Creating Momentum
with the World's Entrepreneurs

After losing the use of her legs to polio at a young age, Lalithamma never thought she would be able to make money. She was completely reliant on her husband—and when he fell ill, their family didn’t know what to do.

Then she was approached by P. Pandu Ranga, a loan officer with Opportunity India. With his help, Lalithamma opened her own snack stall. Encouraged by the results, she told her friends about microfinance as well. They formed a support group of ten women, buying raw materials or opening their own businesses and helping each other with repayments.

Then the flood came. The waters left children without parents, parents without children, and Lalithamma without the business she had worked so hard to build. For two months, there were no customers.

Opportunity believes in women, and it believes that empowering women is the best way to end poverty and strengthen communities. So we lent more money to Lalithamma, and we didn’t expect her to pay it back right away. We help our clients find life, property and weather index insurance, and we facilitate support networks, to ensure that women can continue fighting for a brighter future, no matter what. Today, Lalithamma’s store is up and running again, she’s repaid her loans to Opportunity, and she is confident that if her husband cannot work again, she alone will be able to support her family.

Not many people reach age sixty and still feel young and ready to work, but Conchita Quintero does. Every day, she tends to her two-and-a-half hectares of land and over 1,300 animals in order to give her children a better future.

Growing up, Conchita’s parents could not afford to send her to school. She did chores from 5 a.m. until midnight and still remembers the humiliation of seeing other children going to school, with clean clothes and full stomachs, while she worked and went hungry.

Nine years of microfinance loans changed all that. In addition to her land and animals, Conchita now also owns a variety store and a rice thresher. Beyond just money, Opportunity International also provides her with training seminars and helps her find buyers for her products.

Opportunity’s Agricultural Finance program helps farmers like Conchita obtain the technical skills necessary to improve their crops and the financing to help transport crops to access the most profitable buyer markets. Now, when Conchita looks at what Opportunity has helped her build, she can say to her children, “Love this, because I worked hard for this. I built it with my hard work.”

As a child, Rubela dreamt that she would grow up to be happy and wealthy, with food to eat and a nice home. She had the love of her mother, and anything seemed possible.

Everything changed when her mother died when Rubela was very young. Now twenty years old, Rubela’s tough childhood has left her illiterate and struggling to survive. She was forced to move in with her brother and sister-in-law after being left destitute when her husband divorced her on the instructions of his parents.

Determined not to be a burden on her brother’s family, she sought a way to stand on her own. That’s how she found Opportunity India. With her first loan, Rubela was able to buy raw supplies for her bracelet-making business. Every day, she gets up early to buy supplies and sell her jewelry at a market.

Even so, she is barely getting by, with savings of only 10 rupees — 25 cents — to show for her labor each day. Rubela’s first loan helped her get on her feet, but she will need more loans to achieve the life she dreamt of as a child. Breaking the cycle of poverty is not easy — but with the right opportunity, it is possible.

When Beesamma’s husband fell into a coma and passed away, she knew that the only person she could rely on to provide for her and her two children was herself—and Opportunity India. Already a longtime microfinance client, Beesamma was determined to continue supporting her family. “I didn’t want anyone to think I couldn’t manage to work hard to pay back the loans,” she says.

Beesamma invested her loans to grow her chicken “bandi” snack business. She has taken out three loans from Opportunity, paid back every one on time, and is now the owner of the snack cart she used to rent.

Because of her success, Beesamma can afford to send her son to a good school, and has already saved $500 for her young daughter’s wedding dowry—saving for a happier future for her family. She is working hard to ensure that both her son and daughter can receive an education and follow their dreams. “I want to see my children settled and happy,” Beesamma says. “That’s my desire.”

After his father was murdered, Freiman Brunal fled from his hometown of Monteria, Colombia, to Cartagena, in search of a new start and a better life. Life in Cartagena was no easier, however; Freiman had to drop out of school, where he was studying business administration, because he could no longer afford it.

That’s where Opportunity Colombia came in. With their help, Freiman secured a small loan to start a taxi business with one motorcycle, while his wife used an Opportunity loan to expand her single-table grocery business. But they didn’t stop there. Freiman and his wife soon merged their businesses to form a grocery delivery service, and with the help of another loan from Opportunity, turned that delivery service into a free-standing grocery store—now the largest in their town.

Because of his perseverance and success, not only can Freiman and his family plan to add a second floor to their home, but Frieman is also now a leader in his community. Under his leadership, his community has laid over 300 pipes and provided water for the entire neighborhood.

Freiman came to Cartagena seeking a better life for his family; with Opportunity, what he found was the chance to create a better life for his entire community.

One of Opportunity’s keys to our clients’ success is the Trust Group model: we help groups of 10 to 30 entrepreneurs form a network where they can find financial training, solidarity and support. Each Trust Group elects a leader, and the members meet weekly to share advice and encouragement.

Suzie Wandera is a founding member and chairperson of the Suubi Trust Group in her town in Uganda. Since 1997, she has serviced 21 loans with Opportunity, which have enabled her to open and expand a hostel in her local university town. She hopes to use future loans to reopen her tailoring school, targeting young girls who had previously dropped out.

Suzie’s success in business has also enabled her to be a force for change in her community. In addition to paying school tuition for her grandchildren, she is able to support several other dependents’ educations as well. She is also a political leader in her town, serving as the local council’s vice-chairperson, championing the causes of youth and women. Her time as a leader within her Trust Group has given her the resources and confidence to be a leader for her entire community.

The impact of a loan from Opportunity doesn’t end with the client who receives it—it multiplies throughout the community. Solange Fitina, who received a loan from Opportunity Rwanda to expand her tailoring business and invest in new machines, is now able to support her three children, younger sister and niece with their educations.

Working with Opportunity has also given her the resources to transfer her business knowledge to other members of her community. Since receiving her loan, Solange has taught 70 members of her community how to retail, including six for free because they could not pay. Her students have gone on to become her employees or to found their very own businesses. Solange also expanded her business to include renting out wedding clothing, and she has dressed several of her students for their weddings as well.

Solange’s success has had a ripple effect throughout her entire community, with the continued growth of Solange’s business contributing to the continued growth of those around her, and she has no plans of stopping any time soon. “The more money we borrowed, the more our business expanded,” Solange says. “Today we can get ourselves anything we want.”

When Modeste Babonangenda first founded Apaderwa Academy in 2006, it was a nursery school with 32 students. Today, with the help of Urwego Opportunity Bank in Rwanda, it is a nursery and primary school with 256 students and 10 teachers.

Because of Modeste’s work, those 256 Rwandan students have access to a quality private education, where the student-to-faculty ratio is 25:1, rather than the public school ratio of 80:1. With the help of loans from Urwego Opportunity Bank, Modeste has been able to provide them with books, desks and building repairs and has expanded the school compound. He’s not done yet, though—he is planning to build four new classrooms, and if he can acquire a laptop, to teach his students basic computer skills.

Modeste credits his success to the work of Opportunity Rwanda and the blessings of God in his life. While three local banks refused to loan money to Apaderwa Academy because of high default rates in Rwanda, Urwego Opportunity Bank is wholeheartedly invested in the value of education. With his faith and the continued support of Opportunity, Modeste will continue lighting the paths of nearly 300 children.

Worn down by commuting long distances to reach the public school where she was a teacher, Mercy Senyegah decided to open her own school in a small structure next to her house. But those dreams were short lived, as her husband’s creditors came and destroyed her school building overnight. That didn’t stop Mercy though. Determined to continue educating the children of Ghana, Mercy moved out of town, and with a loan from a friend, leased a small piece of land and opened the Divine Knowledge School Complex. Her school crammed four classrooms of children into one room, with another classroom in the school kitchen.

That’s when Mercy found Opportunity Ghana. With the help of education finance loans, Mercy has been able to cement her school’s floors, build more classrooms, hire more teachers to serve her 270 pupils, and provide lunch, desks and school supplies. “My vision was one day this school would become a great one,” she says. “At first, I didn’t know how to save, but we have loan officers whose advice and encouragement can help your business to grow.”

Though trained as an accountant, Eunice Atieno Onyango realized she had another potential career path ahead of her when she exhibited a product of her weaving class by the side of the road. People actually got out of their cars to ask her how much it cost and whether she had more to sell, she says.

Eunice promptly quit her job at an insurance company and opened her own workshop in the front room of her house. With a loan of approximately $285 from Opportunity Kenya, she was able to buy yarn in bulk and employ her first workers. Today, she employs seven weavers, and as soon as she pays off her initial loan, plans to ask for another to set up her own storefront.

Eunice’s business model is unique not only for the quality of her weaving, but also for her innovative approach to money transfer: mobile banking. Nearly all of her transactions—from receiving Opportunity loans to taking customer orders to paying tuition for her children—are done over the phone, which saves her time and money, as she would have to travel great distances to visit a brick-and-mortar bank.

Opportunity recognizes that the cycle of poverty is often reinforced by people’s lack of access to financial services. By introducing our entrepreneurs to technology like mobile banking, satellite branches and ATMs, we put thriving businesses right within the reach of people like Eunice.

For years, Luz and her daughters lived paycheck to paycheck, always trying to stay ahead of the next rent payment. “I felt like I didn’t have a future,” she says. So she uprooted her family and moved to a new neighborhood, where the rent was cheaper and there were more opportunities. There, she opened her own washing business, renting out a single washing machine to the community.

The real change came when Luz found Opportunity International, which gave her a loan to buy more washing machines. She expanded her business, and with the profits, bought another machine, and then another.

Today, in addition to her washing business, Luz also sells catalog items and frozen foods. She credits Opportunity with teaching her how to become a successful businesswoman. “I save all the profits, I pay the bills, and the rest I get after that, I invest in another business. The earnings from that other business, I invest again,” she says. “Opportunity has taught me how to manage my finances. I didn’t know how to do that before.” Now Luz not only has money to pay the rent, but also to support her daughters’ educations. “When they decide to become doctors or professionals, I will have something to help them,” she says.

Driven out of her hometown by rampant violence at a young age, Gladis and her family arrived in Cartagena seeking a better life. She worked as a maid in other people’s homes and sold soup with her aunt to make a living.

But Gladis wanted something more. As a single mother of two, she was looking for a more independent way to support herself and her children. She started a small convenience store to sell rice and vegetables, so the members of her community would not have to travel great distances to get food. With her first loan from Opportunity Colombia, Gladis expanded the inventory of her store, and she now works closely with the organization to reinvest her profits and continue growing her business.

Gladis is saving money to send her children to university and improve her living situation, and one day she hopes to be the owner of a large supermarket. “Opportunity has fulfilled all my expectations,” she says. “I feel fulfilled, accomplished and blessed by God.”