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What We’re Pinning: Powerful Women of the World
I can promise you that women working together–linked, informed and educated–can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet. -Isabel Allende The following six women are some of the most celebrated, powerful and inspirational women around. But women and men everywhere–in every country and in all walks of life–can and do make a difference every Read more…
Tagged Cambodia, Half the Sky Movement, Hillary Clinton, Human Rights, Ireland, Jordan, Joyce Banda, Leymah Gbowee, Malawi, Mary Robinson, Nobel Peace Prize, photos, Pinterest, president, Queen Noor, Somaly Mam, what we're pinning, Women, Women Leaders, women's empowerment
What We’re Reading: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1964 Nobel Lecture on Racial Injustice, Poverty, and War
On December 11, 1964, the day after he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave this lecture at the University of Oslo in Norway. In the lecture, he discussed what he said was “the most pressing problem facing mankind today,” which is a moral and spiritual poverty. As King put it: This problem of Read more…
Tagged agape, Ending Poverty, Faith in Action, Financial services, Fundraising, Get involved, Global Poverty, God, Martin Luther King Day, Martin Luther King Jr., Microfinance, Nobel Peace Prize, Opportunity International, Poverty, racial injustice, War
What We’re Reading: “Ten Biggest Positive Africa Stories of 2011,” The New Yorker
“…Yes, there is tragedy in Africa, and you will always find it there, and we must take those tragedies seriously, but there is also extraordinary opportunity. And if you see this continent as the continent of the future, it sort of reframes it. This is a continent that, by 2050, will be the largest and Read more…
Tagged Africa, Arab Spring, Bono, Cell phone banking, DR Congo, elections, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, famine, Ghana, Healthcare, Horn of Africa, Kenya, Liberia, life insurance, M-PESA, Microensure, Microinsurance, mobile phone banking, Nobel Peace Prize, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, The New Yorker, Tigo, what we're reading
Opportunity Participates in the 2011 Global Microcredit Summit
This week, one of the largest microfinance industry conferences in the world launches in Valladolid, Spain. The 15th annual Global Microcredit Summit runs Monday, Nov. 14-Thursday, Nov. 17 and features Her Majesty Queen Sofía of Spain, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, and more than 2,000 delegates from over 100 countries, including Opportunity International‘s Read more…
Tagged BRAC, Ending Poverty, Events, Facebook, Financial services, Fonkoze, Global Microcredit Summit, Grameen, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth, International Labour Organization, MFI, Microcredit, Microensure, Microfinance, Microfinance Information Exchange, Microinsurance, MIX Market, Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize, Opportunity International, Richard Leftley, Social Media, Spain, Twitter, videos
Congratulations to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, One of the Winners of 2011 Nobel Peace Prize
Congratulations to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize along with Liberian peace activist Leymah Gboweeh and Yemeni pro-democracy human rights campaigner Tawakkol Karman. They were the first women to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize since Professor Wangari Maathai, who passed away a couple weeks ago, won in Read more…
Tagged Africa, democracy, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Human Rights, International Women’s Leadership Award, Laureate Wangari Maathai, Microfinance, Nobel Peace Prize, Opportunity International, peace, Poverty, The New York Times, Voice of America, Women, Women Leaders, Women's Opportunity Network, Women's Philanthropy, WON
In Memory of Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
I had the great honor of twice meeting Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai. The first time was in the frenetic hallways of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York. The second was in a quiet lecture room at the Los Angeles Public Library. While the settings were in stark contrast, Professor Maathai was quite the same Read more…
Worldwide Voices in Support of Microfinance and Dr. Muhammad Yunus
Earlier this week, Opportunity International and a dozen other leading microfinance organizations issued an open letter (below) supporting Nobel Laureate and Medal of Freedom winner Dr. Muhammad Yunus. Since then, we have seen an increasing number of statements in support of Dr. Yunus from high-ranking U.S. officials including Senator John Kerry, organizations like ONE and Read more…
In Support of Muhammad Yunus
The following post was written by Opportunity International’s CEO Bill Morgenstern. Earlier this week, the Bangladesh central bank took steps to remove Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus as Managing Director of Grameen, citing a mandatory retirement age of 60 for managing directors. Members of Grameen’s board and Professor Yunus, who turns 71 this year, have filed Read more…
Tagged Ending Poverty, Grameen, Grameen Bank, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize, Opportunity International, Poverty, what we're reading
3 Breakout Sessions Not to Miss at Fall Microfinance Conference
At Opportunity’s Fall Microfinance Conference, Oct. 8-9, in Washington, D.C., the days will be packed with breakout sessions and presentations from microfinance experts, international visitors and globally-minded individuals passionate about eradicating poverty. For me, this will be my first Opportunity microfinance conference[/intlink], and I’m really looking forward to hearing from guest speakers[/intlink] like Pulitzer Prize-winner Sheryl Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Banking on Education, biometric technology, biometrics, Board of Governors, Board of Governors Conference, Cell phone banking, Clients, Community, Conference, Daryl Skoog, Dominican Republic, Education, educational finance, educational microfinance, Ending Poverty, fall microfinance conference, Financial services, Ghana, Global Philanthropy, IDP Foundation, IDP Foundation Rising Schools Program, John Magnay, Loans, Malawi, Maria Otero, MFI, Microfinance, Microfinance Conference, Mobile Banking, Mobile Phones, Nobel Peace Prize, Opportunity International, opportunity microfinance conference, Philanthropy, Poverty, pulitzer prize, Roger Thurow, Savings, Schools, Sheryl WuDunn, Students, Technology, Tony Hall, Uganda, Washington D.C.
Happy 92nd Birthday, Nelson Mandela!
Where there is poverty and sickness, where human beings are being oppressed, there is more work to be done. Our work is for freedom for all. – Nelson Mandela, speaking in London’s Hyde Park, June 2008 Happy birthday to the father of post-Apartheid South Africa. On Sunday, July 18th, Nelson Mandela turned 92. The South Read more…
