Blog Archives

Spotlight on the Annual Report: Empowering Emerging Women Leaders in Microfinance

Meet Beatrice William. Beatrice is undergoing training through Opportunity International’s Emerging Leaders Program – part of Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Women Initiative–which trains talented women in banking and finance to help them establish or advance careers in microfinance as loan officers and bank managers. “When I heard that I had been chosen to come to Nairobi for the Emerging Leaders Read more…

Posted in Our Mission and Vision, Our Motivation, Our Work, Strategic Partners, Training, What We're Reading, Where We Work, Women's Opportunity Network
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What We’re Reading: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

 Looking for a summer read? At , we’re reading The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, written by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. It’s the story of a young boy with an entrepreneurial spirit who was able to transform the lives of the people in his community. Young William Kamkwamba and his family grew up in surrounded by Read more…

Posted in Our Mission and Vision, Our Work, Technology, What We're Reading, Where We Work, Women's Opportunity Network
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Notice anything different?

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
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Knowledge Leads to Understanding: Getting to Know Uganda

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
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Meet Betty Mutua of Opportunity Kenya

“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
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Spotlight on the Annual Report: Harvesting Hope

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
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Vote for OptINnow in the Paperless Choice Challenge

’s fundraising campaign, OptINnow, is entered in the Paperless Choice Challenge funded by the Overbrook Foundation. The contest is looking to reward non-profits with innovative digital fundraising techniques. The winners receive $5,000! OptINnow is an innovative, multi-functional digital fundraising campaign. Help optinnow.org win the contest, so Opportunity International can receive $5,000 to help end global poverty. Faster. How Read more…

Posted in Events, OptINnow, Our Work, Technology
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Rwandan Women are Crucial to Economy — A Story on CNN.com

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

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

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
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