Opportunity International provides small business loans, savings, insurance and training to over a million people working their way out of poverty in the developing world. Clients in 26 countries use these financial services to start or expand a business, provide for their families, create jobs for their neighbors and build a safety net for the future. A pioneer in educational lending, Opportunity International is helping to break the cycle of poverty and transform a generation by improving access to quality education.

The IDP Foundation, Inc. partners with Opportunity International - US to pioneer a sustainable educational model that combines financial and non-financial capacity building services in support of extremely undeveloped schools in rural Ghana called the IDP Rising Schools Program.

Sinapi Aba Trust (“SAT”) is a non-profit NGO committed to transforming the lives of the poorest of the economically active poor in Ghana through microfinance and basic business training. Sinapi Aba Trust is Ghana’s premier microfinance organization, serving over 110,000 clients in each of Ghana’s ten regions with a loan portfolio of $20 million. The majority of Sinapi Aba Trust’s clients live in rural areas of Ghana and 94% if Sinapi Aba Trust’s clients are women. Sinapi Aba Trust was established in 1994 and is a member of the Opportunity International Network. In 2008 Sinapi Aba Trust was ranked among the top 100 Microfinance Institutions around the world in the Microfinance Information Exchange.

The IDP Foundation, Inc. has partnered with Sinapi Aba Trust in Ghana to dynamically develop the IDP Rising Schools Program. Sinapi Aba Trust provides the staff and needed support and guidance to insure the success of the program.

They strive to achieve this by providing an action-oriented platform, engaging an expert network of leaders and innovators from the United Nations, governments, the private sector, NGOs, philanthropy, civil society and academia to pool our efforts.

With the purpose of sharing their experience and helping the people in the developing world, learning from our success and lessons learned, their partnerships are based on a clear understanding of the mandate and culture of the recipients. Accordingly, they are guided by the following questions: What is the impact? What will we leave behind? Is this what the recipients want?

The IDP Foundation, Inc. recognizes the power of partnership and is proud to support and participate in the work of the Global Partnerships Forum.

The Workshop develops innovative and engaging educational content delivered in a variety of ways — including television, radio, books, magazines, interactive media, and community outreach. Taking advantage of all forms of media and using those that are best suited to delivering a particular curriculum, the Workshop effectively and efficiently reaches millions of children, parents, caregivers, and educators — locally, nationally and globally.

The IDP Foundation, Inc. and Sesame Workshop have partnered to create innovative and practice-oriented instructional videos for teachers in the IDP Rising Schools Program. The videos will include Ghanaian and Nigerian teachers in classroom settings as well as Sesame Muppets™ who will introduce concepts for teacher training.