Here’s the latest Opportunity International Roof & Floor Program update from Astrid in Cartagena, Colombia. Luz runs a small business and is active in her community:

Luz Ena is married with two children. This family has fought for a better quality of life. Luz Ena has worked with her trust group Oasis for four loan cycles to strengthen her business. She sells items from catalogues, specifically makeup creams, deodorant, perfumes, and she also works as a community mother, where she instructs young mother’s prenatal care.

Luz Ena has managed her loan well with Opportunity International, always paying back her loans on time. She is thankful that she can apply for Home Improvement loan, which Opportunity offers as “a roof and floor” for the most faithful trust group clients. Her loan was approved for $1,500,000 pesos over 18 months. Luz Ena has used this money to improve her kitchen which she now enjoys with her family and uses it especially as a community mother.

Astrid

Watch the first documentary from our trip to Cartagena during the Summer of 2008.
Watch the second documentary from our follow-up trip to Cartagena during the Winter of 2010.

Visit the Affinity Kitchens YouTube Channel

Opportunity International is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the working poor. They provide small loans that allow poor entrepreneurs to start or expand a business, develop a steady income, provide for their families and create jobs for their neighbors. Opportunity International also offers savings, microinsurance, business training and many more services to 1.1 million working poor in 28 developing nations.

www.opportunity.org

Yuliana was one of our clients whose house was damaged in October floods in 2011. In one flood, she and her family lost everything they had. The flood destroyed their house and everything in it. In the moment that it happened, they had to run for their lives.

In previous floods, they had been able to rebuild their house with much effort, using plastic material for the walls and a tarp for the roof. And eventually, they saved enough money to buy a second roof in addition to some wood to replace the plastic walls. However, October’s severe flooding destroyed everything they had managed to build.

It is difficult to grasp what it is like to pour out your savings and effort only to lose it all in an instant. It must have seemed the worst possible situation where all their hopes and dreams had come to an end with one devastating storm. As the reality of their situation hit them, they must have felt incredible stress and discouragement, thinking to themselves: “We have to start from zero to build our new house.”

But just as the verse says, ‘all things work for the good’, or as we say in Colombia, ‘there is no bad from which good cannot come’.

Thanks to the generosity of Opportunity International donors, money was collected to form an emergency fund in response to the October flooding. This money provided help to those who lost everything and bought material for three families to reconstruct their homes: Two families in Bayunca and one in Cartagena.

Opportunity supervisor, Julia Carranza of the Bayunca zone, saw what had happened to Yuliana and her family. Shortly after, we visited her house to see the extent of the damage.

Yuliana, her husband and children worked diligently to build their new house with the donated materials. Today they enjoy their new house which is elevated by concrete to protect them from future flooding. Little by little they will begin to furnish the house. This is a huge blessing for the family. Their weeping has turned dancing, and this is the good God we have who is able to help us.

A new house and a happy home thanks to the donors who helped make this dream possible. Blessings to all!

Astrid

Watch the first documentary from our trip to Cartagena during the Summer of 2008.
Watch the second documentary from our follow-up trip to Cartagena during the Winter of 2010.

Visit the Affinity Kitchens YouTube Channel

Opportunity International is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the working poor. They provide small loans that allow poor entrepreneurs to start or expand a business, develop a steady income, provide for their families and create jobs for their neighbors. Opportunity International also offers savings, microinsurance, business training and many more services to 1.1 million working poor in 28 developing nations.

www.opportunity.org

The members of the Amigos de Progreso trust group come from the Tuchín tribe originally located in the region of Córdoba. As an invasion community, they settled on a mountain overlooking barrio San Francisco, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Cartagena. Hoping to find a better life in the city, they set up coffee businesses on the street. Then three years ago they formed their trust group with Opportunity International to obtain the capital to grow their businesses.

Wilfrido Pérez Lucas is the president and driving force behind Amigos de Progreso. He is married to Saudith Carpio. Together they have a daughter and a little boy. Just like the rest of his trust group, he began selling coffee on the street with a carrier of just a few thermoses of coffee. He used his first loan from Opportunity International to buy a bicycle and install a cart to carry ten thermoses of traditional coffee, coffee with chocolate and coffee with milk. In addition to beverages, he added sandwiches to the menu. Now he is known throughout his neighborhood as Cafeteria Charlie.

Keeping a strict schedule of 7:00 am to 11:00 am in the morning and 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm in the afternoon, Wilfrido drives around surrounding neighborhoods alerting customers with his horn. As soon as they hear it, they know Cafeteria Charlie has arrived. His business not only functions as a way to provide for his family but also as a way to advance his dream of learning English.

In May 2011, because of his excellent credit history with the organization, Wilfrido was able to take out a $1,500,000 peso loan as a part of Opportunity’s Roof and Floor program. He used the money to buy material to convert his one room house into three rooms with a stronger roof. Then in October 2011, San Francisco neighborhood at the base of La Popa was declared a high risk because of the geographic faults in this area. Due to flooding, mudslides began to threaten the safety of its residents. The government ordered an evacuation when many houses were destroyed.

More than a hundred families were forced to leave the area with little government assistance. This included every member of the Amigos de Progreso trust group.

Fortunately, Wilfrido was able to save the materials from his Roof and Floor loan and rebuild his house behind a friend’s house in the San Francisco neighborhood. He also received a monthly government stipend of $200,000 pesos to last from October until the end of February. However, that was very little money to support a family of four. Today he struggles to provide for his family through his coffee business.

Although the trust group successfully repaid their business loan, Wilfrido still owes $964,324 pesos on his Roof and Floor loan. The fear is that if he defaults on this loan, he will severely damage his credit rating. Opportunity International is in the process of working with him to assist him in paying or forgive his loan because of extenuating circumstances.

Before the mudslides, Amigos de Progreso had just begun a group project to make and sell artisan bracelets native to the Tuchín tribe. The additional revenue had supplemented their income. However, many had no other option than to return to Córdoba, and this project has dwindled. From the beginning, Wilfrido was strategic in uniting the group and organizing this project, and despite the ever-rising obstacles, he still wants to see this project through.

During the June 2011 Insight Trip, Wilfrido described the group’s vision: “We want you to know that today we all have small coffee businesses, but we will not always be as we are now. We aspire to progress and grow our businesses.” And that is still their plan.

Astrid

Watch the first documentary from our trip to Cartagena during the Summer of 2008.
Watch the second documentary from our follow-up trip to Cartagena during the Winter of 2010.

Visit the Affinity Kitchens YouTube Channel

Opportunity International is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the working poor. They provide small loans that allow poor entrepreneurs to start or expand a business, develop a steady income, provide for their families and create jobs for their neighbors. Opportunity International also offers savings, microinsurance, business training and many more services to 1.1 million working poor in 28 developing nations.

www.opportunity.org

Nancy is a participant in the Opportunity International Roof & Floor Program that we support in Cartagena, Colombia. Astrid, the program manager, sent along this story about how Nancy’s business and family have benefitted from their rebuilt kitchen:

Nancy is a hardworking wife and the mother of three children. She is also a leader in her community. Together with her trust group, they have been the pioneers of spreading Opportunity ́s trust group program in Maria La Baja. This zone is characterized by the agriculture products they sell which are fundamental to a typical Colombian diet: yams, yucca, corn, and rice. Nancy and her mother grow and sell these products in their community and also in Cartagena. Through this business, they are able to provide for their family.

In 2010, Nancy decided to participate in the Roof and Loan program to improve her kitchen. The walls were made of mud, and because of the intensity of the rain, they were beginning to collapse, putting her and her family at risk.

Through the program, she was able to take out a loan for $1,500,000 pesos over 15 months to improve her kitchen. This enabled her to rebuild the kitchen utilizing more space and making it safer and more sanitary for her family.

Nancy expresses her gratefulness for this program that has improved her quality of life. Her dream is to finish the rest of the house and continue to grow her business.

Astrid

Watch the first documentary from our trip to Cartagena during the Summer of 2008.
Watch the second documentary from our follow-up trip to Cartagena during the Winter of 2010.

Visit the Affinity Kitchens YouTube Channel

Opportunity International is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the working poor. They provide small loans that allow poor entrepreneurs to start or expand a business, develop a steady income, provide for their families and create jobs for their neighbors. Opportunity International also offers savings, microinsurance, business training and many more services to 1.1 million working poor in 28 developing nations.

www.opportunity.org

Transitional kitchen design is an eclectic mix of contemporary and traditional styles. Jan D’Atri tours a kitchen display at Affinity Kitchens and shows how the dark stained cabinetry is blended seamlessly with contemporary glass panels, concrete countertops and stainless steel accents to create a look that is both hip and homey. See more Transitional kitchens in our Photo Gallery.

This video is an excerpt from our Design Your Cuisine video series featuring Jan D’Atri.

Visit the Affinity Kitchens YouTube Channel

As the head of her household, Candelaria Sequea works to provide a better life for her kids, who are taking classes in technological training. She has a business where she sells different types of fried foods and soup. She makes sacrifices to support them in their professional development. She stands as a true example of faith and perseverance. Through it all, God’s provision in her business and family is evident.

Candelaria Sequea belonged to a trust group for four loan cycles. However, due to the rain they had on October 18th, her neighborhood of Pozón encountered heavy floods. Her family’s house was destroyed by the water. This crisis forced them to move and pay rent for many months with the hope that they would return to reconstruct a small business where their house once stood.

Through her own determination and with the help of her kids, Candelaria managed to buy some of the materials needed to start construction on her house, and thanks to Opportunity International’s emergency fund, additional materials were donated to finish the job. Today she is able to live once again with her two children in their own home and not pay rent.

She mentions that this location is crucial to her business, which is located at the entrance of the neighborhood, a very commercial area. She is confident that she will be able to reinitiate her lunch sales and continue to buy things for this year.

Astrid

Candelaria’s house (left) is completely destroyed

Astrid visited Candelaria after Christmas and there was nothing left of her home

Candelaria with her new home

Watch the first documentary from our trip to Cartagena during the Summer of 2008.
Watch the second documentary from our follow-up trip to Cartagena during the Winter of 2010.

Visit the Affinity Kitchens YouTube Channel

Opportunity International is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the working poor. They provide small loans that allow poor entrepreneurs to start or expand a business, develop a steady income, provide for their families and create jobs for their neighbors. Opportunity International also offers savings, microinsurance, business training and many more services to 1.1 million working poor in 28 developing nations.

www.opportunity.org

Here’s the latest update from the Opportunity International program that we support in Cartagena, Colombia. The program manager, Astrid, writes about how Sara and her family have overcome major medical expenses and time off work to fulfill their financial obligations:

Sara Cleotilde Barreto de Buelvas is from San Juan Bolivar and has worked with Opportunity International for 3 years. She is on her 9th loan with Opportunity. She is a very faithful client and always pays on time. In her business, she sells clothes, sheets, towels and various household products.

To get the best prices, she trades her products between San Juan and Magangue. These business practices show her exceptional initiative and strategic planning as she works to provide for her family.

When Sara learned of the home improvement program that Opportunity offered, she decided to apply for a loan in order to improve her kitchen and create separate room for her bedroom. Before the loan, her bed remained only inches away from her stove. She took out a loan for $1,500,000 pesos over 18 months. Today she has a cleaner and more sanitary kitchen with a separate space for the bedroom.

She loves this program, because it has improved her family’s life as well as her own. She is committed to paying the rest of this loan and will continue to work to improve her family’s standard of living.

I should mention that Sara had an accident with her left leg. She was walking in to her porch, but because of the rain, she slipped and fell cutting her leg. They had to do surgery, and because of that, she has had to stop working for almost two months. Not only that, at the same time her husband had serious heart trouble for which he was hospitalized. Because of the strength of their businesses and the unity of the family, they have moved forward meeting the financial challenges that are in front of them. They were able to fulfill all their financial obligations and meet their own needs as well. I believe that God, in his great love, blessed them and they were able to endure this crisis.

A verse that fits this story perfectly, “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock”. Matthew 7:25

Now they are hopeful and they want to continue to improve their house. They are already thinking of renewing their Roof and Floor loan to finish the room they began.

Astrid

Watch the first documentary from our trip to Cartagena during the Summer of 2008.
Watch the second documentary from our follow-up trip to Cartagena during the Winter of 2010.

Visit the Affinity Kitchens YouTube Channel

Opportunity International is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the working poor. They provide small loans that allow poor entrepreneurs to start or expand a business, develop a steady income, provide for their families and create jobs for their neighbors. Opportunity International also offers savings, microinsurance, business training and many more services to 1.1 million working poor in 28 developing nations.

www.opportunity.org

1. Style – upgrade to a contemporary look.
2. Atmosphere – add color and lighting to make the kitchen more welcoming.
3. Layout – make better use of the space in and around the kitchen.

Here’s how we accomplished the transformation from dark, cramped and outdated to stunning, inviting and practical:

1. Style – we replaced the old cabinets with a clean, modern style in maple.
2. Atmosphere – we worked with our client to discover her favorite color palette and then applied it to the quartz countertops, cabinets and walls. The ceiling was raised and then practical and dramatic lighting was added in layers: overhead lights, in-cabinet lights, LED task lights and LED accents under the counter.
3. Layout – at one end of the original kitchen there was an odd space bigger than a pantry but smaller than a sitting room. This space was awkward and separated the kitchen from a great source of natural light. We removed the wall to bring the window into the kitchen and added a window seat between a built-in pantry and a bar. Our client loves to entertain, so we removed the old peninsula to make room for a large island that offers plenty of space for cooking and seating for guests.

Join us for a BBQ lunch at our showroom on Friday, July 29 from 11:00 am – 1:30 pm. We’ll have bratwurst & hamburgers for a small donation with all proceeds to benefit OCJ Kids, equipping at risk and troubled teens by providing them tools, resources and positive adult role models to succeed and excel in every area of life.

Click here for the event flier and map.

Special thanks to our Charity BBQ Sponsors:

• Affinity Kitchens
• Carpet-Rite
• dei-zinz
• Sub-Zero/Wolf
• Highpointe
• AMT Group @ PrimeLending
• Prudential Arizona Properties
• Get it from KK
• Verispect TrueVision Promotions

Seating is limited – visit www.childhelp.org/harrypotter to reserve your seat
 

Join us for a special advance screening of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2′ as a private benefit for Childhelp, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect.

We’re honored to be co-sponsoring this special event with Sub-Zero Wolf, Allstate Appliances and J.R. McDade Company.

Harkins Scottsdale 101 Cine Capri
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Movie starts at 6:00 pm

Click here to download the event invitation for details