Earlier this week, Opportunity International was honored to host Melinda Gates as she visited some of our clients and experienced our banking services in Malawi. With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Opportunity is expanding access to savings accounts, loans, training and insurance to people struggling to work their way out of poverty in the developing world.

In her blog post yesterday from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Melinda discusses the “important link between improving health and increasing access to savings accounts.” She points out that access to savings accounts allows impoverished people to save for medical emergencies, thereby contributing to their improved health. She also highlights the variety of ways Opportunity is providing access to banking services in even the most remote areas through the use of low cost kiosks, ATMs and mobile banks.

You can read her post here:

http://blogs.ft.com/gapperblog/2010/01/melinda-gates-in-davos-lessons-from-africa/

And visit www.opportunity.org to get involved with the fight to end global poverty.