Africa

Africa is the epicentre of worldwide poverty. With continual plagues of civil war, famine, ethnic genocides and the seemingly unstoppable AIDS epidemic, half the people living in sub-Sahara Africa live on less $1 per day.

Opportunity International currently provides hope through microfinancial services - loans, savings, insurance, training and support in nine nations of Africa, serving more than 157,000 of the entrepreneurial poor.

Programs in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe provide loans as small as $35 to impoverished micro entrepreneurs in both city and far-flung rural locations.

Realizing the challenges facing our African clients are unique, Opportunity has developed programs catering specifically to them such as HIV/AIDS training, funeral insurance, and rural outreach.

Latin America

Latin America is home to some of the greatest socio-economic inequalities in the world. Some 222 million people (42.9%) in the region are poor, with 96 million (18.1%) living in extreme poverty. Although the region’s economies grew by almost 6% last year, growth impact bypasses the poor as typically, governments do not direct any funds to the poor.

Standing in this gap, Opportunity International has been providing economic self-empowerment options for the poor in Latin America for over 30 years. In 1971, Canadian missionaries Ross and Jeri Clemenger were at the forefront of international development and relief work. Together with an American and Australian businessman, they were instrumental in helping develop the concept of microenterprise development as a poverty-relief tool. The Clemengers were charged with disbursing and monitoring the first loans in Colombia and in the process of fine-tuning the concept, they saw lives were being changed dramatically.

Today, our Latin American programs continue to be at the forefront of development and provide training, credit and support to more than 83,000 entrepreneurial poor in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru.

Asia

Asia's poor account for two-thirds of the total population of the poor in the developing world. About 900 million people live on $1 a day. The sad truth is that recent world focuses have far from reduced levels of poverty in Asia. There are actually more people living in poverty today in Asia than there were in the 1990’s. The Asian Development Bank says changing this trend will require not only finding ways to increase the incomes of the poor, but also enhancing their quality of life.

This is exactly what Opportunity programs have been doing in Asia since 1971. With a dual focus of economic and holistic transformation, Opportunity International provides microfinancial services alongside business, social, political and spiritual training to the poorest of the working poor. Clients are empowered to not only grow a microbusiness and increase their income, but also to provide better education, healthcare, shelter and food for their families.

Today, Opportunity serves more than 677,000 clients through partners in China, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union have witnessed a decrease in poverty since the Russian financial crisis of 1998-99. Almost 40 million people have moved out of poverty. However, inequality and poverty stubbornly persists - more than 60 million people live on less than $2 a day. (In Eastern Europe, an absolute poverty line of $2 a day is used, given the cost of heating and warm clothing required for winter.)

Despite the region's growth, job opportunities are still scarce and unless employment options improve, poverty reduction will halt. By providing working capital to poor entrepreneurs, Opportunity helps create jobs, stimulate local economies and fuels the engine that will provide stability and progress throughout the region.

Opportunity International pioneered the delivery of microenterprise development in Eastern Europe and today serves more than 81,000 clients in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia and Serbia.