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.
Opportunity Celebrates 40 Years at “Side by Side” Gala in Minneapolis
Last Thursday night, more than 400 guests gathered at International Market Square in Minneapolis, Minn. to celebrate Opportunity International‘s 40th anniversary at a gala event, “Side by Side: Celebrating 40 Years of Opportunity.” The evening included entertainment by Minnesota resident and contemporary Christian singer Sara Groves and the African musical group Duniya Drum and Dance, and featured a reception, dinner and a silent auction for a number of prizes including a five-day Insight Trip…
Read MoreToday, Opportunity International and Empact’s Young Entrepreneurs Are at the White House
Today, Opportunity International and Empact visit the White House. Empact, formerly known as Extreme Entrepreneurship Education, is honoring the country’s top 100 young entrepreneurs on their Empact 100 list at a White House event with senior administration officials from 2:00-4:00 p.m. Eastern time. Opportunity staff member Sonya Perez-Lauterbach, the manager of Young Ambassadors for Opportunity (YAO), will be giving a brief introduction about Opportunity’s work, our partnership with Empact,…
Read MoreOpportunity 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 Richard Leftley, president and CEO of our microinsurance subsidiary MicroEnsure. The Summit gathers microfinance practitioners,…
Read MoreTunes for Tanzania–who knew a Tuesday could be this good?
While everyone seemed moved by the goal of building a bank in Tanzania, as I gauged from the robust rounds of applause, Tuesday’s Tunes for Tanzania event was also just a good time for all. We packed into Schubas in Chicago to listen to the music of three different bands; we strategized to win tantalizing raffle prizes; and all around the room, circles of people kept morphing to make new conversations. It was a room full of YAO members, their friends, and people who’d heard about the event online…
Read MoreCarlos Moreno-The Success of Opportunity’s First Microfinance Client
Carlos Moreno was a small business owner selling spices in Santiago de Cali, Colombia, but he knew he needed additional funding in order to grow his business. In 1971, Carlos became Opportunity International’s very first loan client. Today, Carlos says, “My loan helped me expand my business so I could sell 52 different spices, teas and medicinal herbs.” With the loan, he was able to purchase spice dryers and grinders to expand his small factory, and increase his spice crop yields on his farm.…
Read MoreMeet Ugandan Staff Member Frida Mungoma, Education Finance Manager
This past Monday, just after arriving in the United States, Opportunity Uganda‘s Education Finance Manager Wakhasa Frida Mungoma–known as Frida–sat down with me at the Opportunity-US offices in Oak Brook, Ill. for a discussion of her work, the challenges she faces and the most rewarding aspects of her job. Below, see brief excerpts of my conversation with the soft-spoken, dynamic education finance loan officer. This was just the first stop on Frida’s U.S. visit, which will take her all around…
Read MoreWhat We’re Watching: Top 3 Conference Videos on Technology
Check out our top 3 videos on technology from our fall conference in San Francisco–click on the speakers’ names to watch. 1. Steven LevySenior writer at Wired; Author of In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our LivesSteven Levy: “The most prominent leaders in the technology world today believe that the first step in doing the impossible is freeing yourself from the constraint that something can’t be done. What if we thought of ending poverty in that way? When I wrote In the Plex,…
Read MoreGrowing Rural Economies through Agricultural Finance in Africa
In the last decade, Opportunity International embarked on an agricultural finance and rural savings program to spur economic activity and provide enduring resources for smallholder farmers and other rural clients in five African countries, including Uganda, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique and Rwanda. Opportunity’s approach is to help farmers move from subsistence growing to cash crop production with agriculture-specific loans, savings accounts, crop insurance, effective fertilizers, drought-resistant…
Read MoreMicroEnsure’s Richard Leftley Named in Top 40 Under 40 by Devex
Richard Leftley, President & CEO of MicroEnsure, has been named one of London’s top 40 development leaders under 40 by Devex, a social enterprise that offers recruiting and business information services to professionals in international development. Leftley, an expert in microinsurance who has helmed Opportunity’s insurance subsidiary MicroEnsure since 2002, was interviewed by Devex Senior Editorial Associate Eliza Villarino. In “3 Questions for… Richard Leftley: A Microinsurance Visionary,”…
Read MoreA Call for Sustainable Development on Oct. 17, United Nations Poverty Eradication Day
Today, October 17, is the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP) and this year’s theme is “From Poverty to Sustainability: People at the Centre of Inclusive Development.” First commemorated in 1987, the IDEP is “an annual opportunity to acknowledge the efforts of people living in poverty and to have their voices heard, recognizing that poor people are at the forefront of the fight against poverty and are critical partners for achieving sustainable development.”…
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