by Jenny Dunn, Head of Marketing and Communications
Malawi is often referred to as the warm heart of Africa and I can see why – the warmth, friendliness and welcome of its people overflows. I had the privilege of visiting in May this year and was amazed by the generosity of our clients, who opened their homes and businesses as they spent precious time sharing their stories with me. Mary is one of the clients I met. She was fun, energetic and delighted to show us around her home, her farm and her business. Mary is remarkable. A mother of…
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by Mandy Burrows and Melissa Bell, Opportunity International UK, and Soledad Muniz, InsightShare.
Between 2019 and 2023, InsightShare and Opportunity International UK (OIUK) came together to incorporate participatory storytelling into our internal Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning strategy We wanted to better listen and understand lived experiences and outcomes of financial inclusion programmes, particularly supporting people living with disabilities and their carers, as well as refugees and host communities in Uganda. After training the international and local staff, as well as…
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by Jenny Dunn, Head of Marketing and Communications
Twenty-Three years ago Alison gave her first gift to Opportunity International. Since then she faithfully gave £100 a year, regularly supporting our work and the people we serve. An intelligent, hardworking women, Alison paved out a successful career working in the civil service at a time when women were not expected to have a profession. She strongly believed in the importance of education and empowering women. At the age of 90 Alison sadly passed away, but her generosity lives on. After ensuring…
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by Mary Oakes, Deputy CEO
In August, I visited our work in Ghana with Programme Manager, Melissa Bell – here are my reflections: This wasn’t my first trip to Ghana. I had worked there previously with World Vision, but it was my first visit in my new role as Deputy CEO of Opportunity International. I was keen to meet some of our partners in-country, to better understand the work and in particular, to visit the kayayei project. The kayayei project was set up in 2019 to provide vocational training and life skills to some…
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by Wenzetu - one of the many groups we support with financial training and access to financial products in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda. In their own words, they share how working with us has benefited them and their members.
Wenzetu was established in 2019 with the vision of uplifting the lives of children with disabilities and their families. We recognised the need for betterment and support within the community, focusing on economic empowerment and holistic wellbeing. As such, we offer rehabilitation service for children with disabilities, empowering them to lead fulfilling lives and overcome challenges. As a group, we run a variety of livelihood activities. Wenzetu’s artisans create a wide range of beautiful and…
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by Mandy Burrows, Senior Programme Manager
We have always had big plans for our work with refugees. However, when COVID and lockdowns hit, and with the withdrawal of UK Aid funding, the original project was scaled down to work in just one settlement (Nakvale Refugee Settlement) and with one partner (Opportunity Bank Uganda Ltd. (OBUL)). I don’t think even we could have imagined how quickly the project would grow in the 18 months following the Covid lockdowns in Uganda. We have now established a refugee programme which has the potential…
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by Opportunity International
On Sunday 12th March, Southern Malawi was hit by tropical storm Freddy with several districts experiencing severe floods and landslides. Cyclone Freddy is one of the strongest stroms recorded in the southern hemisphere and potentially the longest-lasting tropical cyclone. As of April, it was estimated that over 560,000 people had been displaced, sheltering in over 500 camps, and 511 people have died. Homes, crops and livestock were swept away. Harvests were destroyed and livelihoods devastated.…
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by Jenny Dunn, Head of Marketing and Communications
A year ago, author and journalist, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown presented our BBC Radio 4 appeal, sharing her personal story of coming to England from Uganda, and being given the opportunity to fulfil her ambition. She highlighted the importance of our work providing access to financial training, loans and support. You may remembering hearing it, and can even listen again here The appeal raised an impressive £20,000 which has already been put to good use providing small business loans, financial…
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by Jenny Dunn, Head of Marketing and Communications
Opportunity International embraces equity, independence and opportunity by providing financial solutions for people living in poverty to build sustainable livelihoods. Our goal to reach 100,000 more women in the next two years reflects this, and was highlighted by our Patron on Internatioonal Women's Day 2023 at Windsor castle. HRH, the Princess Royal spoke passionately about our work and shared her own experience of meeting a young client named Sephora in Uganda last year - Sephora received financial…
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by Jenny Dunn, Head of Marketing and Communications
Wednesday 8th March is International Women’s Day – a day to acknowledge and celebrate the resilience and achievements of women across the globe, and those of our clients. The theme for this year is to #EmbraceEquity. Equity isn't just a nice-to-have, it's a must-have. A focus on gender equity needs to be part of every society's DNA. So what is equity and how is it different to equality? Equity can be defined as giving everyone what they need to be successful. In other words, it's not…
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