Waymaker Wednesday: Linda

Inside a bread factory in Accra, Ghana, I was greeted by men whose hands were 3 times the width of mine. The baking ovens and the hot Accra sun made the room temperature well over 100 degrees. Suddenly, I feel this big hug around me, and I turn around. This, I soon learned, was Linda, the owner of the bakery.

I’ll never forget meeting this woman in the blue shirt, who you see smiling before you as she did that day. She had gone through a transformation as a client herself, starting with 1 oven under 1 tree...and this day the owner of 2 bread factories making thousands of loaves a day, employing hundreds of men working in the factory and tens of women who would come and pick up those loaves every day and go and distribute them in the market places in the streets of Accra.

I asked Linda how she chose her workers and she said, “Well, I find the poorest people living in the community and make sure that they are the ones I employ so they can earn a living, they can feed their families.” Why? She had been one of them herself.

I tell you, opportunities are powerful. They set off ripple effects of change and transformation, generosity and good will. And nowhere was that more evident than inside Linda’s Bakery, under the hot sun in Accra.

This video is a selection from Opportunity International's Virtual Art Gallery: Portrait of a Waymaker. Explore the entire gallery here.