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News Blog

The Impact of Education: Visiting Uganda’s Kazo Summit School

by Julie Hindmarsh

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. On Tuesday, we devoted additional time to seeing Ugandan private schools funded by loans from Opportunity‘s Banking on Education initiative. We wanted not only to observe but also to participate. The welcome we received at Kazo Summit School exceeded our expectations… It sounded like a gigantic swarm of bees coming closer…

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How Education Helps Break the Cycle of Poverty For Good

by Julie Hindmarsh

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 to visit…

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Dreams for the Future: The Women of Uganda’s Peace Trust Group

by Julie Hindmarsh

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…

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“Mothers, Daughters, Sisters” Insight Trip To Uganda: A first glimpse of this country and already a sense of family

by Julie Hindmarsh

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…

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Happy Father’s Day from Opportunity

by Emily Riemer

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…

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Oak Park and River Forest Supporters Gather to Celebrate a Rich Giving History

by Sonja Egeland Kelly

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…

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YAO Hosts an Expert Panel: The Microfinance Landscape Today

by Sheila Ramachandra

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…

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A Virtual Walk Alongside the Women’s Insight Trip to Uganda

by Susan Gillette

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…

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Women of the Congo: Bringing Hope through Microfinance

by Emily Riemer

“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…

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Opportunity Ghana launches a mobile bank

by Emily Riemer

“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…

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