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One Hen Inspires Second Graders to Microfinance
When Katie Smith Milway, author of One Hen, visited Lincoln Elementary School in River Forest, Ill. last Tuesday, she was confronted with the extraordinary work of the school’s second-graders. Up on a screen in the classroom was Opportunity International’s donation website, OptINnow.org, displaying that the children had raised $425 to help end global poverty. “Do you Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agriculture, Children, Education, Ghana, Katie Smith Milway, Kojo, Kwabena Darko, Microfinance, One Hen, Opportunity International, OptINnow, Poverty, Savings, Students
One Hen Takes Microfinance to School
On Tuesday, I got the chance to visit local elementary schools in Oak Park and River Forest, Ill., attending wonderful presentations by children’s author Katie Smith Milway. She wrote One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference, a book about a Ghanaian boy named Kojo who receives a small loan to buy a Read more…
Tagged Africa, Children, Education, Entreprenuership, Ghana, Katie Smith Milway, Kojo, Kwabena Darko, Loans, Microfinance, One Hen, Opportunity International, OptINnow, Poverty, Savings, Students, Women's Opportunity Network, WON, Youth
Global Agriculture and Food Security Program
We are excited about the news that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United States, Canada and other countries have launched the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program to help the world’s poorest farmers grow more food and earn more to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty. As part of the worldwide effort Read more…
Tagged Africa, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Ending Hunger, Ending Poverty, Farmers, Financial services, Food security, Global Agriculture and Food Policy, Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, Microfinance Conference, Roger Thurow, The MasterCard Foundation, Training, Washington D.C.
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…
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: A Second Calling
When it comes to passion and purpose, Dale Hanson Bourke quite literally wrote the book. She has been called on to speak at multiple Opportunity events, so we knew we were in for a treat. Dale began, “we’ve talked about stories a lot. What I have learned as I look at my own life is Read more…
Opportunity LiveBlog: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Champions Rural Outreach
When Bill and Melinda Gates decide to take on a project, they do it with gusto. They call themselves “impatient optimists,” and firmly believe that they are changing the world, one person at a time. Associate program officer in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Financial Services for the Poor initiative, Clara Veniard is no Read more…
