Colombia Graduation: A Journey Taken Together

Last month in Cartagena, I had the privilege of celebrating 451 entrepreneurs as they graduated from Camino de Oportunidades, Opportunity International’s Ultra-Poor Graduation program in Colombia.

It was a day of joy. Hundreds of families filled the Cartagena Convention Center as graduates walked across the stage with pride. Children watched their mothers, fathers, neighbors, and friends receive diplomas that represented far more than the completion of a program.

Those diplomas represented courage, discipline, and the confidence to keep going when the path ahead was uncertain.

They also represented something we believe deeply at Opportunity International: poverty is not a lack of potential. It is a lack of opportunity.

The graduates came from communities across Cartagena, all with different backgrounds, skills, and dreams for their families.All but six graduates were women, and most began this journey facing no income, hardly any food, and were single parents with multiple children at home.

But they were not lacking in ability. They were not lacking in ambition. They were not lacking in love for their families or commitment to their communities.

What they needed was opportunity.

Over the course of 14 months, these participants participated in business training, financial education, coaching, and received seed capital to start or strengthen a business. But transformation rarely happens through a single training or one moment of assistance. It happens through trust, accountability, and encouragement. Throughout their journeys, Opportunity International teammates walked alongside them, connecting with participants through more than 11,000 visits.

By graduation day, they and their families had begun new lives. Ninety percent of families crossed above the extreme poverty line, with average monthly household income increasing by 286%. The graduation cohort had also begun to earn enough to save. Before the program, only 1.5% of participants had savings. By the end, 93% were putting aside extra income. At the start of the program, only one family reported eating three meals a day. By the end, 488 families were doing so consistently.

That is true transformation.

Florelis came to Colombia from Venezuela nine years ago in search of economic stability for her family. She arrived with no capital and very few options. Like many migrant women, she did what she could to survive: selling small items, cleaning homes, and finding any way to support her children.

But when she connected with Opportunity International, new pathways opened for her. She found community through a savings group. She grew her skills in business and financial literacy. She received the support and capital needed to begin her own tailoring business.

At one point, she said, “Sometimes I have felt that we are not taken into consideration as migrants. It is very difficult to do anything here, but Opportunity thinks of us and sees us.”

That sentence has stayed with me.

Walking across that stage, Florelis had built more than a livelihood. She had built stability. She had built confidence. And every day forward, she is building opportunity that can extend to the next generation.

More than 55 years ago, Opportunity International’s story began in Colombia with a single loan to a spice vendor in Cali. One act of belief helped launch a global movement that has now reached millions of families around the world.

Standing in Cartagena, I saw that same spirit multiplied hundreds of times over.

I saw courage. I saw determination. I saw leaders. I saw builders. I saw families who had done very hard things and were ready to keep building.

This graduation was not the end of their journey. It was the beginning of a new chapter.

For every graduate who walked across that stage, there was a family cheering them on, a community strengthened by their success, and an Opportunity International teammate who walked beside them with patience and belief.

That is our commitment: to walk alongside families until they no longer need us. To stay close enough to see their potential, steady enough to help them build, and humble enough to know that the real work belongs to them.

In Cartagena, I saw what is possible when opportunity is shared, when dignity is restored, and when a journey out of poverty is taken together.

And I left more convinced than ever that we must keep going.