Sample stories

Martha Epinoza, Osorio, Nicaragua

Martha, a single mother with four children, lived most of her life in a one-roomed, dirt-floored shack in a Managua slum. She cooked over a wood fire, bathed her children under a tap in full view of the neighbourhood and huddled together with them in a single bed at night.

“I sold firewood, cooked beans, whatever I could to make money,” she recalls.

With nothing to lose, Martha walked into a local Opportunity office and asked for a loan. Her first loan of $110 allowed her to sell children’s clothes door-to-door. With the profits from this business, she started making nacatamales, a traditional Nicaraguan dish. When that venture grew, she opened a small convenience store in her home and sold goods that her neighbours could afford, such as aspirins—one at a time.

Pork is a crucial ingredient in nacatamales, and frustrated at the cost of buying pork, Martha took a butchery course, bought some pigs and started doing it all herself. Each success led to another. Martha would identify opportunities and soon another business would be formed. In time, she even started her own taxi service.

Martha’s children have reaped the benefits of their mother’s ingenuity. “No one else in this community has sent their children to university,” says Martha proudly. “Most send their kids to work in sweatshops because they need the income. I sent mine to study, to give them the opportunity … I never had.”

The day she moved into her rebuilt house, with concrete walls, a refrigerator and electric stove, Martha announced that she was
shedding layers of poverty that had been in her family for generations.

“I asked God and he never left me,” Martha affirms.

Vivian Adama, Ghana

When Vivian Adama’s husband passed away, she found herself needing to work in order to support herself and her infant child. Frustrated in her search for child care, like many entrepreneurs, she turned her experience into a business. She decided she would look after her own child and offer the same service to neighbours.

With an initial loan of just $54, Vivian purchased a freezer and began providing meals for her students. Then, parents in her community begged her to start a school. They desperately desired an education for their children, but could not afford the tuition, uniforms or lunch fees. Vivian knew she had to act.

Beginning with only six students, Vivian now has 424—from toddlers to early high school age. Today, Providence International School employs nearly 30 permanent or visiting teachers. Vivian serves as principal of the school, still providing daily lunches and sewing many of the school uniforms herself.

With her current loan, Vivian is adding a second floor to one of the buildings so the school can grow to accommodate 560 students. While Vivian’s success is exceptional, daily challenges persist. School books and supplies are scarce. Classroom walls remain unfinished. Construction beams, holding the promise of future expansion, jut out of the building.

But for Vivian and her Students, hope remains the driving force.

Beatrice Kitaara, Uganda

Beatrice Kitaara and her husband have a small farm across the valley from Mbarrara, Uganda’s second-largest city. After hard labour in the fields, they sell ground nuts, cabbage, and eggplant in the local market. For years, they struggled to feed their nine
children.

Today, Beatrice is an Opportunity International loan client. With two loans, Beatrice has increased the size of her crops and has been able to purchase a cow.

Selling milk yields a steady income which pays her children’s school fees and provides a nutritious diet for the family. Trust group meetings have helped Beatrice develop a business plan for obtaining more cows. From worrying about where they will find their next meal to planning for expansion, Beatrice’s family has come a long way.