Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo

Today is Blog Action Day from change.org. The theme this year is the worldwide struggle for clean, safe drinking water. “Why Water?” asks change.org. “Water is a global issue, deserving a global conversation.”

A few facts from charity: water, one of this year’s Blog Action Day partners:

Right now, almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. That’s one in eight of us.

In Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year just walking for water. Women and children usually bear the burden of water collection, walking miles to the nearest source, which is unprotected and likely to make them sick.

Time spent walking and resulting diseases keep them from school, work and taking care of their families.

With safe water nearby, women are free to pursue new opportunities and improve their families’ lives. Kids can earn their education and build the future of their communities.

Water is an issue that affects the health, well-being and the economic stability of women, children and families. Read all the featured blog posts  for Blog Action Day 2010 and take action.

As Opportunity expands its services into new communities around the developing world, we often find that we are just catching up to our clients who, for generations, have been minimizing their carbon footprint by living as good stewards of their environment.

Take our operations in Malawi for example.

With the branch expansion of Opportunity Bank in Malawi (OIBM) in Zomba, we are providing financial resources to sustainable fish farmers so that they can grow and expand their operations.

There are about 700 fish farmers in the bush land settlements to the west of Zomba. Farmers dig small, rain-fed ponds of about 10×15 meters where the soil is suitable for retaining water. The farmers use the ponds to raise common fish species – which in Malawi means chambo (a species of tilapia) and mlamba (catfish).

The farmers harvest the fish as a staple for their family’s diet, which usually lacks meat, and sell or trade the remainder for maize, fertilizer and income. Farmers enrich the ponds with manure from their goats and chickens. When they empty the pond, a rich layer of silt can be dug from the base. The silt is used as fertilizer to grow maize, which in turn ensures that the goats and chickens produce manure for the pond.

This is simple and it is sustainable.

Thousands of miles away, our location in the Philippines, TSKI, has a Community Based Entrepreneurship Development Program that engages whole communities in making products from locally-based materials (examples include harvesting seaweed for pharmaceutical and beauty products; weaving from local fibers; etc).

By using locally-based materials to create such a wide variety of products, these communities decrease the need to import the same products over long, fuel-burning distances. Simultaneously, they are creating wealth that stays in the community and helps end the cycle of poverty.

Thank you Opportunity clients, for living in a way that respects our world, and teaching us to do the same!

Opportunity International is working to equip countries to be agriculturally self-sustainable through microfinance.

There is a green revolution occurring in the developing world led by passionate individuals with a heart for change. Within this revolution, Opportunity International is equipping nations to do something radical–to feed themselves.

In honor of www.blogactionday.org, I would like to introduce Lucas Chingore. Lucas is a farmer in Mozambique. His desire was to farm on a plot of land just outside of town. But his goal was always out of reach. He did not have the financial services that he needed to succeed. Finally, he found Opportunity International and his farm took root. He received a loan for an irrigation pump that brought precious water to his crops and greatly enhanced his yield. Another loan allowed him to diversify into poultry so that hundreds of chickens now populate his fields. And he opened an Opportunity savings account to protect his business profits and earn interest.

Lucas is now feeding his family, his community and his nation, thanks to a loan from Opportunity.

Two-thirds of the sub-Saharan Africa labor force is employed in agriculture. With this in mind, Opportunity institutions in eight African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda) are committed to addressing the issue of food security. Opportunity plans to solve this great agricultural conundrum through the success of people like Lucas.

The issue of food sustainability is not a new issue. It is, however, one of the most pressing problems in the developing world. With the global food crisis still a battle that the poor face daily, Opportunity International recognized the need for a long-term solution to this chronic problem.

Using technology, Opportunity has pioneered crop insurance that mitigates weather problems in farming. Using education, Opportunity is teaching farmers about the true market value of their crops. Using savings products, Opportunity is allowing farmers to manage their cash flow. Using new seeds, Opportunity is helping farmers to increase crop yields and decrease risk.

As Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman insist in Enough, this is a problem that can only be solved by creativity and commitment. Opportunity International has become a champion of the farming poor. And in doing so, Opportunity has equipped nations to feed themselves.

To read more about Lucas’ story, click here. To learn more about Blog Action Day and the topic of climate change, go to www.blogactionday.org.