As a Global Ambassador to Opportunity International, Fiorina will lend her voice and influence to Opportunity’s efforts to build a network of women investing in women to end the cycle of poverty. Now under Opportunity’s umbrella, the One Woman Initiative will honor its legacy of supporting women and their ‘multiplier effect’ by continuing to grow, following Opportunity International’s approach to achieving sustainable change using microfinance as an entry point. One loan made to one woman can kick start a successful entrepreneur who will reinvest her success in her family and community.

“Both Carly and I believe in the power of women uniting around their shared commitment and experience. Together, we hope to engage women in the United States to serve as passionate advocates to address the needs and expand the choices of women in developing countries,” said Vicki Escarra, CEO, Opportunity International.

Read the news release here. And click here to see Vicki and Carly on MSNBC’s Morning Joe talking about their collaboration!

What does one gift mean to one woman?

Clean Water through Community Leadership

For Ana Celia Acuña (left), a gift enabled her to bring clean drinking water to her Nicaraguan community. Ana and her neighbors had been without drinking water for many years because of an earthquake, so she set out to build an aqueduct. When investing in the project, Opportunity requested that this respected Trust Group member be invited to join the all-male La Laguna Community Cooperative. She’s their first-ever woman board member, and the bookkeeper and cashier for the water project. She recruited other women to join the board and now there are equal numbers of women and men solving the community’s critical issues. Opportunity’s investment in the project and its faith in Ana helped make her community safer and healthier.

A Quality Education for the Next Generation

For Comfort Appiah (left), one gift helped her bring education to the children of her neighborhood in Accra, Ghana. Fifteen years ago, Comfort saw the local children loitering and not going to school. She started Ahobrase Academy out of her home to give them a chance to learn. In 2009, she applied for a school proprietor loan from Opportunity Ghana to move to a new location. Today, Ahobrase serves more than 700 students from preschool to junior high who might not have had a chance for an education, and provides much-needed employment to 38 staff members from the community. Comfort is changing hundreds of people’s futures and she dreams of expanding her school to give back even more.

To those who joined the One Woman Holiday Challenge, thank you for helping us empower women like Ana, Deepa and Comfort. Because of you, women like them are impacting their communities and changing the future for their families.

This is a great achievement but there are still millions more women around the world who need an opportunity to improve their lives. If you’d like to invest in one woman’s future, it’s not too late to make a contribution » Thank you!

School proprietor and client Rosemary Namande, with students of the Nadulu Infant Primary School in Kampala

Rosemary runs the Nadulu Infant Primary School in Kampala. Forty years ago, she opened a tiny school for infants in makeshift quarters. Today, thanks to tireless determination and Opportunity loans, five permanent buildings house her elementary school and orphanage. Here, “Mama Rosemary” educates and cares for 900 children — nearly half of whom are orphans — and offers discounted or free tuition to many of her other students. She also provides treatment at the school to 15 children who were born with HIV. “All my life, I’ve been taking care of the children,” she says. “They are down in my heart. I’ve seen how children suffer, so I [took on] that responsibility.”

Through Opportunity’s education finance tools, Rosemary has been able to employ 69 people and greatly enhance economic activity in her community. Rosemary goes even further: she helps other women establish businesses, she chairs the local women’s council and she opens up her school to the community for meetings and celebrations.

One woman, driven by the belief that education leads to a better life for this and the next generation. That’s the power of one. Don’t let 2012 end without making a tax-deductible gift that will empower a woman like Rosemary with the tools she needs to improve her life. Invest in her today.

Banking on Women: Rosemary Namande from Opportunity International on Vimeo.

Felicitus Mmboge working in her Nairobi shop

Twenty years ago, at the age of 22, Felicitus left her struggling village in Western Kenya and took a job as a maid in Nairobi so she could send money back to her family. Each week, she put a little money aside until she had enough to buy a few beauty products to sell in the street. When her employer passed away, she received severance pay, which enabled her to rent a shop and start her own beauty product business. Soon thereafter, robbers broke in and stole everything. Luckily, she had money in her M-PESA account on her mobile phone so she could start her business again.

In 2010, Opportunity invested in Felicitus with a loan of $290 to buy stock for her shop. A second loan of $600 empowered her to offer more products and to purchase hens for a secondary income stream. Her husband works as a gardener and carpenter, but most of the family’s income is from her businesses.

Felicitus and her Opportunity Kenya loan officer, Annie Wanjero

Felicitus uses her cell phone as a bank, which saves her time and money on travel. She transfers money, pays for goods, accepts payments, and even receives and repays her Opportunity loans — all while still attending to her shop. “Because I can also save money on my phone, it means I don’t have as much cash in my house or business, so I’m not worried about having it stolen.”

Felicitus keeps her money safe and secure, and her business is a success.

With her increased earnings, Felicitus is able to pay school fees for her three children and an orphaned niece. “I am determined that all of my children get a good education,” she says. “I feel very blessed that I have been able to set up my own business.”

She adds, “I want to become a distributor to other beauty shops, and I feel this is now possible with Opportunity and the guidance of my loan officer, Annie Wanjero.”

When you invest in one woman like Felicitus, you empower many. Invest in women like Felicitus today.

Beduith on one of the streets she improved with her Trust Group

In winter, Beduith’s street in the city of Barranquilla was clogged with mud and impassable, making life dangerous, unpleasant and inconvenient. This can also make it difficult for residents to get to their jobs and operate their businesses. As president of La Valle de Esperanza Trust Group, Beduith rallied the members to raise matching funds for the local mayor’s street paving project. Together, they sold soup, hosted bingo, ran a dance event and raised $7,200 for a new road that makes life easier, safer, cleaner and better for the entire neighborhood. Once shy and reserved, she now says, “I’ve been given the opportunity to grow, and to help others grow too.”

Beduith (left) and her Opportunity Colombia loan officer

A few years ago, Beduith got her first Opportunity International loan to expand her furniture repair shop, which she and her husband Moses Henao have operated out of their home for the past 17 years. The loans from Opportunity Colombia allowed them to buy the materials they need, and Opportunity financial training taught her how to manage her income and expenses to make the business even more profitable. With her increased income and financial security, Beduith was able to build a new home, send her children to school and even save some money for the future. Right now, the couple employs four people, but eventually Beduith wants to hire enough employees so that she and Moses can retire.

Beduith’s story is not unusual. When Opportunity’s women clients break out of the cycle of poverty, they get more than a steady income. They often find a hidden inner strength, contributing to the community, inspiring others and shaping day-to-day life. That’s the power of one. Invest in women like Beduith today »

Patience is a community organizer in the Ablekuma South area of Chorkor, a small fishing community on the south side of Accra, Ghana, where she works with over 300 women. “As a woman organizer,” she explains, “you take care of the needs and organize all the women in the community. Once I decided to take this role, their concerns became my concerns. People are normally not well regarded if they don’t have a business, but there is a saying that ‘what a man can do a woman can also do,’ so I have been encouraging them to be responsible for themselves.”

She has also helped other women start small businesses. “I want to make sure everyone is equal,” she says. “Now, these women have their own money, their own businesses, and as a result they have earned the respect of the people. I’m happy. I will continue to help them and even do more for them than I am doing now.”

In families where women have an income, they have a voice in financial decisions, resulting in better nutrition, health and education for children. Studies show that women will spend 90% of their income to support the family as opposed to the 35% spent by men. When family needs are met, women are more likely to invest in their communities. According to the Half the Sky Movement, an Opportunity International partner, when women have the skills to participate in public life, government corruption declines.

Join us today to help ensure all people have the basic human right to have a voice in their own political, social and economic lives.

Hear more of Patience’s story and how she helps hundreds of local women find their voice:

Patience from Opportunity International on Vimeo.

Ahobrase Academy began in 1998 as a small nursery in Comfort’s home. Comfort realized that the children in her neighborhood loitered and never attended classes, so she wanted to provide a place for them to learn. In the beginning, it was difficult. She had to go out into the community and bring these children, some without clothes or shoes, into her home for lessons and food. She would bathe, clothe and feed them. The next day, the children would either return naked again or they would not come back at all. After a while, a friend advised her to remove the clothes and slippers and send them home as they had arrived. This worked like magic — the children came back every day. Gradually, as the number of students grew, Comfort thought of ways to expand since Ahobrase was outgrowing her small porch.

In 2009, upon a friend’s advice, Comfort turned to Opportunity for a school proprietor loan that would provide capital to purchase a building and expand the school. Today, Ahobrase Academy serves more than 700 students from pre-school to junior high school with an education previously unavailable in their neighborhood. The school is a source of jobs, with 38 academic and non-teaching staff.

Comfort’s dream is to complete the expansion of her school and to buy a larger school bus. She’s proud of the education that she and her husband are now able to give the local children.

If you’d like to invest in educating children, we invite you to partner with us. Help provide school fee loans to parents so that they can send their children to school, and school loans to proprietors like Comfort so that they can expand and improve their school buildings and facilities. Invest in education today »

1. City A.M.‘s Appeal for Opportunity, Backed by the Citi Foundation

In a recent City A.M. article, Citigroup’s global director of microfinance, Bob Annibale, explained why the Citi Foundation supports the City A.M. Christmas Appeal to raise funds for Opportunity International’s life-changing work in Africa.

Opportunity client Patience Dameh sells fabric out of one of the most vibrant stalls in the Kasseh Market in Ada, Ghana.

“I’m most focused on organizations that are impacting communities through provision of financial services and support for entrepreneurship,” Annibale said. “There are some fantastic examples, including Opportunity International – the level of sophistication of the technology it is using is first rate. Not only bringing electronic payments to people, but also using biometric technology to securely create a ‘financial identity’ for clients who may not have identity documents.”The appeal has raised $433,062 [£269,330] since its launch, and every donation will be matched by the British government.

How to Give:

Give online at www.cityam.com/appeal. Or donate by texting CITY13 and the amount (£5 or £10, the equivalent of $8 or $16) to 70070.

Then, use social media to tell the world why you donated. Tweet #cityamappeal. These comments may be printed in City A.M.

2. Invest in One Woman, Empower Many

1.5 billion people worldwide live in extreme poverty. Many are women entrepreneurs with a plan to help themselves, their families and their communities. Through Opportunity International’s One Woman Holiday Challenge, start an online fundraiser or make a donation to an existing fundraiser. Every $150=one woman empowered with a loan that helps her grow her business so that she can support her family, send her children to school and employ her neighbors. She will be able to work her way out of chronic poverty. When you give, you will be investing in better futures, one woman at a time.

Thanks to generous donors, every dollar donated will be matched 1 to 1 up to $450,000. Your donation of any size makes a difference. Donate now and you will DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT.

Learn more, make a donation and empower a woman to have a better life at opportunity.org/woman »

3. The Gift Card of Opportunity

This is more than a gift card, it’s the gift of Opportunity. This year, give your friends, family and co-workers an Opportunity Gift Card and you will be bringing hope and opportunity to families around the world. Your friends can use their gift cards to empower some of the millions of clients who use Opportunity International loans and financial services to grow their businesses, employ their neighbors, feed their children and strengthen their communities.

Make this the year that you give your list the gift of opportunity. Purchase Opportunity Gift Cards for $10 or more at opportunity.org/giftcard »

Opportunity Gift Cards starting at $10, available at opportunity.org/giftcard »

When you start a fundraiser for Opportunity International’s One Woman Holiday Challenge — and help us reach our goal of $450,000 between now and Dec. 31, 2012 — you’ll empower Opportunity’s women clients, funding 6,000 small business loans for women working their way out of poverty around the world. Every $150 given funds an Opportunity loan for a woman entrepreneur. Thanks to a generous anonymous donor, you’ll also double your impact. All gifts will be matched 1 to 1 up to $450,000! To learn more, and to start your fundraiser, go to opportunity.org/woman »

Opportunity clients like rice farmer Eugenie Nyirabagenzi, in Rwamagana, Rwanda, use microloans to grow their businesses and buy more seeds to produce better crop yields to feed their families and their communities.

Here’s one more reason to take action today: we’re offering a free trip. For every $150 donated to your One Woman fundraiser, you’ll be entered in a drawing to win two all-expense-paid spots on a 2013 Opportunity International Insight Trip. See firsthand the impact that microfinance can have on the lives of our women clients. Complete contest rules are available at opportunity.org/woman »

To date, donations through our One Woman fundraisers have empowered 1,198 women entrepreneurs! That is nearly 1,200 women who now have the opportunity to grow a small business; feed, clothe and educate their children; employ their neighbors; and have a greater voice in their community. Studies have shown that when women have economic opportunities, they are three times more likely than men to reinvest in their children and their communities. In families where women have an income, they have a voice in financial decisions, resulting in better nutrition, health and education for children — including girls. Invest in better futures, one woman at a time.

1.5 billion people worldwide live in extreme poverty, and many are women entrepreneurs with a plan to help themselves, their families and their communities. All they need is a small opportunity.

Start your holiday giving off on the right foot by joining the One Woman Holiday Challenge. Launch a One Woman Holiday Challenge fundraiser at opportunity.org/woman »