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PO Box A524
Sydney South NSW 1235, Level 11, 227 Elizabeth Street Sydney NSW 2000

Telephone: 1800 812 164

© 2024 Opportunity International AustraliaABN 83 003 805 043

Decisions That Change Lives

By Emily Nicola

Last week, Opportunity’s inaugural Mother’s Day event series came to a close.

Why Mother’s Day events?

Because mothers are the core of who we serve at Opportunity. A huge 94% of Opportunity’s loan recipients are women, women who use small loans to build businesses and earn the income they need to help their family leave poverty behind.

Sadly, mothers living in poverty are faced with difficult decisions every day as they find themselves unable to provide for their families’ basic needs.

By holding special events in four cities around the country, we wanted to recognise the life-changing decisions these mothers have to make – decisions like choosing between treating a baby’s fever or being able to put food on the table that night.

We also wanted to recognise the lasting impact supporters like you can have through a single decision to provide a hand up out of poverty through a small loan.

We were joined by Mukti Bosco, co-founder of Opportunity’s program partner Healing Fields Foundation in India. Mukti shared her personal experiences and insights into the daily struggles of mothers living in poverty. Her stories illustrated the power of a small loan and how it can be a catalyst for change – not only for a mother and her family, but also for a family’s wider community.

She shared about a number of different women, but it was the story of Babi Devi that stood out to me. Like many girls in her community, Babi was married off very young and had five children before she was just 21. Babi was determined that her children would go to school and get a good education, but, for five days every month, her daughters would miss school. All because they had their period. Babi couldn’t afford sanitary napkins for her daughters.

What impacted me the most was learning that Babi and her daughters were simply not aware that using rags instead of sanitary napkins or going to the bathroom in fields was making them sick. We take our knowledge of these basic hygiene practices for granted here in Australia; and the fact that these girls missed out on going to school simply due to a lack of health and sanitation resources feels so very unfair.

Thanks to the support of someone like you, Babi Devi was able to take out a small loan to start her own business. And as well as that, she was able to train to become a community health leader with Healing Fields. She has now learnt why it’s important for her daughters to use sanitary napkins instead of rags to decrease the likelihood of urinary tract infections, as well as how cooking nutritious meals can help her family stay healthy.

So far, this year’s Mother’s Day event series has raised over $17,500, which means hundreds of families’ lives can be transformed.

We’re so grateful for all our generous supporters – thank you for making decisions that change lives for the better!

I want to finish by asking, can you help another mother like Babi Devi? When you invest in mothers like her, they are able to give their families brighter futures – ones where young girls don’t have to miss school just because they have their period. If you are able, please donate here.

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