Latest Blogs & Impact Stories
Building Readiness for Education Finance in Nigeria
Opportunity International EduFinance and Grooming Centre have begun a strategic partnership to expand responsible education finance in Nigeria, starting with a four-day technical training program. The training equipped Grooming Centre’s cross-functional teams with the knowledge and tools needed to understand the education market, assess the financing needs of affordable schools and families, manage risk, protect clients, and build a sustainable education loan portfolio. By focusing on capacity…
Read More
Witnessing Transformation among School Leaders in Kenya
I witnessed the transformation of school leadership in Kenya as over 150 educators celebrate the completion of a three-year EduQuality program. Through training, coaching, and financial support from Opportunity EduFinance, school leaders, many of them women, have strengthened management skills, rebuilt after COVID-19 setbacks, and driven meaningful growth. Stories from institutions like HopeStar Eldo Junior Academy and St. Paul’s Timethu Education Centre highlight resilience, innovation, and improved…
Read More
Little Doves Improves Early Childhood Education in Tanzania
Little Doves Day Care Centre was founded in February 2023 in Kigamboni, Tanzania, by Ritta Kimaro and Matinde Joseph Mwita to offer working families a safe and dependable place where their children could learn, play, and be cared for while they worked. Ritta and Matinde invested their personal savings, starting with two learners aged two and five. “Seeing how difficult it was for working families to access reliable childcare, we wanted to create a nurturing and inclusive learning environment…
Read More
PEFA Wisdom School Drives Change to Expand Access to Quality Education in Rwanda
PEFA Wisdom School opened in September 2009 in Kigali, Rwanda. Families in the community had no nearby school offering quality education in both French and English, even as the community continued to grow. Seeing that gap, founder Serugo Pacifique decided to act. The school began with just 15 children from the local church community and one teacher who did not yet have formal training. There was no school building, so classes were held wherever space was available. As funds came in, mostly through…
Read More
Opportunity International’s Thriving Rural Communities Project Is Transforming Lives in Uganda
As Grants/Program Manager for EduFinance at Opportunity International, Mary visited Uganda to see how the Thriving Rural Communities Project is transforming lives through integrated education and agriculture programming. In Masaka and Kampala, she observed how EduFinance and the EduQuality program are helping schools improve infrastructure, expand classrooms, and enhance learning environments, while also witnessing the dedication of school leaders and teachers working in challenging contexts. Mary…
Read More
Building Confidence and Learning in Rural India
Located in Tamil Nadu, a farming community in India, Bharath Vidyalaya opened in 2010 as an English-medium school, using both Tamil and English as its primary languages of instruction. This approach was intended to address concerns about English fluency, which many farmers believed would shape their children’s future opportunities. After an 84% drop in students' population during the COVID‑19 pandemic, the school joined the EduQuality Program by Opportunity EduFinance in 2023 to strengthen…
Read More
From Evidence to Scale: Key Reflections on Education Finance at CIES 2026
Last month, I was grateful to attend CIES 2026 and represent Opportunity EduFinance on the panel “Financing Education for Social Cohesion: Blended Finance Approaches in Emerging Economies.” This was my third year attending CIES – always a jam-packed, exciting five days with hundreds of panels happening simultaneously, and side events, networking gatherings, and impromptu coffee chats sprinkled in between. In 2025, the CIES conference took place immediately following the USAID stop-work order…
Read More (1).jpg)
We don’t have an ideas problem in education, we have a financing problem.
Recently in Oxford, as a side event alongside the Skoll World Forum, Andrew McCusker and I co-hosted a session for Opportunity International EduFinance with colleagues from Opportunity International UK and a brilliant mix of partners, investors, and practitioners to tackle a simple but urgent question: How do we move beyond grants to unlock the scale of capital needed for education systems? The discussion has stayed with me even more following the publication of McKinsey & Company’s new…
Read More.png)
God’s Dunamis School Nurtures Community Literacy from Four Learners to 390 Through EduQuality
On the outskirts of Accra, Ghana, Augustine drew on 20 years of teaching experience and passion to found God’s Dunamis School in September 2023 with just four learners. “I saw learners in the community struggling with basic literacy skills,” Augustine recalls. That observation became the seed for God’s Dunamis, though the dream was tested by years of land acquisition challenges. God’s Dunamis school started in a simple wooden structure on a land it is still working to fully acquire. Today,…
Read More
Royal Pride Montessori School Grows Stronger Through Community Leadership and Education Investment in Nigeria
Mrs Juliana Orlandike founded Royal Bright Montessori School in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1998, driven by a passionate commitment to serve less privileged children who are often excluded from formal education “I was not looking for convenience,” she says. “I was looking for a place where education could take root and grow.” The building she found was unfinished and abandoned, but for Mrs. Orlandike, it represented possibility. Having worked as a teacher in another school, she deliberately crossed…
Read More