After an inspiring morning with friends and cocoa farmers from a Technoserve project, we headed back into the city to meet with three clients from Opportunity International (OI). OI is one of the global leaders in micofinance, providing financial services to the poor including small business loans and training in basic business practices. Their work revolves around a proven “Trust Group” model in which groups of individual borrowers apply for and work to repay group loans – thus building a strong sense of accountability and community among clients. Our group spent the afternoon with some of the many thousands of OI clients.

We first met with a gentleman named Jospeh who used his loan to begin the development of a private school in his neighborhood, which initially served only a few children in a single building. Today the school serves roughly 190 students in 7 room complex, which recently welcomed a new computer center, boasting several machines for the children to use.

After spending time with the excited kids, we moved on to meet with Anna who runs and operates her own business in her backyard. In addition to being a wife, mother of four and a landlord, Anna is a businesswoman: she used her loan to start several business ventures, including batiking her own fabric, handcrafting pillows and making laundry detergent. We were lucky enough to witness the final stages of batiking, in which Anna and her workers used wax to paint elaborate designs on dyed cloth, which are later sold as decorative fabric across Ghana.

Once again, we had a great visit with some of our partners on the ground. It was truly inspiring to see another example of economic development initiatives working. More to come… stay tuned.

-Luisa Engel