50 Weeks of Opportunity
Each week for the next 50 weeks, we will share a piece of Opportunity’s history—major or minor, sobering or inspiring, we have gotten where we are today by facing some of the world’s greatest challenges, with you by our side. Please join us in celebrating the many impactful moments that have built the foundation on which we will embark on our most audacious vision yet: ending extreme poverty.
How Education Helps Break the Cycle of Poverty For Good
Guest blogger and Women’s Opportunity Network (WON) member Julie Hindmarsh sends us this report while on WON’s “Mothers, Daughters and Sisters” Insight Trip to Uganda. School proprietor Maria Nassaka is pictured here with Opportunity’s VP of Women’s Philanthropy and WON Insight Trip traveler Ruth-Anne Renaud. Says Ruth-Anne: “I met Maria in January 2009 on my first trip to Uganda. It was so heartening to see her again and to learn that her school is doing well.” What a thrill…
Read MoreDreams for the Future: The Women of Uganda’s Peace Trust Group
Guest blogger and Women’s Opportunity Network (WON) member Julie Hindmarsh sends us this report from WON’s “Mothers, Daughters and Sisters” Insight Trip to Uganda. Opening a conversation in Uganda is easy when you ask the question: “What are the challenges you experience in your life?” The women of Opportunity Uganda’s Peace Trust Group talked over each other in their eagerness to share their responses. One woman said, “I need to rise at 4 a.m. to go to the market to get supplies…
Read More“Mothers, Daughters, Sisters” Insight Trip To Uganda: A first glimpse of this country and already a sense of family
Guest blogger and Women’s Opportunity Network (WON) member Julie Hindmarsh sends us this report while on WON’s “Mothers, Daughters and Sisters” Insight Trip to Uganda. The headline in Saturday’s Daily Monitor newspaper in Uganda seems custom-made for the Women’s Opportunity Network (WON): “My daughters will share my wealth, says President.” Uganda‘s President Museveni has announced that, contrary to African customs, he will leave a portion of his inheritance to his daughters in…
Read MoreHappy Father’s Day from Opportunity
Today we honor the love, support and strength of fathers everywhere… Fathers like Donasian Mbiry. Opportunity client Donasian owns a small shop in the Ilala Bugoni neighborhood of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He built his store himself with a wood frame and corrugated steel roof, selling household goods like rice, flour and cooking oil. He is using his loan as working capital to build the selection of products he sells and position himself to better compete with other stores in the neighborhood. With…
Read MoreOak Park and River Forest Supporters Gather to Celebrate a Rich Giving History
Last week, a group of Opportunity supporters met together in Maryellen and Jim Betke’s home in Oak Park, Ill. Their common denominator? They are all champions of Opportunity’s microfinance work who live in Oak Park and River Forest, Ill. Over the past 12 months, 80 Opportunity supporters in the Oak Park-River Forest area have raised almost $200,000 together. Motivated by their compassion for those living in poverty, the same group has raised a total of a half million dollars in the past four…
Read MoreYAO Hosts an Expert Panel: The Microfinance Landscape Today
YAO-New York core member and event co-organizer Sheila Ramachandra sends us this report from the panel discussion YAO hosted on Tuesday evening, which examined the current microfinance landscape. On Tuesday evening, YAO-New York hosted a panel discussion entitled “Trends and Challenges in Today’s Microfinance Landscape.” The panelists included Sarah Buitoni, senior associate at Women’s World Banking, Center for Microfinance Leadership; Mark Narron, assistant vice president at Deutsche Bank…
Read MoreA Virtual Walk Alongside the Women’s Insight Trip to Uganda
Women’s Opportunity Network (WON) member Susan Gillette shares her excitement about the upcoming “Mothers, Daughters and Sisters” Insight Trip to Uganda, offering a unique, virtual way for everyone to join in. I had hoped to go on the Uganda Women’s Insight Trip with my daughters, Maggie and Lindsay, but they couldn’t get away from work. But the good news is that we are going to be walking alongside the women on this trip “virtually.” We’ll be able to keep up with the trip through…
Read MoreWomen of the Congo: Bringing Hope through Microfinance
“It is a war that men have provoked, but women have paid the highest price.” These are the words of a UN peacekeeper in Lisa Jackson’s award-winning documentary, The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, a film about the violence and violation faced by women living in the war-torn eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo over the last decade. On Monday night, nearly 100 guests attended a screening of the documentary film, followed by a question-and-answer session with three members…
Read MoreOpportunity Ghana launches a mobile bank
“We have realized that many of our customers are travelling between 50 and 100 km [between 30 and 60 miles] to access banking services,” says Effie Cook, head of HR at Opportunity Ghana. “So we have focused our energies on developing innovative delivery channels that serve the needs of the marginalized and reach out to the many deprived rural areas of Ghana.” To address the needs of its clients, Opportunity Ghana has just launched a mobile banking facility, an event that was reported by the…
Read MoreA Progress Report on the UN Millennium Development Goals
In September of 2000, the United Nations addressed the issue of global poverty by adopting the Millennium Declaration. The declaration pledged the members to accomplish measurable goals to eradicate global poverty by the year 2015. The Millennium Development Goals focus on eight areas of concern, including poverty and hunger, universal education, maternal health, and HIV/AIDS prevention. With the deadline now only five years away, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has called upon world leaders…
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