Donate

Menu

Donate

Follow Us

Search

PO Box 2826
Carol Stream, Illinois 60132

Toll Free: 1-800-793-9455

© 2024 Opportunity Internationala 501(c)3 nonprofit. EIN: 540907624.

News Blog

“It is for the children that we make these improvements” – School Leader reflections on USAID CATALYZE EduFinance impact

by CATALYZE EduFinance

Mr. Nzibonera had overcrowded classrooms at his school in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Ms. Claribel was trying to do all the work herself to run her school in the Dominican Republic. Leaders of a school in Guatemala that educates learners with hearing impairments were struggling with the school’s financial management. In Zambia, a lack of financing options limited Ms. Stella’s plans to invest in her dream school. Each of these low-fee private schools faced challenges. But, these…

Read More

Governor Spotlight: Lauren Beard

by Kelli Walker

If you spend any time with Lauren Beard, you’ll find yourself joyfully swept up in her forward-moving, passionate energy. Opportunity International is fortunate to be in Lauren’s purposeful orbit; she is a vocal advocate and generous supporter of creating sustainable change in the lives of people living in poverty. Last October, she raised almost $23,000 to support The Rise, Opportunity’s program to reach women in Malawi. Growing up, Lauren and her family lived in several different states,…

Read More

Staff Spotlight: Simona Haiduc

by Kelli Walker

As an organization, Opportunity International is rooted in the values of commitment, humility, stewardship, and transformation. For over five decades, we have listened first to our clients, then responded with solutions that enable people living in poverty to break the chains of generational poverty. Simona Haiduc has been listening and responding to people in need for over 20 years—motivated by her belief in the power of transformation and business solutions to poverty. Thanks to her commitment,…

Read More

Colombian Extreme Poverty on the Rise, but We Have the Tools to End It

by Camilo Garcia

Camilo Garcia New reporting from Colombia’s national statistics governance arm (Departamento Administrativo Naciional de Estadística) shows that we saw a rise in the number of Colombians experiencing extreme poverty last year – a trend most notably observed in Cartagena, where the extreme poverty rate surged from 10.1% to 12.7%. 13.8% of Colombians, approximately 6.9 million people, are living on less than 196,698 pesos per month ($2.15 a day). These individuals struggle every day to secure…

Read More

$5.5+ million to change lives

by Laura DesGranges

“Clothes really do change lives,” cabi CEO Katie Malone shared with an arena full of cabi Stylists at their bi-annual gathering called cabi Fashion Week. But how, was the inevitable question. When Opportunity CEO Atul Tandon took the mainstage, he made sure not to leave until every one of the 2,200 women entrepreneurs in the audience understood the power of their commitment to cabi. For more than 15 years, Opportunity International and cabi have partnered together to help realize their founders’…

Read More

Atul’s Year-In-Review 2023

by Atul Tandon

As we look excitedly to the year ahead, set bold goals, and dream up new innovations, it’s so important that we take a moment to pause and reflect. Our global community—a community that includes you—has accomplished so much in the last 12 months. What’s more, our clients have built their businesses, grown their savings, and achieved countless milestones, resulting in remarkable transformation for themselves, their families, and their futures. When our global team, donors, and partners come…

Read More

SDG Action: Opportunity International at the United Nations

by Joe Dutra

“The SDGs are not about checking boxes.  They’re about the hopes, dreams, rights and expectations of people and the health of our natural environment.  They’re about righting historic wrongs, healing global divisions and putting our world on a path to lasting peace.” – UN Secretary General Antonio Guitierrez. This year’s United Nations General Assembly was more than a convening of leaders, it was a clarion call for action. With data showing a slowdown in progress for the UN Sustainable…

Read More

Staff Spotlight: Camilo Garcia

by Kelli Walker

Leadership in Colombia Anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting Camilo Garcia knows the warmth of his smile and the kind gleam in his eyes. Camilo has been with Opportunity for the past 12 years, and he has served as the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships in Latin America for the past three years. He is an experienced businessperson motivated by a desire to lift up the people of his birthplace and strengthen opportunities for current and future generations. Like so many fathers across the…

Read More

2023 Goalkeepers Report: A Reason for Hope

by Atul Tandon

Last week, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation released its annual Goalkeepers Report—an inside look at pressing humanitarian challenges, the Foundation’s current priorities, and exciting interventions that are improving lives around the world. This year, the report focused on child and maternal health and highlighted a handful of innovative solutions that could collectively save millions of lives. As I read the report, I was struck first by just how essential these life-saving efforts are—all…

Read More

Changing Lives, 10 Cents at a Time

by Atul Tandon

What does it take to change a life? To change a community? Part of this work requires us to constantly ask ourselves truly difficult questions. Those particular questions have not grown easier with time. While we as a world lifted a billion people out of poverty since 1990, the impacts of the pandemic and other global crises have placed these incredible gains at risk—and over 700 million people still experience extreme poverty, living off of less than $1.90 a day. Opportunity’s experts around…

Read More

Filters

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Subscribe to receive Opportunity International microfinance news and updates via email or RSS.

Subscribe via RSS

Subscribe to our Newsletter