Blog Archives

Notice anything different?

By Emily Riemer on August 2, 2010

Regular visitors to the Opportunity blog will notice it has a different look and format than before. Go further. Opportunity.org[/intlink] has been completely refreshed and upgraded. Here are a few of our favorite features on the new site: 1. Photos at Your Fingertips On every page, including the homepage[/intlink], there is a slideshow of thumbnail pictures of Read more…

Posted in Our Work, Technology, What We're Reading
Tagged Client Stories, Clients, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Loan Officer, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, Opportunity Blog, Opportunity International, opportunity.org, Poverty, Schools, Technology, Trust Groups

Knowledge Leads to Understanding: Getting to Know Uganda

By Guest Post on July 30, 2010

Women’s Opportunity Network (WON)[/intlink] supporter and her 16-year-old nephew contributed this final post about their trip to Uganda, summing up the unforgettable people they met and places they saw on their journey. The Mighty Nile River Debby: is a beautiful country: Winston Churchill described it as “the pearl of Africa” because of its green hills, Read more…

Posted in Insight Trips, Local Staffing, Our Work, Trust Groups, What We're Reading, Where We Work, Women's Opportunity Network
Tagged Africa, Client Stories, Clients, Community, Education, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Insight Trip, Kampala, Loan Officer, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, Nile River, Opportunity International, Opportunity Uganda, Poverty, Schools, Students, Trust Groups, Uganda, University, Women, Women's Opportunity Network, Women's Philanthropy, WON

Meet Betty Mutua of Opportunity Kenya

By Opportunity International on July 29, 2010

“Working in microfinance has transformed me. We use the word ‘transformation’ to describe our client training, but that word also describes how I feel,” says Betty Mutua, a regional manager at . Mutua began working for as a in 2001, which was also the year she got married. “I’ve been married as long as I’ve been Read more…

Posted in Loans, Local Staffing, Our Work, Where We Work, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
Tagged Africa, Client Stories, Clients, Education, Ending Poverty, Financial services, International Visitor, Kenya, Loan Officer, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, Mothers, Nairobi, Opportunity International, Opportunity Kenya, Poverty, Trust Groups, Washington D.C., Women, Women's Philanthropy, YAO, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity

Spotlight on the Annual Report: Harvesting Hope

By Opportunity International on July 28, 2010

Providing access to clients living in the world’s most geographically remote areas is an important part of what does. Reaching clients like farmer , or Jakob as he’s known, who live hours from urban areas is crucial to connecting them with financial services, access to markets for agricultural goods, and economic sustainability. Through financial services like Read more…

Posted in Loans, Local Staffing, Microinsurance, Our Work, Rural Outreach, Savings, Strategic Partners, Technology, What We're Reading, Where We Work
Tagged 2009 annual report, Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, agriculture finance, Agriculture Microfinance, annual report, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Client Stories, Clients, Community, Ending Poverty, Financial services, harvesting hope, jakobo chikayiko, Loan Officer, Loans, Malawi, MFI, Microfinance, Mobile Banking, Opportunity International, Opportunity Malawi, Poverty, Rural Outreach, Savings, Technology

Rwandan Women are Crucial to Economy — A Story on CNN.com

By Opportunity International on July 27, 2010

Check out CNN.com where Lisa Desai wrote a piece, accompanied by a video, that highlights the integral role that women play in the growing economy of Rwanda since the genocide in 1994. Today, women outnumber men in and, according to the piece, “there are more women in Rwanda’s parliament than any other country in the world. Read more…

Posted in Loans, Local Staffing, Our Mission and Vision, Our Work, Savings, Strategic Partners, Training, What We're Reading, Where We Work, Women's Opportunity Network
Tagged 10000 women initiative, Africa, clementine uzabakiriho, CNN, CNN.com, Community, Education, Emerging Leaders, emerging leaders program, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Gahaya Links, Goldman Sachs, Kigali, Loan Officer, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, Mothers, Opportunity International, Opportunity Rwanda, Poverty, Rwanda, Savings, Women, Women's Opportunity Network, Women's Philanthropy, WON

What We’re Reading: “Reaching the Unreachable” on Hunger & Undernutrition Blog

By Opportunity International on July 26, 2010

On Thursday, we wrote a guest blog post on The Hunger and Undernutrition Blog, talking about the impact of innovations in agriculture finance, including crop insurance, savings accounts and lending–which all mitigate the challenges and risks of lending to smallholder farmers. But we are not the only organization to want to discuss agricultural sustainability. Go deeper and check Read more…

Posted in Loans, Microinsurance, Our Work, Rural Outreach, Savings, What We're Reading
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, agriculture finance, Agriculture Microfinance, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Blog, Blogging, Bread for the World, Education, Ending Hunger, Ending Poverty, Food security, Food Sustainability, G8, Hunger, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, Millennium Development Goals, Opportunity Blog, Opportunity International, Technology, the micronutrient initiative, Un millennium development goals, United Nations

Be Inspired: A Traveler Meets Opportunity Uganda’s Microfinance Clients

By Guest Post on July 23, 2010

Debby Farrington, a supporter of the is visiting Uganda with her 16-year-old nephew Matt Statman. Yesterday, Matt sent us about meeting teenage students in Kampala, and today, Debby reports on their visits with Trust Group clients and some very inspiring women entrepreneurs. Today, we visited a meeting and some very special clients of Opportunity Uganda. Read more…

Posted in Insight Trips, Local Staffing, Our Work, Training, Trust Groups, Where We Work, Women's Opportunity Network, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
Tagged Africa, Children, Client Stories, Clients, Community, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Insight Trip, Kampala, Loan Officer, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, Mothers, Opportunity International, Opportunity Uganda, Poverty, Students, Trust Groups, Uganda, Women, Women's Opportunity Network, WON, YAO, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity

Spotlight on Agricultural Finance: An Interview with an Agriculture Finance Officer

By Emily Riemer on July 14, 2010

“Most of the world’s poor are smallholder farmers and their families. By targeting them, we can dramatically reduce extreme poverty and food insecurity.” -UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, addressing the Malawian parliament on May 29, 2010. Through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the MasterCard Foundation, Opportunity is now offering greater financial Read more…

Posted in Loans, Local Staffing, Our Work, Rural Outreach, Savings, Strategic Partners, Technology, Training, Where We Work
Tagged accra, Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, andrew koehler, Ban Ki-moon, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Clients, Community, Education, Ending Poverty, Farmer, Farmers, Financial Times, Ghana, Insurance, Loan Officer, Loans, Malawi, MasterCard Foundation, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Opportunity International, Poverty, Savings, Smallholder farmer, Technology, The MasterCard Foundation, Training, Uganda, United Nations

Supporting Youth Groups with Microloans in Tanzania

By AJ Renold on July 12, 2010

AJ Renold, Opportunity Tanzania’s multimedia YAO reporter on the ground, sends us this report about a pilot microlending program for a Tanzanian youth group. This past Friday, Opportunity Tanzania lending staff visited the NGAO Youth Group, a group supported by Youth Initiatives Tanzania (YITA), to assess their business for the capacity for a loan. This Read more…

Posted in Loans, Local Staffing, Our Work, Where We Work, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
Tagged Africa, AJ Renold, Children, Clients, Community, Dar es Salaam, Education, Financial services, HIV/AIDS, Loans, Microfinance, Microloans, Opportunity International, Opportunity Tanzania, Poverty, Schools, Students, Tanzania, Training, Trust Groups, YAO, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity, Youth

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