Blog Archives

A Trip Down Memory Lane with Some New-Old Photos

We have a lot of great photos at Opportunity International. With all of the amazing clients we get to meet and all of the places we get to work, great pictures aren’t hard to come by. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts to keep them neatly organized, some of those photos get buried underneath all of Read more…

Posted in Local Staffing, Rural Outreach, Technology, Where We Work
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Look Good, Do Good

This week only, the social entrepreneurs at Sevenly selected Opportunity International as their featured nonprofit, designing t-shirts and a hoodie for sale to benefit our work. They were especially inspired by our work in India, focusing their week-long campaign on our microfinance there, especially health insurance through our microinsurance subsidiary MicroEnsure. After all, our financial services Read more…

Posted in Microinsurance, Strategic Partners, Technology, Where We Work
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Opportunity Promotes Entrepreneurship for the Next Generation in Nicaragua

Opportunity International is launching a Technical High School to teach youth entrepreneurship skills in the agriculture and tourism industries as part of its community development initiative in Nicaragua. Opportunity recently broke ground on its Entrepreneurial Technical High School in Diriomo, Nicaragua. The school will provide rural students with the education and training they need to Read more…

Posted in Our Work, Rural Outreach, Where We Work
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What We’re Reading: Last Week’s Insight Trip to Colombia & Nicaragua

Opportunity International staff and contributors just returned this week from the first Insight Trip of 2012. Their travel adventure took them to Colombia and Nicaragua where they experienced microfinance firsthand and met our staff and clients. Four of our travelers published their personal accounts and reflections on a travel blog at adventuringincolombianicaragua.tumblr.com and we’ve loved reading each Read more…

Posted in Insight Trips, Trust Groups, Where We Work
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Check It Out! Credit Suisse Reports on the Impact of Microfinance & Technology in Malawi

We’re pleased to announce that Opportunity International is featured in this month’s Credit Suisse Bulletin. The four-page article, which was the result of Credit Suisse’s visit to Opportunity Malawi last year, is located on pages 42-45. Click here to see a complete copy of the Bulletin or read the story online. In addition, Credit Suisse has Read more…

Posted in Loans, Local Staffing, Our Work, Rural Outreach, Savings, Strategic Partners, Technology, Training, What We're Reading, Where We Work
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What We’re Reading: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1964 Nobel Lecture on Racial Injustice, Poverty, and War

On December 11, 1964, the day after he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave this lecture at the University of Oslo in Norway. In the lecture, he discussed what he said was “the most pressing problem facing mankind today,” which is a moral and spiritual poverty. As King put it: This problem of Read more…

Posted in Events, Faith in Action, Our Motivation, Where We Work
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Top 5 Highlights from Opportunity’s 2011 in Review

As we take the first steps into 2012, it’s good to see where Opportunity International ventured on the road of 2011. We ran all over the globe and hiked into new territory both literally and figuratively. We celebrated milestones, and went to new heights, for the sake of our clients and the sustainable work of Read more…

Posted in Events, Insight Trips, Microinsurance, Our Leadership, Where We Work, Women's Opportunity Network, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
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Opportunity Tanzania is Listening to Microfinance Clients and Growing

Opportunity Tanzania achieved strong growth during 2011. As of September 30th, Opportunity Tanzania was serving 5,705 microentrepreneurs with loans, reflecting an 84% growth in just nine months, having begun 2011 with 3,093 clients. Entrepreneurs like produce seller Joyce Williamson (pictured) are using loans to improve their businesses and generate more income for their families. More Read more…

Posted in Loans, Local Staffing, Our Work, Where We Work
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What We’re Reading: “Ten Biggest Positive Africa Stories of 2011,” The New Yorker

“…Yes, there is tragedy in Africa, and you will always find it there, and we must take those tragedies seriously, but there is also extraordinary opportunity. And if you see this continent as the continent of the future, it sort of reframes it. This is a continent that, by 2050, will be the largest and Read more…

Posted in Microinsurance, Our Work, Resources, Technology, What We're Reading, Where We Work
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Year-end Update from MicroEnsure, Providing a Powerful Safety Net for the World’s Most Vulnerable People

As we approach the end of year, we’re celebrating a big 2011 full of growth for MicroEnsure, Opportunity International‘s microinsurance subsidiary. Here are a few highlights from the year in review… • During 2011, MicroEnsure grew ten-fold in Africa to cover more than one million people in Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania. Within two years, the Read more…

Posted in Microinsurance, Our Work, Technology, Where We Work
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