Like all Opportunity banks, Opportunity International Bank Rwanda will be expected to reach a triple bottom line of scale, sustainability, and transformation. In pursuing these goals, it will build on the experience of neighboring Opportunity International banks in reaching large numbers of micro and small entrepreneurs with loans, savings, basic business training and HIV/AIDS education. The new start-up has potential to serve 50,000 families annually...

A pilot test run for Opportunity International microfinance borrowers in Zambia demonstrated that there is a significant demand among clients for insurance. We also discovered that insurance companies are willing to provide access to poor entrepreneurs. The purpose of this project is to establish a “Micro Insurance Agency," which will enable Opportunity to extend insurance services to borrowers of other microfinance networks and rural banks,...

Oportunidad Microfinanzas, an Opportunity microfinance bank, provides small working capital loans for people in chronic poverty. Loans range from $100 to $500, about what our target clients are borrowing from moneylenders. Spared high interest rates, our clients earn more to invest in the business. Their increased income helps them meet basic family needs. Children are going to school, not work. Group lending through Trust Banks...

IMED, an Opportunity International partner, is a microfinance organization based in Chennai. When the tsunami struck, the IMED staff was quick to respond, surveying the damage in stricken areas, participating in relief activities and gauging the future needs of tsunami victims. Opportunity is now embarking on an aggressive expansion plan in India. By the end of 2006, IMED’s microfinance activity will be transferred to a...

This gift will help provide the financing and resources that will allow Opportunity International to continue its expansion of Microschools™ - an innovation that was started in July 2006. Attendance in school has been linked to increased protection of children, especially girls, against exploitation, making them less vulnerable to the cruelties associated with child labor and sex trafficking. As a result of your support, girls...

This gift package will help one poor woman establish her own small business and access credit, business training, and health care services for herself and her family. Business training helps clients learn additional money management skills and how to effectively market their products. On average, clients double their income after two years of joining the organization. Clients also receive training in leadership, communications and self-esteem....

Pro Mujer helps poor women entrepreneurs start or expand a small business. A loan of $50 could allow a client to buy a knitting basket with yarn and needles to knit garments for sale in the local market. This initial investment will allow the client an opportunity to support herself and her family.

A $250 loan could allow a client to buy a commercial tortilla press to launch a business selling tortillas. Items such as the tortilla press allow women to work faster and produce more. This initial investment enables women earn more in less time. Women then spend more money on the health, eduation and quality of life for themselves and their children. Greater efficiency and greater...

Your gift will enable an individual living in poverty to start a microenterprise. Whether it is used to buy an oven for a bakery, a computer for a daycare center, a kiln for an artisan, or other materials needed to launch a business of the entrepreneur’s choosing, your gift will help someone take the first steps out of poverty. Trickle Up gives grants to entrepreneurs...

Your gift will provide the seed capital necessary for a poor farmer in Nicaragua to take the first steps out of poverty by starting a microenterprise.

Your support will help us to provide a community with a small grant, often used to establish a rotating microcredit fund, which helps community members, particularly women, with the investment they need to start small businesses, invest in agriculture, or take on other income-generating activities. The Community Management Committee (CMC) will operate the microcredit fund based on a group-lending, revolving-funds system, working together to set...

This gift will provide a capital loan which will be used to support a business run by a group of women or an individual woman. The loan will be linked with classes to support the business including account keeping, savings mechanisms, etc. In addition, the beneficiaries of the loan will be linked to the reproductive and sexual health services implemented by VEI. All loan reimbursement...

Your gift will provide one family with a loan to purchase a reduced smoke, fuel efficient cook stove. Family members will receive training about the health risks associated with indoor smoke and strategies to remain healthy. Your gift also will help support training for entrepreneurs in improved stove construction, making stoves more accessible and generating additional income in local areas.