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PO Box 2826
Carol Stream, Illinois 60132

Toll Free: 1-800-793-9455

© 2024 Opportunity Internationala 501(c)3 nonprofit. EIN: 540907624.

2017 Annual ReportEnding Extreme Povertytoday, tomorrow, and the day after that

Honored to meet Linda Nyarko at her bustling bakery in Ghana, pictured here with U.S. Board Chair Dave Tolmie (right).

A Message from our CEO

Open a newspaper, or more likely the news app on your smartphone, and it becomes quite apparent. Our world is filled with suffering and despair: wars, refugees, floods, famines, and children dying from preventable diseases. What I see—and experience—every day is just the opposite: personal incomes rising, women working in trades and marketplaces, children learning in schools, and families receiving basic health services.

Read his message

Vision

Our vision is a world in which all people have the opportunity to achieve a life free from poverty, with dignity and purpose.

Mission

By providing financial solutions and training, we empower people living in poverty to transform their lives, their children’s futures, and their communities.

Motivation

We respond to Jesus Christ’s call to love and serve the poor. We seek to emulate the Good Samaritan, whose compassion crossed ethnic groups and religions.

2017 Global Outreach

*With your support, we empowered millions of* farmers, educators, and small business owners around the world with the financial tools and training that is helping them work their way out of poverty for good.

See our Outreach

Ending Extreme Poverty In Asia

Renju Haridas

“I feel proud that, because of me, others get the same opportunities”

Renju Haridas / Renju works with one of Opportunity’s local partners in India, bringing digital financial services to 150 women each day in communities near Thrissur, India. She connects so well with clients because she used to be one!

▸ 5M loan clients

▸ 4.4M savings clients

▸ 284,000 children in school

Home to more than half of the world’s population, Asia presents a unique opportunity for us to reach a previously unimaginable number of people living in extreme poverty. Because of your support, in 2017 our Education Finance expansion into India blossomed, and we served even more Community Health Facilitators—now totaling 4,000 women who have provided health services to 4.9 million people. We worked with Filipino families living on less than $1.25 per day to help them build sustainable livelihoods. Meanwhile, we enhanced transaction security for our clients by using tablets that allow for accurate, protected data collection and can identify users via fingerprint/eye scans. Through tailored programs, expanding digital services, local community leadership, and your support, we will bring resources to more people in Asia than ever before.

Ending Extreme Poverty In Africa

Leila Kaku

“Opportunity taught us how to change our lives.”

Leila Kaku / Leila transformed her children’s lives when she received agricultural training in Ghana from Opportunity. Coupled with her loan and access to high-quality fertilizer, she was able to triple her maize harvest—which meant she could pay for her children’s schooling and medicine.

▸ 306,000 loan clients

▸ 1.2M savings clients

▸ 384,000 children in school

In Africa, Opportunity’s strategic partnerships with local organizations and companies are enabling us to serve even more rural and vulnerable populations. New transformation offices opened in Malawi, Uganda, and Rwanda, which enabled us to deliver a variety of services to groups in need, like financial training for women recovering from childbirth injuries in Malawi to an apprentice program that teaches young women vocational and financial skills in Ghana. We expanded education services in new areas like Liberia and Nigeria and added Education Quality in Tanzania. 50,000 farmer loans were issued in 2017 (up 39% since last year), and 8 in 10 women farmers in Ghana and Mozambique said they were more empowered because of Opportunity. Thousands of farmers are now learning good agricultural practices via training videos, which proves that even the most remote groups can still have an opportunity to improve their lives and provide for their families.

Ending Extreme Poverty In Latin America

Emiledis San Martin

“Opportunity taught us how to change our lives.”

Emiledis San Martin / Emiledis is a force for change in her community in Cartagena, Colombia. She used the leadership skills she learned in her Opportunity Trust Group to lead the neighborhood in building a community center and school, so children can have a safe space to learn, grow, and play.

▸ 58,000 loan clients

▸ 149,000 savings clients

▸ 105,000 children in school

Our clients in Latin America are using financial training to not only build sustainable livelihoods for their families but also to improve and strengthen communities. In Colombia, we worked to rebuild peaceful communities by offering loans and training to families displaced by violence, and your generosity enabled us to deliver nearly 2,500 technical and financial training sessions. We also supported a client-driven project to build a community center near Cartagena and piloted a water project in an area where 71% of families surveyed used untreated or unpotable water. In Nicaragua, our program is helping people leverage their assets to improve their communities, guiding farmers every step of the way from the fi eld to the processing plant, and powering community projects that drive economic growth.

A farmer in Rwanda takes a break from working in his fields.

Partners

Our corporate, government, and institutional partners are driving sustainable change for millions of people around the world by empowering them to work their way out of poverty.

See our Partners

Students at the Bright School in Ghana are thriving because you have invested in their futures through the Education Finance program, which is bringing loans and training to teachers, parents, and administrators.

Supporters

Our generous supporters contribute their philanthropic talents and treasures to Opportunity to help further the organization's mission and give people everywhere the chance to lives their lives with dignity and purpose.

See our Supporters

Linda Nyarko uses her thriving “Lindice Bakery” as a way to help struggling mothers get on their feet. Linda sells her delicious bread to the women, who then go out into their Ghanaian communities to sell and distribute the bread

U.S. Board of Directors

Opportunity’s U.S. Board of Directors use their unparalleled passion and experience to guide the organization and ensure we achieve our mission, while striving for our vision, while staying true to our motivation.

See board list

Jamil and Margini Velasquez started their wood workshop in Nicaragua with no electricity and no roof. With Opportunity loans and training, they’ve grown into a beautiful shop with their own storefront—and were recently featured in an international art project.

Financials

Opportunity International raises funds from many sources and uses them to provide loans, training, and support services to our clients so they can build sustainable livelihoods. With these funds, we achieved significant growth in client impact across our global network in 2017.

View the financials


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