Martin Luther King, Jr. makes his “I Have a Dream” speech, August 28, 1963, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Corbis/History.com)

King said:

[…W]e refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

[...]I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight.

Today, 50 years later, Martin Luther King’s words inspire us to fight for justice at home and around the world.

At Opportunity International, we’re moved by King’s impassioned cry for an end to inequality. We’re committed to the rights of all people — no matter where they are, no matter how they live, and no matter their nationality or ethnicity — to live with dignity, hope, faith and without the chains of poverty. No person should be condemned by the circumstances of where they were born. Dr. King inspires us to keep up the hard work to end poverty and promote economic justice for our clients.

We have a dream that…

• Entrepreneurs with a business idea and hope of earning an income can do so
• Parents everywhere can feed their children
• Children everywhere can get a good education
• Health insurance will prevent serious illnesses from pushing people deeper into poverty
• Crop insurance will enable farmers facing drought or floods to feed their kids and pay their bills
• People will have a safe place to save their money with interest, avoiding the risk of hiding it in their yard or at a neighbor’s house
• All people, regardless of who or where they are, will live with dignity and hope

These are our dreams. Justice is still at risk today as it was in 1963. Let us remember Martin Luther King’s legacy on this and all days by committing our lives to ending poverty, injustice and despair. We must never let go of this dream.

New investors in MicroEnsure include International Finance Corporation (IFC), Omidyar Network and select members of the MicroEnsure management team. Opportunity International-US will maintain a minority shareholding in the newly formed MicroEnsure Holdings Limited, a UK-based company.

Theresia John Kombe’s daughter Loreen receives healthcare from Dr. Felix Lyimo in Pangara, Tanzania. As a coffeegrower with the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU), Theresia joined a MicroEnsure health plan connected to a network of clinics and pays one low annual premium to cover her whole family.

In conjunction with this investment, MicroEnsure has established a joint venture with the Telenor Group, a provider of tele, data and media communications in 11 developing countries. Telenor serves more than 149 million mobile subscribers across Asia and Europe. The new joint venture called “MicroEnsure Asia” promises to become a leading provider of insurance to the mass market in Asia and Eastern Europe.

The award-winning MicroEnsure was recognized with the Financial Times/IFC Sustainable Finance Award in 2009 and 2011. In the past five years, MicroEnsure has grown rapidly thanks in part to generous support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“While we are proud to have launched such an impactful organization, we are more proud to further infuse MicroEnsure with valuable resources and then step aside so the company can grow fast and serve exponentially more families in need,” said Vicki Escarra, CEO of Opportunity International-US.

Richard Leftley, CEO of MicroEnsure, said, “MicroEnsure is excited to have Omidyar Network and IFC join us as shareholders and the Telenor Group as a joint venture partner. With access to the right capital and customer base that these partners bring, we are looking forward to serving many millions of low- and middle-income clients globally.”

Read the press release »

James Aby Kwame Prah, a microinsurance client with MicroEnsure, from Accra, Ghana

In a blog post last month, CFR reported that MicroEnsure has “sign[ed] up a million [life insurance] customers [in Ghana] over 14 months, 85% of them new to insurance” by linking life insurance to mobile phone payment plans.

As more airtime is used by subscribers to local carrier Tigo, the more free insurance clients earn for themselves or for family members, and they have the option to double their coverage for an extra $0.50 a month.

Despite being a population which suffers most when natural disasters or family tragedies strike, most people living in extreme poverty lack insurance. Microinsurance provides an essential safety net.

MicroEnsure is successfully bringing life insurance to clients in Ghana, as well as health insurance to Tanzanians and weather-index crop insurance to Rwanda, to name a few.

MicroEnsure offers crop, loan, health, life and property insurance, providing a safety net to people who otherwise risk slipping back into poverty after a disaster.

Read more about CFR’s five innovations to watch in 2013 »

Feed more hungry people. Rwandan rice farmer Elina Uwingeneye is an agricultural finance client who uses loans to grow more crops with better fertilizers, increasing yields.	Be nice to your mom. Loan client Maria Elena Tovar Gonzalez, from Guadalajara, Mexico, poses with her son. 93% of Opportunity’s loans go to women like Maria around the world.
Learn a new skill. Experienced artisan Maria de los Angeles Ordjonez carves elaborate designs into decorative pieces and household items to sell in her Honduras village.	Educate the next generation. Bright Ofori (left) and Clementina Dankwa learn at the Richmercy School, Ashaiman, Ghana, where proprietor Mercy Senyegah receives loans to improve her school.
Be a good friend. Beatrice Boaten and her fellow members of the Nerebehi Cocoa Farmers Association process the cocoa harvest together in Ghana.	Bring someone joy. A client who makes jewelry surprises loan officer Valamarthi with a beautiful bouquet in Chennai, India.

What are your goals for the New Year? Leave them in the comment field below.

Smallholder farmers make up 50% of the world’s hungriest people, and technology is at the forefront of empowering these farmers to feed themselves and their families, and to earn a higher income. Opportunity International continues to develop agricultural finance tools that can be critical to helping farmers in a variety of climates and growing conditions increase their crop yields.

Sam saw firsthand the challenges of smallholder farmers in the developing world when she visited Rwanda with Engineers Without Borders-Johnson Space Center. Then, in December 2011 and again in March 2012, she went to Nicaragua to see Opportunity’s yucca processing plant, meeting Executive Director David Kone and Program Director Geralyn Sheehan. Among the innovations Sam found inspiring was David’s pride and joy: an innovative new way to dry and process yucca in order to store and sell it.

Sam (second from right) with her team at the NASA Space Apps Challenge

Since returning from Central America, Sam has been hooked on innovating to feed more people and make a better life for those in poverty. In April 2012, she embarked on a series of coding, programming and philanthropic hacking competitions to contribute technological solutions to the problem of chronic hunger and food insecurity in the developing world. The first event was the 48-hour NASA International Space Apps Challenge, one of the “world’s largest hackathons.” Fondly called the PineApple Project, her challenge generated an international community of solvers, several in developing countries, eager to collaborate. It won “The Most Disruptive Global Award” and was a runner-up for the competition’s People’s Choice prize. The PineApple Project is designed to help farmers and policymakers decide what crops to plant and where to plant them. Technology like the PineApple Project and Opportunity’s agricultural finance tools are critical to helping farmers in a variety of climates and growing conditions increase their crop yields so they can earn an income and better feed their families.

USAID’s Hacking for Hunger hackathon in September

Soon after the Space Apps Challenge, the PineApple Project’s newly formed team reconvened at Random Hacks of Kindness where they won the San Francisco Cross Hackathon award. In September the challenge was included in USAID’s Hacking for Hunger codeathon, an online and in-person mashup of participants from five countries that included volunteer programmers, designers, storytellers and development experts working around the clock. At the event, Sam’s team was recognized again but also received some harsh feedback: the solution was too simplistic to be realistically applied to the needs of smallholder farmers. Optimizing planting decisions was more complex than her prototype, she realized. There were great risks posed by climate change and more information was needed about crop rotation. Temperatures change drastically from year to year and variables such as market pricing influence planting decisions. These concerns are what prompted Opportunity to develop its data-collection methods and services for farmers such as GPS mapping, inputs of high-quality seed and fertilizers, market linkages and weather-index crop insurance, and it’s exciting to see how Sam’s innovative work also collects data to help meet the needs of farmers.

The USAID judges recognized the PineApple Project’s progress and admired the team’s enthusiasm and youthful idealism. Following Hacking for Hunger, USAID made valuable connections to INSEAD Business School and data experts, inviting Sam and Selena Georgiou of Growers’ Nation to The Iowa Hunger Summit (an event established by the World Food Prize Foundation), where she presented at the Open Data Showcase. Thanks to Hacking for Hunger, the PineApple Project was able to refine and expand its food and farming database with open data sets. Sam’s goal is that by January 2013, everything on the site will leverage geolocation, with accurate and relevant average temperatures, rainfall and topographical data. Soil data will also be included but, as it is notoriously difficult to determine because of variables such as runoff and fertilizers, she says her team is now evaluating Bayesian assessment tools (that is, probability-based hypotheses). They also are considering using SMS data to determine market pricing and pest information, though this can be costly without the support of a strategic partner.

Based on responses to the project’s community recruiting tool, root2market.org, Sam’s team has identified a market for their work and has the science and user testimonies to support the need. Today, the project is also made possible by her partnership with Phil Parker at INSEAD, Geeks Without Bounds, Softlayer, and sister project Growers’ Nation out of the MetOffice UK.

Speaking to Sam, I know I’m in the presence of a rare type of person: brimming over with idealism but with the smarts, experience, know-how and problem-solving skills to make headway on the causes she cares deeply about.

Sam personifies the power of one individual to impact thousands, and we’re thrilled to have her in the Opportunity family.

In a recent “Forbes” article by Patrick Hull, successful entrepreneurs are those willing to take risks and push boundaries. The article quotes Harvard Business School professor Howard Stevenson, who says, “Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.” Perhaps this exemplifies the adventurous spirit that defines some wealthier or more advantageous entrepreneurs. But for Opportunity’s loan clients, their pursuit of entrepreneurship often is not so much an adventure as a necessity.

Opportunity client Ruth Nassimbwa is a true entrepreneur. With a loan from Opportunity Uganda, Ruth expanded from selling groceries in Kampala’s Kalerwe market to operating her own restaurant. Now, she has doubled her income, sends her four children to school and employs four of her neighbors in her business.

Hull says that entrepreneurs are “confident in themselves and in their abilities.” For our clients, their confidence is not the primary reason for growing a business. Without strong local industries or formal economic infrastructure, which could offer employment opportunities, clients run small businesses so that they have a chance to earn an income, their children can eat, and they can build a more secure and stable financial future.

He goes on to say, “The ability to understand and see opportunity is critical for success. [...] I’ve taken many risks as an entrepreneur but only when I saw an opportunity and thought I had a good chance for success. I’ve aimed high, but have been smart about where I’m aiming.” In this regard, Hull’s archetypal profile of an entrepreneur does align with many of Opportunity’s clients. When Opportunity clients access a loan, they most often use it to expand a business they’ve already begun or, if they’ve gained some success, they may open a secondary business in another field they already know well.

Opportunity’s clients take calculated risks but they cannot afford to take foolish swings at the fences. Hull says, “[Richard Branson] is willing to take calculated risks with a clear plan in mind.” For Opportunity clients, wild choices can mean disaster for them or their families — coming from very little, it does not require much of a setback to return them to poverty unless they have been able to accrue a safety net of savings and income to protect them from this backslide. The access to small loans and financial services is the edge they need to take the steps necessary to make their business succeed. They “understand and see opportunity” when it arrives in their communities.

While most of Opportunity clients are risk takers by necessity rather than choice, they pave their own ways with their own businesses. They have the wherewithal to notice and take advantage of opportunities in the forms of Opportunity International microloans and financial tools when they are available. We’re proud of our brave clients who partner with us every day to achieve entrepreneurial success.

1. City A.M.‘s Appeal for Opportunity, Backed by the Citi Foundation

In a recent City A.M. article, Citigroup’s global director of microfinance, Bob Annibale, explained why the Citi Foundation supports the City A.M. Christmas Appeal to raise funds for Opportunity International’s life-changing work in Africa.

Opportunity client Patience Dameh sells fabric out of one of the most vibrant stalls in the Kasseh Market in Ada, Ghana.

“I’m most focused on organizations that are impacting communities through provision of financial services and support for entrepreneurship,” Annibale said. “There are some fantastic examples, including Opportunity International – the level of sophistication of the technology it is using is first rate. Not only bringing electronic payments to people, but also using biometric technology to securely create a ‘financial identity’ for clients who may not have identity documents.”The appeal has raised $433,062 [£269,330] since its launch, and every donation will be matched by the British government.

How to Give:

Give online at www.cityam.com/appeal. Or donate by texting CITY13 and the amount (£5 or £10, the equivalent of $8 or $16) to 70070.

Then, use social media to tell the world why you donated. Tweet #cityamappeal. These comments may be printed in City A.M.

2. Invest in One Woman, Empower Many

1.5 billion people worldwide live in extreme poverty. Many are women entrepreneurs with a plan to help themselves, their families and their communities. Through Opportunity International’s One Woman Holiday Challenge, start an online fundraiser or make a donation to an existing fundraiser. Every $150=one woman empowered with a loan that helps her grow her business so that she can support her family, send her children to school and employ her neighbors. She will be able to work her way out of chronic poverty. When you give, you will be investing in better futures, one woman at a time.

Thanks to generous donors, every dollar donated will be matched 1 to 1 up to $450,000. Your donation of any size makes a difference. Donate now and you will DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT.

Learn more, make a donation and empower a woman to have a better life at opportunity.org/woman »

3. The Gift Card of Opportunity

This is more than a gift card, it’s the gift of Opportunity. This year, give your friends, family and co-workers an Opportunity Gift Card and you will be bringing hope and opportunity to families around the world. Your friends can use their gift cards to empower some of the millions of clients who use Opportunity International loans and financial services to grow their businesses, employ their neighbors, feed their children and strengthen their communities.

Make this the year that you give your list the gift of opportunity. Purchase Opportunity Gift Cards for $10 or more at opportunity.org/giftcard »

Opportunity Gift Cards starting at $10, available at opportunity.org/giftcard »

Malin is an “US Weekly” Do-Gooder, pictured on her March visit to Tanzania with Opportunity.

See more of Malin’s commitment to Opportunity and you’ll be as inspired as we are by her dedication. Check out her posts about everything from her Environmental Media Association event for Opportunity in L.A. to her eye-opening Insight Trips.

Featured posts:

• “It’s More Exciting than Landing a Movie with Tom Cruise” (Oct. 2012)
• “An Education and a Brighter Future for Nicaraguan Girls” (Aug. 2012)
• “A Drumbeat and a Trust Group: My Trip to Tanzania” (June 2012)

CEO Sam Chandar (left) visits with a client (June 2012).

At the same time, in India, where Cyclone Neelam touched down Wednesday in the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, eleven people have been reported dead, power is down and schools and businesses are closed. Though relief and rescue teams across the country’s southern states have been deployed to combat the destruction caused by the storm, and the government is working to respond, the recovery will undoubtedly be slow for more remote and impoverished areas of southern India, where many Opportunity clients reside.

Early Wednesday afternoon, as an update to our staff, Harry Turner, CEO of Opportunity’s Global Microfinance Operations, sent this message from Sam Chandar, CEO of one of our microfinance institutions in India, describing the preparations for the storm.

Two of Opportunity’s women clients from Chennai (International Women’s Day, March 2011)

Chennai is bracing itself for the onslaught of Cyclone Neelam approaching us at a speed of 85 kilometers per hour [about 50 mph] and [it is] targeted to hit us in the next couple of hours. All harbors, schools, colleges and government institutions have been closed. Hundreds of trees are uprooted and there are power outages in several areas. It is raining heavily across Tamil Nadu. There are possibilities that the cyclone may change direction at the last minute and head for Andhra Pradesh. It is expected that Mahabalipuram on the coast will also suffer damage. As a precautionary measure we have advised our staff to leave early and return to their homes. As usual, in the spirit of [Opportunity India], we try to maintain calm even during the storm.

It’s times like these that we at Opportunity are grateful that we can offer some financial stability and help to our clients in extreme poverty. When a natural disaster hits, families already in a precarious financial position risk slipping back into a cycle of poverty. But fortunately, our Indian loan clients have support in rebuilding and growing their businesses if the unexpected occurs. In addition to small business loans, Opportunity India is also developing an emergency loan product and they’re working with our insurance subsidiary, MicroEnsure, to pilot health, life and accident insurance. In partnership with Habitat for Humanity, Opportunity India conducted a housing survey to measure the need and interest for financing home improvements. We’ve disbursed over 150 housing loans, which include loans for home improvement and incremental building purposes, as of September 2012.

Clients receive orientation for Opportunity India’s housing loan program in June 2012.

Though these products are helpful for our Indian clients, many undoubtedly will still struggle to protect their families and pick up the pieces after this tragedy. Please keep our U.S. colleagues and friends affected by Sandy, and our global staff and clients in India who are struggling with Neelam, in your thoughts and prayers now and in the coming days and weeks as they deal with the tragic effects of these storms.

We’ll continue to provide you with updates and reports from our leaders about our clients and our staff on the ground in India to let you know how they are faring after Cyclone Neelam.

Rampant poverty, which has festered for far too long, is linked to social unrest and threats to peace and security. On this International Day, let us make an investment in our common future by helping to lift people out of poverty so that they, in turn, can help to transform our world. -UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

School proprietor Mercy Senyegah in a classroom at Richmercy School, Ghana

Nothing is more important to ensuring a stable world than to empower people at the bottom of the pyramid to work their way out of poverty. To do that, you must start with the most basic but essential building block–education. This is more than common sense, there are facts, including these from USAID, to back it up. A few of the most alarming:

For every year of school completed, individual earnings increase by 10%.

A girl who completes basic education is three times less likely to contract HIV/AIDS.

A child born to an educated mother is twice as likely to survive to age five.

Education impacts more than just earnings, it creates better health, wider economic growth and alleviates poverty. (usaid.gov)

Students learning at Richmercy

Meet one woman working to make this goal of providing an education–and a better future for all children–a reality. She is Mercy Senyegah, the proprietor of the Richmercy School in Ashaiman, Ghana. In Ghana, though public education is free, the quality of the education at government-funded schools is often poor. So Mercy was determined to bring the opportunity of education to local Ashaiman families with few other options. When she first started her school, she had four classes of students that all had to share one classroom, and one in the school kitchen. She says that in the beginning, she didn’t know how to save and she felt she needed guidance. Today, she serves 250 students at her school, and has nine classrooms, six teachers, and five other staff. She used Opportunity loans to add classrooms, cement the floors, hire more teachers and serve lunch to children whose families can’t provide them with food. With future loans, and the guidance and advice of her loan officer Gabriel Addai Duah, Mercy one day wants to build a library, a computer lab and a lavatory at Richmercy.

Mercy and students in the schoolyard

Given the chance to learn, even children living in deeply debilitating poverty can transform their lives. Parents understand that and so do proprietors like Mercy.

In Ghana, Uganda and Malawi, 332 school proprietors are currently using $3 million in Opportunity loans and customized business training to improve their schools. (In Ghana, these loans are made possible in part by our partnership with the IDP Rising Schools Program.) In addition, over 2,600 families in three African countries and India have accessed school fee loans that help parents with unpredictable incomes cover tuition. Our education finance tools make it possible to reach more girls and boys, giving them a chance at a better future. Because of better education, and their ability to complete more years of school, they are almost guaranteed to have choices in life that their parents never had.

If you’d like to support this work, now is the time. Through several generous supporters, we’re offering a match on all gifts to our education program up to $75,000. So you can double your impact, sending more girls and boys to school, creating a more stable future for developing countries and the world. Learn more at opportunity.org/child »

Banking on Education:

Banking on Education from Opportunity International on Vimeo.