A young woman in Ghana sees a magazine cover. She sees Iman in a business suit, and it inspires her to be a strong woman like her. But she knows her family can’t afford to send her to train as a seamstress. This is where the power of OIC International begins.

For Pindayi Chiduwa and the nine other women of the Tagona Peanut Butter Factory in the Bikita district of rural Zimbabwe, a jar of peanut butter is priceless. A jar of peanut butter is a business, a livelihood. It is a way out of poverty.

In 2010, OIC International President & CEO, Crispian Kirk, and a group of OICI team members spent four weeks in Africa with a camera crew and filmmakers. Their mission was to capture the OIC International story: who are the people behind the projects? Who is OIC International?

We want to share the following update with you, which we received from Mr. Eliah Kassi, Executive Director at OIC International, Côte d’Ivoire:

The war has caused many people currently [to be] displaced throughout the country. Currently just for the city of Bouake where OIC-Côte d’Ivoire is located, we [have] registered more than 15,000 people displaced by war.

“Go Green!” “Be Green!” We have all heard this call to action many times. Community Supported Agriculture, “farm-to-table” freshness, sustainable agriculture, and certified organic are the newest popular themes in American culture.

Like us, you have most likely heard about and seen footage of the triple disaster that struck Japan on March 11, 2011. Following a magnitude 9.0 earthquake (the fifth largest recorded since 1900), northeastern Japan was struck by subsequent tsunamis with waves measuring up to 33 feet tall, wiping away homes and buildings, and devastating whole cities and towns.

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Mrs. Grace Banks Sullivan, who passed away peacefully on March 15, 2011 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mrs. Sullivan was the wife and life partner of OIC International’s founder, Reverend Leon H. Sullivan.

After 14 years of civil war, Liberia is in a serious food crisis. Seventy percent of the population is solely dependant on agriculture for their food production, but even 5 years after the war has ended, Liberia’s infrastructure and economy are still feeling its devastating effects.

2010 was truly a remarkable year. Women-farmers around the world, in Haiti, Ghana, Liberia, and dozens of other countries, took a stance to change their lives and the lives of their families. Many of them had the opportunity to do so because of the support you gave to OIC programs in these countries—opportunities these women-farmers took full advantage of.

Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) today announced that it will donate more than US$576,000 to Opportunities Industrialization Centers International to fund bridge and well construction projects in 24 villages throughout Côte d’Ivoire.

The projects, to be completed by OIC International over a two-year period, include the construction of 16 clean water wells and eight small bridges with culverts.