Speaking of Opportunity, he said, “This is not a charity that gives away money. It enables people to realise their entrepreneurship and when you see how much you can achieve with so little it is a humbling experience.” You can read the full interview with Truett Tate here.

There are several ways to get involved in our Christmas Appeal:

1. GIVE: You can give online, by phone or by text message too – find out more here.
2. BID: Why not bid for a lot in our Appeal Auction? All successful bids will be matched by the UK Government, pound for pound.
3. READ: You can read all of City A.M.’s appeal-related stories on their Appeal page.

Our appeal is raising funds to help Opportunity extend microfinance to more poor people in southern Malawi. The Nsanje region is one of the poorest areas of Malawi, with 87% of the population without access to basic banking services.

We’re also delighted to announce that the UK Government will match all individual donations pound for pound, so that Opportunity International can double its impact.

There are several ways to get involved:

1. GIVE: You can give online, by phone or by text message too – find out more here.
2. BID: Why not bid for a lot in our Appeal Auction? All successful bids will be matched by the UK Government, pound for pound.
3. READ: You can read all of City A.M.’s appeal-related stories on their Appeal page.

Matching your donations with:	Proudly sponsored by:

Princess Anne meeting Opportunity staff in Accra

Princess Anne met clients involved in financial education training and was shown around one of our mobile banks.

Princess Anne visiting an Opportunity mobile bank in Accra, Ghana

Every year, SEEP brings together microfinance practitioners from a variety of disciplines to build capacity through the sharing of industry best practices. This conference is one of the cornerstones of development — for four days thought-leaders will discuss innovative ways to use microfinance and microenterprise solutions to alleviate poverty in the developing world.

Find out more about Opportunity’s involvement in Seep 2011 here. You can visit the Seep 2011 website here.

This event is provided free of charge, but registration is essential. Please RSVP to Robert Gordon on 020 7489 1011 or via email at institute@stpaulscathedral.org.uk.

St Paul’s Institute would like to invite you to a seminar on microinsurance, hosted in conjunction with the Anglican Health Network, that will be taking place in the Wren Suite at St Paul’s Cathedral on the evening of Friday 4th November.

The Anglican Church has been engaged with the leading microinsurance agency, MicroEnsure, to develop a groundbreaking model of health microinsurance in Tanzania and India. This has placed the church at the forefront of market development on the basis of its commitment to improve the availability and quality of health services amongst the communities it serves.

This seminar will give an account of the place of microinsurance within the wider context of insurance in developing markets, exploring how microinsurance models are being implemented, and will highlight a number of case studies of successful programmes run in different countries.

The evening will be chaired by Revd Raymond Singh, Vice Chair of the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility.

Speaker Bios

Paul Holley is an Anglican priest from the Church of England with 16 years parish experience in Manchester and Geneva. He has a background in the personal finance industry and a Master of Public Administration from Warwick Business School. Paul proposed and co-founded the Anglican Health Network following research assignments he conducted for the World Health Organisation on faith based health care.

Richard Leftleypioneered the introduction of insurance products within the Opportunity International microfinance network which he joined in January 2002. This led to the founding of MicroEnsure as part of that network. Previously he had worked for Benfield Greig as a reinsurance broker responsible for the African account and worked in a team covering the Middle East and South East Asia. He is a thought leader in the field of micro insurance and serves on the steering committee of the ILO “Micro Insurance Innovation Fund”, a $35m fund provided by the Gates Foundation.

Nigel Ralph has spent over 30 years working in the international reinsurance industry, travelling extensively and visiting more than 50 insurance markets, with extended periods in Latin America and Japan. He currently works as a property insurance specialist for the Corporation of Lloyd’s,  monitoring the underwriting performance of the syndicates. Publications include Reinsurance (2000) and World Crop Reinsurance (2010).

London banker Lindsay Williams has gone the extra mile for Opportunity. He completed a sponsored cycle ride with a difference. His challenge: to see how far he could ride in 24 hours on one of London’s famous ‘Boris Bikes’.

Lindsay (left) with support team

Lindsay began by riding the London marathon course and the London 2012 Olympic marathon course. He finished his challenge by completing the gruelling 149 mile course of the London 2012 Olympic mens cycling road race course. This included 9 ascents of Box Hill in Surrey and a total of more than 2,500m climbing.

All in all, Lindsay rode 205 miles in 22 hours. We think this is now the longest single ride on one of these bikes within a 24 hour period.

Funds raised will help Opportunity reach more of Malawi’s poorest people in the southern Mulanje Region. You can sponsor Lindsay through his Virgin Money Giving page, or support Opportunity directly – click here for more.

Well done Lindsay!

Teams raise sponsorship from friends, colleagues, business partners and family members, with all proceeds going to Opportunity’s work in Malawi. This year’s event was themed around the Olympics. Teams were spurred on by Olympic gold medallist Jonathan Edwards and Paralympian bronze medallist Ade Adepitan.

Olympic Gold Medallist Jonathan Edwards with Opportunity CEO Edward Fox

This year’s event took place yesterday. Over 500 people took part raising around £100,000 for Opportunity. On behalf of Opportunity clients and staff in Malawi, we’d like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who took part.

Edward Fox with Truett Tate, Lloyds Bank Wholesale Group Executive Director

Find out more about involving your company in raising funds for Opportunity here.

You can read more about our relationship with Lloyds in these previous posts.

Jeremy Vine Interviews Opportunity


Why not support Opportunity’s ongoing work by donating online?