1. Day 1 in Colombia – a photo blog of clients and staff… Click here to read the post.
2. My economic and emotional take on Colombia, day 2… Click here.
3. Agricultural finance, a yucca plant, and hibiscus growers in Nicaragua… Click here.
4. Meeting the artisans of Nicaragua’s Ojalá. Why YOU should take an Insight Trip…  Click here.

Read the travelers’ reflections at adventuringincolombianicaragua.tumblr.com, and if you’d like to travel on an Insight Trip to meet our clients and local staff, and see microfinance at work firsthand in Latin America and all over the world, check out the Insight Trip calendar at opportunity.org/insight. Buen viaje!

Click here to watch new video on credit-suisse.com featuring Opportunity's technological innovations in Malawi, and the impact they have on the lives and businesses of rural clients like Ellen Patrick (pictured).

In addition, Credit Suisse has just completed a new video, “Banking on Wheels in Malawi,” about their visit to Opportunity Malawi’s microfinance operations. It features two very compelling client stories, interviews with Alefa Mtungia (south regional manager) and Antoni Musonzo (a loan officer from Blantyre), and highlights our mobile banking strategy, including cell phones, ATMs, biometric fingerprint technology, and more. It also emphasizes the importance of financial literacy, especially regarding savings. Finally, you can also find Opportunity featured on Credit Suisse’s Corporate Responsibility homepage.

We’re grateful for institutional strategic partners like Credit Suisse and for contributors like you who make it possible to bring life-changing opportunity to people living in extreme poverty around the world.

Opportunity client Joyce Williamson sells produce in a market in Mwanga, Tanzania.

Entrepreneurs like produce seller Joyce Williamson (pictured) are using loans to improve their businesses and generate more income for their families.

More about Joyce

Joyce is the chairperson of the Upendo Mwanga Trust Group in Mwanga, and a mother of four who goes to two markets in nearby Moshi twice a week to purchase her produce stock and sell it locally. She knew that to meet her family’s needs she would need to expand, but without access to capital she found it impossible. Now, through a small loan, she’s been able to increase her inventory, making larger purchases at lower costs, increasing her profit margin. In the future she hopes to expand her business further by investing in a new structure and she says for the first time ever she’s confident that she can send all four of her children to school.

This year, Opportunity Malawi’s transformation officer helped Opportunity Tanzania conduct a survey of clients in its Arusha and Moshi branches to determine the needs of those we seek to serve.

What did we learn? Among the many important findings we learned that Opportunity Tanzania’s clients are among those who live below the poverty line, and are not always able to afford enough food for the family…

• 47% have 3 meals per day
• 32% have 2 meals per day
• 21% have 1 meal per day

The good news? Marginalized Tanzanian families state that Opportunity is making a difference for them. Since they started accessing microfinance loans through Opportunity Tanzania…

• 80% feel their lives have improved greatly
• 7% feel their lives have improved moderately
• 13% feel they are still struggling

Opportunity Tanzania  is committed to meeting its goals of expanding outreach to the most impoverished families in the country. It’s possible through the partnership of Opportunity International contributors like you.

Opportunity Uganda clients like Betty Aute have access to electricity because of the new solar panel loan product.

In November, Opportunity Uganda launched a solar energy microfinance loan to provide power to families currently living with no or unreliable electricity.

Opportunity Uganda is now offering clients like Betty Aute (pictured right), a papyrus weaver and mother of two, a solar panel loan of about $300, which covers panels and installation and is repayable over two years, to bring light to their family homes. The implications are life-changing and endless–when it becomes dark at night, so many productive activities must come to an end. Children can’t do important activities like homework. For these families, evening turns into a discouraging time because there is so much yet to accomplish. The energy the panels have absorbed from the sun throughout the day can be used so that families working their way out of poverty can make the most of their day.

However, light coming into the villages is not only productive but it adds to the sense of hope and encouragement. This helps families in Uganda to feel whole and to have their needs met.

In addition, right now, your gift has double the impact thanks to the generosity of some special contributors. For every gift card purchased, the amount will be matched dollar-for-dollar to help spread more joy, fund more loans, and create lasting change in the world.

For more information, visit opportunity.org/giftcard.

“This was the beginning of financially managing my business.” -Carlos Moreno on his loan from Opportunity International in 1971Ten years later, Carlos had sold his business and become a pastor and business consultant. He traveled throughout Colombia and Central America, helping to empower other people. As a pastor, he reached out to impoverished church members, encouraging them to join Opportunity’s loan program. With a simple loan, many of the women in his church were able to start small businesses and provide for their families. Today, at age 81, Carlos lives in Bogotá and volunteers his time with a local nonprofit that serves people living in poverty in rural Colombia.

He was the first, but certainly not the last, of Opportunity’s clients to be able to grow their businesses and improve their futures through access to our financial services. Today, in our 40th year, we have three million clients like Carlos, and growing! Get to know Carlos and watch his story in the video below:

Want to explore all the milestones in Opportunity’s 40 years of microfinance work? Check out our 40th anniversary slideshow or make a special contribution in honor of our 40th at opportunity.org/40.

Having trouble watching Carlos’s video above? Click here to watch the video at vimeo.com.

This was just the first stop on Frida’s U.S. visit, which will take her all around the country to meet our domestic staff and contributors at private meetings and big events, where she’ll share about her work and answer supporters’ questions about life and microfinance in Uganda. Meet Frida Mungoma, who’s speaking tonight at a Young Ambassadors for Opportunity (YAO) event in San Francisco, and next Wednesday at the YAO event A Toast to Tanzania in New York. If you get the chance, I encourage you to get to an event near you to meet Frida.

Frida on the impact and importance of Opportunity Uganda’s education finance program:

What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?

My greatest challenge:

Coffee farmer Teddy Namagembe

Opportunity’s approach is to help farmers move from subsistence growing to cash crop production with agriculture-specific loans, savings accounts, crop insurance, effective fertilizers, drought-resistant seeds and technical assistance. Agricultural loan officers guide farmers through the distribution process, providing linkages to agricultural markets.

By achieving their potential, farmers will be able to feed their families and become major food suppliers to the growing global population.

Teddy Namagembe (pictured right) works on her coffee farm from 7 a.m. to sunset each day to support her four children. She used to sell her coffee beans before they were ripe to make ends meet. As an agricultural finance and savings client with Opportunity Uganda, she can now wait for the beans to ripen fully and sell them at a greater profit.

Want to delve deeper into Opportunity’s agricultural finance programs? John Magnay, senior agricultural advisor in Africa, led a breakout session at Opportunity’s annual conference two weeks ago. Read about that session, in which Magnay details the tools, strategies and goals of the program that is making great strides towards improving the lives of smallholder farmers in Africa. Watch Magnay’s breakout session presentation in the video below.

Today, October 17, is the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP) and this year’s theme is “From Poverty to Sustainability: People at the Centre of Inclusive Development.” First commemorated in 1987, the IDEP is “an annual opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of people living in poverty and to have their voices heard, recognizing that poor people are at the forefront of the fight against poverty and are critical partners for achieving sustainable development.” Opportunity International is in complete alignment with the objective of the IDEP–our core belief is that small-scale entrepreneurs can be big change agents in breaking the cycle of global poverty.

Opportunity staff and supporters just returned from our annual conference where we heard from poverty eradication experts and thought leaders in fields related to food security, global hunger and environmental sustainability. Among them were Dr. Julie Howard of USAID’s Feed the Future initiative; Ambassador Tony Hall of the Alliance to End Hunger; John Magnay, Opportunity’s agricultural advisor in Africa; and Richard Leftley, CEO of MicroEnsure, a purveyor of weather index crop insurance.

The experts shared that the most vulnerable people on the planet need not only short-term strategies to combat crop shortages, unpredictable weather and natural disaster, but they need long-term, sustainable solutions that they can implement for themselves to battle the effects of uncertain futures due to climate change and rising food prices. Agricultural finance products like market linkages and microloans, as well as weather index crop insurance, are sustainable, long-term solutions to these issues.

At Feed the Future, we’re working on long-term research to combat climate change and drought, as well as increase productivity of essential cereal crops and legumes.
-Dr. Julie Howard

World leaders have said to me, ‘Your aid is helpful, but when are you going to help our people get back on their feet?’ And they’re right. That’s what microfinance can do.
-Ambassador Tony Hall

There are one billion people in Africa, 75% of whom are involved in agriculture, yet the continent is not capable of feeding 100% of the people. [...] It’s most important that we finance agricultural production because that’s where we can most impact hunger in Africa. -John Magnay

MicroEnsure’s simple product and process design for microinsurance services, including weather index crop insurance, has created cost-effective access to risk protection for communities living in poverty. -Richard Leftley

Rosalinda Omega

Rosalinda Omega and her husband Topper sell flowers and garden plants in the market of Silangan, in Cebu City, the Philippines. Blessed with three kids, she and her husband work tirelessly but fear that they will not be able to save enough money to send her children to college. The couple rely mostly on the volume of harvested plants that are delivered to them by their supplier.

They know that environmental factors, seasonal celebrations, and the dwindling economy in this type of industry are just a few of the factors that could affect their income. Some days, the couple goes home with barely enough money to purchase even meager portions of food for their family.

Support Rosalinda and her family by contributing to her loan at opportunity.org/fundaloan »

For more on the UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, click here.

Banking on Education panel (from left): Char Caldwell, Geoffrey Thige, Liesel Pritzker, and Steve Nelson.

While Ghana, Malawi and Uganda do offer government-funded public schools, financial constraints force classrooms designed for 40 students to swell to accommodate nearly 120. With a stark student-teacher ratio, there’s no opportunity for students to receive personalized education, and thus, individual learning and comprehension suffers.

Not only are public facilities limited in populous areas, but many remote villages and towns are often deprived entirely of any public education. Without government-run programs, many towns have turned to private education run by entrepreneurs. Though by definition ‘private,’ these schools don’t match the lush American view of private schools, and are often as limited in resources as the public schools.

Because these private facilities do not fall within the parameters set by USAID, these programs often go without outside aid and support–even though they are sometimes the only school within a community. That’s where Opportunity International steps in. Opportunity works with these schools to develop loans and offer business training to help schools maximize efficiency, turn a profit, and then invest that knowledge and capital back into the schools to improve the quality of education.

In addition to providing support for schools, Opportunity also offers loans to offset tuition costs for families. Families making less than $2 a day struggle to afford a $51 per year annual tuition, and sometimes are forced to enroll students intermittently for a semester at a time. Interruptions in schooling compromise a student’s learning and potential for success, so Opportunity offers microloans to help parents cover tuition and provide continuous education for their children.

Opportunity has a presence in nearly 500 schools effectively touching over 120,000 students. Char Caldwell, VP of resource development, closed the session by saying, “We truly believe that every child deserves an education.” And through microfinance, Opportunity is making that mission a reality.

This post was written by Allison Altdoerffer. Allison is a public relations professional and a member of the YAO – San Francisco chapter.