Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via EmailBlog Archives
Six Questions with Opportunity International’s Technical Proposal Writer Allison Bearden
How long have you worked at Opportunity? I began in August 2010 as an intern and I accepted my current job in May 2011, so I’ve been in this position for a little over one and a half years. What career path led you here? I went to Westmont College, back home in California (I Read more…
Tagged Interview, proposals, six questions, staff, strategic partners, Technical Writers, Technology, Travel
Habitat for Humanity & Opportunity Join Forces to Improve Housing in Africa
Opportunity International and Habitat for Humanity announced a new partnership to increase access to better housing for families living in poverty. The two organizations will collaborate to provide home improvement financing, housing support services and construction technical assistance to impoverished people to enhance the well-being of communities, beginning in Ghana, followed by Malawi and Uganda. Read more…
Tagged Adwoa Kwatemaa, Africa, CEO, financial literacy training, Financial services, Ghana, Habitat for Humanity, housing, Loans, Malawi, Microfinance, Opportunity International, Partnership, press release, Savings, strategic partners, sub-Saharan Africa, Training, Uganda, urbanization, Vicki Escarra
What We’re Watching: Documentary Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide on PBS
We’re tuning in tonight to PBS to watch the long-awaited documentary, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. (Airing in two parts, tonight and tomorrow, October 1 and 2, at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT.) With Nicholas Kristof as your guide, as well as Sheryl WuDunn, Hillary Clinton, and activist celebrities America Read more…
Tagged Cambodia, Children, Community, documentary, DR Congo, Education, Ending Poverty, Global Poverty, Half the Sky Movement, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, Healthcare, Hillary Clinton, maternal mortality rates, Microfinance, Mothers, Nicholas D. Kristof, Opportunity DRC, Opportunity International, PBS, Sheryl WuDunn, Sierra Leone, strategic partners, what we're watching, Women, women's empowerment
What We’re Watching: IDP Rising Schools Brings Better Education to Ghanaian Kids
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. An uneducated society has no future. About IDP A growing body of research reveals many of the world’s most impoverished parents choose to send their children to private schools instead of subsidized or free government schools. These private schools are owned and operated by local school proprietors Read more…
Tagged Africa, Banking on Education, Children, Clients, Community, Education, Education finance, Financial services, Ghana, IDP Foundation, IDP Rising Schools, Loans, Microfinance, Opportunity International, Opportunity-US, School fee loans, School Proprietor Loans, Schools, Sinapi Aba Trust, strategic partners, Training, videos, what we're watching
Empowering Women & Girls with Half the Sky
Though microfinance is available to both men and women entrepreneurs, the gains that women achieve are almost three times more likely to be reinvested in their children—providing a powerful generational multiplier that accelerates economic growth. A woman will spend 90% of her income on her family, while men typically spend only 35%. That’s why if Read more…
Tagged Children, Education, Empowerment, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Girls, Half the Sky, India, Investing in Women and Girls, Jayanthi, Loan Officer, Loans, Microfinance, Mothers, Nicholas D. Kristof, Opportunity International, Poverty, Sheryl WuDunn, strategic partners, Trust Groups, Women, women's empowerment, Women's Opportunity Network, Women's Philanthropy, WON
Credit Suisse’s Microfinance Work Recognized at the Financial Times/IFC Sustainable Finance Awards
would like to offer our congratulations to Credit Suisse. They were awarded a special commendation for their program in the Sustainable Global Bank of the Year category at the Financial Times/International Finance Corporation Sustainable Finance Awards. The annual FT/IFC Sustainable Finance Awards, now in their seventh year, are the major global awards for environmentally- and Read more…
Tagged agent network, ATMs, awards, biometric technology, biometrics, capacity-building, Cell phone banking, Cell Phones, Clients, Colombia, Credit Suisse, Electronic wallet strategy, Financial services, Financial Times, Ghana, Insurance, International finance corporation, Loans, Malawi, MFI, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Mobile Banking, mobile banks, Opportunity International, POS devices, Rural Outreach, Savings, strategic partners, sustainable finance award, Technology, Temenos T24
Success Story: Banking on Africa Campaign
In 2008, embarked on its most ambitious effort to date, a $123.6 million Banking on Africa campaign to expand financial services for impoverished families throughout sub-Saharan Africa. With the partnership of our committed supporters, we’re celebrating the successful completion of this campaign and we’re confident we’ll reach our Banking on Africa goal: to reach five Read more…
Tagged Africa, Bank Building, Banking on Africa, Banking on Africa Campaign, Clients, Community, DR Congo, DRC, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Global Poverty, Impact, Insight Trip, Kinshasa, Loans, Masina, MFI, Microfinance, Online fundraising, Opportunity DRC, Opportunity International, Poverty, strategic partners, sub-Saharan Africa, Trust Group
Day 1 of My Live Below the Line Challenge for Opportunity
Living Below the Line – Day 1: Shopping from Ian Haisley on Vimeo. Today is the first day of my Live Below the Line challenge for Opportunity, where I eat and drink for $1.50 a day for five days. Live Below the Line is a campaign that raises awareness about the 1.4 billion people who live below Read more…
Look Good, Do Good
This week only, the social entrepreneurs at Sevenly selected Opportunity International as their featured nonprofit, designing t-shirts and a hoodie for sale to benefit our work. They were especially inspired by our work in India, focusing their week-long campaign on our microfinance there, especially health insurance through our microinsurance subsidiary MicroEnsure. After all, our financial services Read more…
Conference LiveBlog: Jeffrey Spector, Chief of Staff at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
This Saturday morning plenary session continues with a presentation by Jeffrey Spector, Chief of Staff for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Highlights from Jeffrey Spector’s Presentation Innovations are not only happening in labs or on computers. I’ll give two examples: A few years ago, I was tasked with scaling up Gates’s organizations. We made Read more…
Tagged Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ending Poverty, Financial Services for the Poor initiative, Gates Foundation, Global Poverty, Jeffrey Spector, OIC2011, Opportunity International, Opportunity International Microfinance Conference, strategic partners
