News Blog
Five Things I'm Grateful For This Year
As I reflect on this past year, I am filled with a combination of disparate emotions. Joy for another year of life surrounded by so many incredible friends and colleagues, excitement and anticipation for the year ahead, and heartbreak over the challenges Opportunity clients still face—poverty, pain, and suffering so severe that they turn my stomach just to read about them. But above all, I am overcome with gratitude and excitement. I am grateful to be alive at this exciting time—a season when,…
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The Power of Stories
The Power of Stories January 10, 2018 // by Abbie Condie As a researcher for Opportunity, I love any chance I get to visit our partners in the field and witness Opportunity’s transformative work first-hand! Days before Thanksgiving I had the chance to attend the Fifth Annual Leadership Congress – an event that recognizes the hard work and dedication of client leaders from our Trust Groups in Colombia. These are women (and a handful of men!) who have been recognized by their loan officers…
Read MoreTime Magazine: The Optimists, Edited by Bill Gates
It’s easy to think the world is falling apart. Our regular news cycles show us a constant barrage of tragedies, each one worse than the one before. Yet in this important issue of Time Magazine, Bill Gates draws our attention to something we often ignore: the world, as a whole, is getting better. Through a collection of articles written by thought leaders, activists, investors, and global change agents, Gates highlights an important truth: we can and should be optimistic because we are making…
Read MoreWorking for Dignity and Human Rights
Each year on December 10, we join with the global community to celebrate Human Rights Day—a celebration of the rights each of us is entitled to, not by nature of our religion, race, sex, profession, economic status, political opinion, or status, but simply our humanity. That shared experience of human-ness that, in and of itself, should elicit dignity, respect, and value. Seventy years ago today, the United Nations General Assembly drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The document…
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Reducing Inequality and Remembering the Forgotten
Exploring the Sustainable Development Goals Reducing Inequality and Remembering the Forgotten By Allison Kooser Originally published in 2017. Updated in 2021. The Forgotten | Remembering Those With Disabilities | Remembering Those With Chronic Illness | Remembering Those Who Are Widows | Remembering Those Who Are Left Behind | Moving Forward “Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person…
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Setting a course for our future, investing in girls education
For more than 20 years, Opportunity International and the Caterpillar Foundation have partnered to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. We have worked together to empower entrepreneurs throughout sub-Saharan Africa with loans, savings, and financial training. We have expanded our outreach in Asia, equipped farmers with targeted financial services, and invested in financial literacy. And throughout our partnership—through years of innovation, discovery, pilot programs, and new…
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International Day of the Girl 2017
For more than 20 years, Opportunity International and the Caterpillar Foundation have partnered to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Today, on International Day of the Girl Child, we celebrate one of our greatest lessons learned: the power of investing in girls’ education. Watch the recent discussion on the importance of investing in girls education with Michele Sullivan, Caterpillar's director of Corporate Social Innovation and Caterpillar Foundation president & Atul…
Read MoreEmpowering Tomorrow's Female Entrepreneurs in Asia
One of our key solutions to expanding financial inclusion for women in developing communities involves a tool that many young women already have access to: a mobile phone.
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Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene for All
Exploring the Sustainable Development Goals Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene for All By Allison Kooser Originally published in 2017. Updated in 2021. The Water and Sanitation Crisis | Starting with Water | How to Solve the Crisis: Collaboration | Opportunity's Collaboration on WASH | Moving Forward Together In the first hour of your day, you might brush your teeth, take a shower, wash your face, and use the bathroom. You may make yourself a cup of coffee or fill a bottle with water. And if…
Read MoreBackpacks and Possibilities
Why I’m supporting the Infinite Possibilities campaign—so that more parents have the chance to send their kids off with a smile on their face and fewer worries in their heart.
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