City AM Launches First Ever Christmas Appeal To Back Opportunity

Online, November 21, 2011 (Newswire.com) - City AM is launching its first ever Christmas appeal to support Opportunity International, a charity that helps poor and finance-starved Africans fend for themselves by lending them money to grow their own businesses.

Princess Anne is patron of the charity which provides microloans, savings, insurance and business training to over 1.9million people (84 per cent of whom are women) in 24 developing countries.

Kicking off on Monday 21 November and sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group, CITY AM's appeal will be asking readers for donations to help Opportunity opening up new branches in the Nsanje province in Southern Malawi, one of the poorest areas in Africa. The Department for International Development (DfID) will match every personal donation pound for pound.

CITY AM is also hosting an online auction at www.cityam.com/auction from Monday 21 November to Sunday 18 December with unique and exclusive prizes up for grabs including a day of golf with former Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance and CITY AM managing director Lawson Muncaster, lunch with CITY AM editor Allister Heath and a lunch for 10 at Boisdale's in Canary Wharf.

During the appeal, CITY AM will also run a series of profiles of existing supporters of Opportunity from the City and major donors who offer to support the campaign.

CITY AM CEO Jens Torpe said: "City AM's philosophy can be summed up as a strong belief in Private Enterprise which is exactly what Opportunity International is facilitating by giving people in the poorest areas of the world the opportunity to start their own small businesses and thereby a new life. We find it extremely encouraging that it is possible to create the foundation for future prosperity even in the most difficult areas of the world where so many other attempts seem to have failed."

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:
For further information contact:
Georgina Lipscomb at Propeller
[email protected]
Tel: 0203 301 5353/07737 388414
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