Ill. office to give back to the community with our annual service day. We Read more…
What We’re Reading: “Tapping into the Potential of the Unbanked in the DRC”
This post, “Tapping into the Potential of the Unbanked in the DRC,” was originally published Wednesday morning on ACCION International‘s Center for Financial Inclusion Blog, written by Kadita Tshibaka, a member of ‘s . Kadita was born and raised in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and spent 33 years working around the world in Read more…
Tagged Accion, Africa, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Blog, Board of Directors, Center for Financial Inclusion, Center for Financial Inclusion Blog, Citigroup, Clients, Dartmouth College, DR Congo, DRC, DRC Grand Opening, Financial Access, Financial services, FINCA, Formal Labor Force, Gallup Poll, Gates Foundation, Global Findex, Kadita "A.T." Tshibaka, Kinshasa, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, Opportunity DRC, Opportunity International, Portfolios of the Poor, Poverty, ProCredit, Savings, savings club, sub-Saharan Africa, Technology, unbanked, World Bank
Happy Mother’s Day! Meet Mother & Kenyan Staff Member Betty Mutua
Betty Mutua, Regional Relationship Officer at Opportunity Kenya and a mother of two, visited the U.S. last month and spoke to us about the challenges and triumphs of being a mom while working full-time and going to school. We were so inspired by the grace with which Betty handles the universal challenges of being a Read more…
Tagged Africa, Betty Mutua, Family, Global Opportunity Quilt, international staff, International Visitor, Kenya, local staff, Microfinance, Mother's Day, Mothers, Nairobi, Opportunity International, Opportunity Kenya, regional relationship officer, videos, Women
Taking the Live Below the Line Challenge: Actress Malin Akerman, Young Ambassadors, Governors & Staff
All this week, May 7-11, supporters around the country, including members of and , and our own staff took part in the Global Poverty Project’s Live Below the Line challenge to eat and drink for only $1.50 a day. They’re raising awareness for the 1.4 billion people who have to not only eat, but cover Read more…
Tagged Abbi Antablin, Blog, Education, Ending Hunger, Ending Poverty, Global Poverty, Ian Haisley, Insight Trip, Live Below the Line, Malin Akerman, Opportunity International, Poverty, Tanzania, yao-DC
Three Rwandan Mothers I Met on the Women’s Opportunity Network (WON) Insight Trip
I recently returned from a week-long Insight Trip to Rwanda with a group of supporters from the U.K. and the U.S. We traveled in Kigali and to rural villages, visiting with clients and local staff, attending meetings, and getting to know how Opportunity’s Rwandan clients live and work. Now that we’re just three days out Read more…
Tagged Africa, Clients, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Global Opportunity Quilt, Global Poverty, Insight Trip, International Women's Day, Loans, Microfinance, Mother's Day, Mothers, Opportunity International, Opportunity UK, Poverty, Robin Ussery, Rwanda, Trust Groups, Women, Women's Opportunity Network, Women's Philanthropy, WON
