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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

This gift will help fight poverty and AIDS in Africa through microenterprise development. Through group-guaranteed loans, HIV/AIDS education, peer support, training, counseling, insurance and youth apprenticeship programs, the support will change the basic economic realities for millions of families in Africa — a real change offering real hope, especially to women, widows, young girls and orphans. Opportunity’s microfinance loans are made through Trust Groups and...