Loan officer Valamarthi (right) delivers transformational training to the Roja Trust Group, including loan client Deepa (left) in Chennai, India.

“Poverty is not just a deficit, not just a lack of resources, it’s a deprivation,” said Daniel Ryumugabe, transformational impact manager for Opportunity Rwanda. “If you offer only one solution — loans — the client cannot get out of the poverty trap because of other environmental problems, such as poor health or financial illiteracy.”

Improved economic status is the most obvious component of Opportunity’s transformation model. With the opportunity to expand a business with a small loan and training, our clients are able to feed their families and put their children in school. They develop steady incomes and create jobs to help their neighbors improve their lives. Opening a savings account and purchasing insurance exponentially expands their economic choices.

Opportunity also believes in personal transformation — helping people build their capacity not just in business, but in life. Through Trust Groups, Opportunity’s gateway lending model, clients learn life-saving information about HIV prevention and disaster planning, in addition to business skills. They also discover more effective ways to communicate and resolve conflicts with family members and others in their communities.

The support a client enjoys from her Trust Group, and the nurturing she receives from her loan officer, who is equal parts advocate and counselor, lead to an understanding that others are invested in her. This awareness fosters her growing sense of self-worth and confidence. Additionally, the administrative, financial and managerial skills she learns reinforce her determination to plan and save for a better future.

Transformational impact manager Daniel Ryumugabe meets with farming client Felicite Mukandahiro in Kibungo, Rwanda.

When businesses and individuals thrive, it strengthens the community’s social fabric, thereby contributing to social transformation. Former loan client Valamarthi became a loan officer for Opportunity India after experiencing transformation in her own life. Moved by the plight of those at the lowest rung of India’s caste system, she resolved to help traditionally stigmatized communities of lepers and gypsies to create better lives for themselves, and convinced Opportunity to offer them loans. Said Valamarthi, “It is our way of telling them, ‘We value you as people. We’re invested in you. You’re as worthy as the rest of us.’”

Opportunity now teaches marginalized groups to make and sell candles and other products, and has partnered with an organization that trains them to refurbish bicycles. Valamarthi said that the gypsies, typically nomadic, have settled, built homes and are sending their children to school — a social upgrade that would have been much more difficult prior to working with Opportunity.

Opportunity’s Code of Conduct — 10 guiding principles posted in each Opportunity branch in the local language — ensures all clients are treated with dignity, fairness and respect. In fulfillment of the code, we strive to make all fees transparent, clearly explain contractual obligations, and support our clients in their transformational life change.

Further, Opportunity encourages clients to live selflessly, embracing a love of community and neighbor, and to care especially for people who are more impoverished or marginalized than they.

At Opportunity, we’re not just about microfinance, we’re about transformation. For our clients’ sakes, we are committed to the creation and delivery of the best financial services possible to help them transform their businesses, their lives and their communities.

This article was the cover story in the fall 2012/winter 2013 issue of Opportunity’s Impact newsletter.

The Pudhiya Padhai Trust Group in Chennai, India helped 19 women grow from outcasts to family providers.

Today, there is a strong consensus among leaders and experts alike that poverty eradication efforts should center around women. Opportunity International’s work in India is doing just that. The story below illustrates how providing financial access to women helps expand access to education, reduce poverty, and elevate women’s roles in their community.

In India’s caste-oriented society, to be a “gypsy” is to be an outcast. Because of the social stigma around gypsies’ transient lifestyle, they struggle to be accepted by local communities even if they have been living in one location for decades. As a result, they often live in isolation.

Stella, an Opportunity India loan officer in Chennai, had noticed a number of gypsies in the area in which she works. One day, she struck up a conversation with one of the gypsies and quickly found a community desiring to be accepted and willing to work hard to improve their lives. Stella also discovered their skill at making intricate handcrafted jewelry. She knew that Opportunity India could help them.

She brought together 19 women from the gypsy (Narikuravargal) colony to form a http://www.opportunity.org/our-work/trust-groups/Trust Group[/intlink] and provided them with training to improve their business, linked them with another Opportunity client who offered her shop to sell their jewelry, and Opportunity made a loan to them so that they could purchase materials.

Today, the Pudhiya Padhai Trust Group earns on average $8 per day, compared to their previous income of $2.50 per day before they joined Opportunity. They have also saved $800 as a group in an interest-bearing savings account. Three of the participating families can now afford to send their children to school. They are also learning to take better care of their homes and living spaces.

Since starting Pudhiya Padhai, loan officer Stella has formed four more Trust Groups in the local area, and is focused on helping send all 15 of the clients’ children to school via http://www.opportunity.org/our-work/where-we-work/microfinance-in-asia/microfinance-in-india/Opportunity India[/intlink]‘s new education loan product. Through Opportunity India’s education finance program, including school proprietor and school fee products, more than 1,000 loans have been made to our Indian clients so far.

The Pudhiya Padhai Trust Group represents just a few of the 65,000 women in Chennai, India who are accessing Opportunity’s microfinance services, expanding businesses and generating income to provide for their children, their families and their communities. For more on our work in India, http://www.opportunity.org/our-work/where-we-work/microfinance-in-asia/microfinance-in-india/click here[/intlink], and visit the blog regularly to read about the impact we are making on the lives of our Indian clients.