June 28, 2005
MAKING POVERTY HISTORY - CANADIAN FAMILY FOUNDATION GRANTS $1 MILLION FOR COLOMBIA
TORONTO, June 27 –At a time of unparalleled interest in making ‘poverty history’, the critical upcoming G-8 Summit in Scotland and Bob Gedolf’s LIVE 8 concerts, Opportunity International Canada, the “banker to the poor”, is thrilled to announce the gift of $1 million from the Bridgeway Foundation for a history-making Opportunity International Canada project in Colombia.
Opportunity International has been successfully ‘making poverty history’ in developing countries for over 32 years. The organization currently provides over a million “microloans” annually to impoverished entrepreneurs so they can start businesses and revive their local economies. However, this will be the organization’s first Canadian-led project in
The three-year, $2.1 million project will provide microloans and training to over 7,000 people affected by the 50 year old drug-fuelled civil war. More than two million Colombians have been internally displaced through the civil war – the largest internal population displacement of any country in the world except
Bridgeway Foundation Executive Director Mark Petersen, himself a former aid worker, said “We were drawn to support Opportunity International Canada’s first project in
“We have also carefully watched Opportunity International Canada projects over the past six years,” he adds, “and are convinced of their integrity and ability to get things done.”
Opportunity International President, Gary Walsh said, “This $1 million grant from the Bridgeway Foundation is a powerful gift to the developing world from a Canadian family on behalf of all Canadians. It helps us demonstrate as a nation that we are taking the United Nations mandate to extend the reach of microfinance projects seriously.”
The United Nations has declared 2005 the official ‘International Year of Microcredit’, recognizing the unique power of microcredit to provide permanent poverty solutions.
Opportunity International Canada works by raising funds from Canadian individuals, foundations and corporations which it passes onto the poor in the form of microloans. The loans are small by Canadian standards – averaging just $200 to $300. But they have a huge impact, enabling the poor to build their small business, and with the profits, invest in better housing, food, health and education for their families.
In 2004 alone, Opportunity International loaned more than $261 million and now has over 675,000 poor clients around the world with a repayment rate of 98%. It now provides one loan every 31 seconds.
The organization is growing at such a pace that in May this year, it opened an office in Vancouver, with former university executive Doris Olafsen leading the charge as Vice- President of Advancement, and Terry-Lynn Dryfhout coordinating Opportunity’s high profile volunteers such as former Vancouver mayor Philip Owen.
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