News Blog
Remembering Refugees on #WorldRefugeeDay
In a small town in Colombia, Miriam poses with her puppy in her lap. She appears like many of her neighbors—hard-working, welcoming, greeting our team with a smile. But things have not always been easy for Miriam. She is Venezuelan, and two years ago, she fled to Colombia as a refugee. As she explained, “In my country there was a very unstable economic situation. I was a widow and my son lived in Panamá. The economic, political, and social situation in Venezuela eventually forced me to leave…
Read MoreAtul Tandon on the Ideagen Podcast
Opportunity International CEO Atul Tandon sat down with the team at Ideagen to discuss extreme poverty, innovative solutions, and the exciting future that's ahead of us. Listen now:
Read MoreRead With Us: June Book Club Selection
The sun is shining and we are ready for a few months of rest, relaxation, and reading. Instead of diving straight into the beach reads, we’re kicking off our summer reading by tackling a big, powerful book. This June, we are reading King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild. Described as \"a story of greed, terror, and heroism in colonial Africa,\" King Leopold's Ghost recounts the story of Belgium's King Leopold II's brutal destruction of the Congo in the 1890s. It's a heavy topic, to be sure,…
Read MoreA Message from Colombia
Elsa Martinez is an Opportunity client in Cartagena, Colombia. Recently, she shared her incredible story with us in her own words. We were moved and inspired, and wanted to pass along her powerful words to you. Hello friends, My name is Elsa and I live in Cartagena, Colombia. I want to share how you have impacted my life. When I was 9 years old, armed bandits arrived in my town. I was so afraid. Everyone had to leave immediately otherwise we would be killed…but where would an entire town go? We…
Read MoreCelebrating All Women on Mother's Day
While Opportunity International exists to empower people—especially women—to improve their lives, we did not pioneer the concept. Since the beginning of time, mothers and grandmothers have been naturally wired to instinctively know what their children need to survive and thrive. They are also wired to acquire those things above all else. I have learned so much about being a mom of grace from Opportunity moms.A few weeks ago, I became a first-time grandma or “mhamo.” I fretted over my daughter…
Read MoreRead With Us: May Book Club
We’ve been eagerly waiting for this month’s book to release, and now it’s finally here! Join us this month as we read Melinda Gates’ new book, The Moment of Lift. This will be one of the most talked-about books of the season—as Brené Brown put it, this book “changed how I think about myself, my family, my work, and what’s possible in the world.” Malala Yousafzai writes, “This book is an urgent manifesto for an equal society where all women are valued and recognized in all…
Read MorePowering Students' Futures with Clean Water and Sanitation
At the Best Start School in Ghana, a little girl proudly showed me the row of brightly colored bathroom stalls that lined the periphery of the property. She grinned as she pointed to the bold painted letters reading, “Girls Bathroom.” Outside of the stalls was a sink with running water, and the ground was carefully covered with tile. Next to the row of purple doors stood a water tank full of clean, drinkable water. Beyond that, there was an ever-growing block of classrooms. For the 466 students…
Read MoreA Song in the Middle of Suffering
In an open, breezy room in a hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, women are singing. They are all gathered together—patients in various stages of recovery. Some are still waiting for the surgery that will restore their lives. They have suffered physically, emotionally, and socially. Many have been cast out of their homes and communities, and others are so young that they won’t raise their eyes to meet mine. But here they are, singing. These women are part of the Fistula Care Centre on the grounds…
Read MoreRemembering Rwanda
\"When you forgive, you in no way change the past—but you sure do change the future.\" —Bernard Meltzer The joy I felt from the people I met in Rwanda didn’t reconcile on the surface; after all, this nation has a long-standing history of poverty and a decimating genocide 25 years ago where 800,000 people were murdered in 100 days. So, where was all this vitality and hopefulness I saw all around me coming from? Author Darryl Miller says a spirit of poverty is a pattern of thinking that…
Read MoreRead With Us: April Book Club Selection
As we enter a new season, it's time for another Opportunity International Book Club book! But first, let's recap what we just completed: In March, we read the short and powerful story, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. This New York Times bestseller tells the story of two 11-year-olds in Sudan, growing up decades apart from one another. Through alternating narratives, the book tells a story of both hardship and hope, educating us about pieces of global history we might have missed.…
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