Insight: June 2010
Welcome to Insight
Click here to watch how a small loan changed the life of Lalithamma, a mother-of-two in India who had lost the use of her legs to polio.
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Into India
A few years ago, Sunita, a mother from a slum in Delhi, India, used a loan of $171 to purchase some pigs, hoping to raise them and use the money from their sale to provide for her children. But not long after she bought them, Sunita’s pigs were stolen. Local police would only help if she would pay a bribe that she could not afford. Bravely, Sunita started again, applying for another loan from one of Opportunity International Australia’s partners in India. Today, her farm has more than 60 pigs. The income she has earned has meant she has been able to provide proper meals for her family, and even send her children to school. Sunita is just one of many people who have been given a hand-up out of poverty through Opportunity International Australia’s India Program, now helping more than one million people out of poverty. more...
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It’s good business
Whether they are utilising their sewing skills to work as a tailor or taking advantage of the abundance of fish in a coastal area, microfinance clients run a variety of businesses to help their families out of poverty. more...
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Letter from the CEO
Outside Khordha in Orissa in India is a leper colony. It’s isolated – no one wants to interact with these people. Almost nobody. In February I headed there with Dia Vikas manager, Manas Bid. Just three years ago these women were beggars in the city. Talk about marginalised: poor, female, beggar, leper. It was going to be an emotionally difficult day. more...
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Who, what, where?
Earlier this year, cyclist Geoff Dittrich and team took the fight against poverty across Australia with the 80-day Macro for Micro bike ride from Sydney to Perth…
Spots in the Opportunity for India Trek are still open. This September, you can trek the foothills of the Himalayas and raise funds for people in poverty…
What do opera, art and food have in common with microfinance? After OperArtUnity was held in Sydney this March, plenty…
Hugh Evans and the Global Poverty Project joined with Opportunity and David Bussau this April for a two-week tour of the 1.4 billion reasons for the workplace presentation…
Read more in Who, what, where...