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News Blog

Waymaker Wednesday: Micheline

by Opportunity International

Women are not respected yet here. They don’t value us. For women to be valued, we will need support. I used to face so many difficulties with paying the technical fees to the school. My kids couldn’t go to school because they just tell them to come back home. “If you don’t bring the fee, don’t come back until you have it.” Sometimes we used to starve. We didn’t even have sugar to take tea. We just slept like that and would eat tomorrow. This is the first time I’ve seen a bank coming…

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Investing in Limitless Possibilities: Extreme poverty in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

by Allison Kooser

Extreme poverty limits the future. A family’s economic condition not only determines their immediate experiences—things like inadequate housing, poor health outcomes, and a dearth of educational opportunities—but also their imagined possibilities; their ability to design a better than the life they have now. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the World Bank estimates that 73% of the population lives in this condition, known as extreme poverty—which is defined as living on less…

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One man’s journey staring down prejudice, hunger, and life as a child soldier

by Allison Kooser

As a child, Mondiant Dogon fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo with his family and spent decades in UN tent cities, encountering danger and prejudice. He faced severe hunger, unimaginable violence, constant disruption, and even life as a child soldier. But his story didn’t end there. This month, we cannot wait to dive into Dogon’s incredible memoir as he recounts his experience as a refugee and advocates for displaced people around the globe. Join the Opportunity Book Club this June as…

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Healthy People, Healthy Communities: Lessons Learned in India Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic

by Allison Kooser

When Shakuntala’s husband, who is a taxi driver, was stuck in Mumbai for an extended period during quarantine, she was locked down at home, struggling to feed her three children and elderly in-laws who live with her. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 25% of adults in households with children worldwide have gone a day or more without food. And the World Bank estimates that an additional 75 million to 95 million individuals will be pushed back into extreme poverty because of the economic impact…

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Waymaker Wednesday: Five Sisters

by Opportunity International

I’ve traveled all over the world, and met with hundreds of families living in poverty. I’ve sat on dirt floors of school classrooms and I’ve listened to their stories. So you would think that cultures would set us apart or maybe their challenges would divide us, but the thing is, parents all want the same thing: they all want to build a better life for their children. The family you see here wanted the same. Their father, Sekinder, drove his rickshaw taxi for more than 12 hours a day, yet he…

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Get Ready to Think Again

by Allison Kooser

This month’s book club pick invites you to think and think, and think again. Centered on the concept that we don’t know what we don’t know, Adam Grant’s Think Again offers readers an invitation to challenge our assumptions—and then consider why we bristle at that very notion. Grant, a celebrated organizational psychologist, introduces unique and engaging case studies to investigate how we can embrace the joy of being wrong, harness the surprising advantages of impostor syndrome, bring nuance…

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Celebrating 50 Years at the Opportunity International Summit

by Opportunity International

This spring, supporters and friends from around the world gathered in Chicago to celebrate Opportunity International’s 50th Anniversary—a milestone marking five decades of service, impact, and transformation. After years of being apart due to the pandemic,  we were elated to finally reunite in-person as a community and commemorate this remarkable milestone in Opportunity’s history. We welcomed 350 supporters from around the globe for a weekend of fellowship, education, and celebration. We…

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Director of Philanthropy in the Field: My Trip to the DRC

by Heather Radzinski

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. We had been traveling for hours and the dense Congo forest stretched out across the horizon as far as the eye could see. This was my first trip to Africa, and upon landing on a strip of grass in the Ubangi region in northwest Democratic Republic of the Congo, my fellow travelers and I were in for a welcome we won’t soon forget. We were greeted by what seemed like the entire town.…

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Giving As a Family Affair

by Opportunity International

When Jill and Steve Smith were students at Georgetown, they had no idea that a chance encounter during the late 1970s would shape their philanthropy for the rest of their lives. When they met Opportunity's founder Al Whittaker, the Smiths were impressed by his practical and faith-based approach to fighting poverty and continued to track Opportunity's work with interest over the next several years. They decided their 10th-anniversary gift to each other would be an Insight Trip to Central America.…

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Waymaker Wednesday: Luz & Andrea

by Opportunity International

Luz Dary and Andrea form part of a savings group in the south of Bogotá. They live in the area of Cazuca and it is mostly formed by internally displaced people that flock to the cities looking for safety because the countryside is very violent in Colombia right now. In the case of Luz, she used to be married to a man that was affiliated with the guerillas. He was assassinated, and she flocked to Bogota with her six children. Luz and Andrea are recyclers. Every night they leave their homes, they…

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