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Carol Stream, Illinois 60132

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

News Blog

The Power of Home

by Allison Kooser

Creating Safe, Healthy Spaces in Colombia Home means something different to us all. For many, the term may invite feelings of warmth and memories of joy. But for others who have experienced instability and pain, home can be a symbol of hurt or loss. A reminder of what they never had.  Elsa, an Opportunity client in Colombia, shared, “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…

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“Required reading for the entire human race.”

by Allison Kooser

This month, we are so excited to dive into Nobel-prize-winning writer Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.    García Márquez’s masterpiece invites readers on a journey through time, exploring the rise and fall of the fictional town of Macondo through the eyes of the Buendía family over the course of six generations. Every facet of life featured within these pages—from birth to death, marriage to heartbreak—is described with a vibrancy readers will not soon forget. …

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Waymaker Wednesday: Linda

by Opportunity International

Inside a bread factory in Accra, Ghana, I was greeted by men whose hands were 3 times the width of mine. The baking ovens and the hot Accra sun made the room temperature well over 100 degrees. Suddenly, I feel this big hug around me, and I turn around. This, I soon learned, was Linda, the owner of the bakery. I’ll never forget meeting this woman in the blue shirt, who you see smiling before you as she did that day. She had gone through a transformation as a client herself, starting with 1 oven…

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Untapped Potential, Enormous Opportunities

by Allison Kooser

Nestled along the Atlantic coast in West Africa, Ghana is a diverse and vibrant country. It’s home to farmers and families; merchants and makers; dreamers and doers. And, like much of sub-Saharan Africa, it struggles with economic poverty.  Nearly 30% of Ghanaians rely upon agriculture to survive, and some 13% live on less than $1.90. It’s a beautiful country with more than its fair share of challenges.  And it’s also a country with incredible potential.  The untapped potential of today…

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Waymaker Wednesday: Joanna

by Opportunity International

We are lucky to have angels like Joanna in our midst—people who live solely to make their communities a better place. Here, on the left, is Joanna with some of the children in her school. Joanna started her school here in Ghana in a rural area where children just stayed at home, and the illiteracy rate is very high. She said her school gave the parents the freedom to go to their farms during the day to make enough money and make a living for their families. Not only did she provide an education,…

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‘WHEN YOU EDUCATE A GIRL, YOU EDUCATE THE WHOLE COMMUNITY’ - INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2022

by Catherine O'Shea

This blog was originally published on edufinance.org   ‘Time to break the bias’ is the theme of International Women’s Day 2022. This year we are putting a spotlight on one of the many inspiring female leaders we have the privilege to work with. In this profile interview we discuss the many challenges faced in empowering girls to learn and push back against stereotypes by involving the whole community in the education of girls. Helen Musyoka is the proud owner and school leader of Mountain…

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A new work by an Opportunity author

by Allison Kooser

This month, we’re so excited to bring you our latest Opportunity Book Club pick!   Strong Connections: Stories of Resilience from the Far Reaches of the Mobile Phone Revolution features the stories of Opportunity clients and is written by our dear friend and former colleague Rosa Wang.  Wang served as Opportunity’s Global Director for Digital Financial Services, where she developed a digital strategy to connect clients with life-changing technology.   In her new book, she shares her story…

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Waymaker Wednesday: Student

by Opportunity International

Today, a girl in Uganda is four times more likely to have a baby, than have a high school diploma before reaching adulthood. For her, the future is not full of hope, but it’s filled with worry and uncertainty. Education is the most powerful way to break free from the cycle of poverty. But the ability to go to school is a whole different story in rural areas. Most of them travel long, exhausting distances just to go to school. Just like this girl here, making her way from her farm to her school.…

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Life on the Margins: Meeting the Unique Needs of Refugees and Students in Uganda

by Allison Kooser

On the edge of the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda, Senga Ndagize tills the land on his small farm. He lets the dirt sift through his fingers—dirt that is not his; dirt that doesn’t hold his history; dirt that holds hope and possibility; dirt that could give his family a bright future. Senga Ndagize (left) working the land at the Nakivale Refugee Settlement. Senga arrived in Uganda in 2006 from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He and his wife are two of the 1.5 million refugees who…

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A Lesson in Love from Gene Gardner

by Opportunity International

Gene Gardner and his wife Mary Kay, have long been philanthropists. Even as newlyweds, they put their passion for helping others into action by starting to budget for charitable gifts. Gene and his wife, Mary Kay, at their wedding Over the years, they tried to give as much as possible to as many charities as they could. But soon, the pile of requests grew too steep to fund everything, so they shifted their approach to giving large gifts to a few select charities. In order to ensure their gifts made…

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