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

Telephone: 1800 812 164

© 2026 Opportunity International AustraliaABN 83 003 805 043

News & Stories Blog

World news on the fight to alleviate poverty – follow innovations in microfinance, technology and community development that are changing lives in developing countries.

The Great Australian Curry is back

by Opportunity International Australia

After a two-year hiatus, Opportunity International Australia’s signature fundraising event, the Great Australian Curry, is back! This September, Opportunity invites all Australians to share a curry with friends and raise much-needed funds to help families in Asia leave poverty behind. The Great Australian Curry is all about fun, food and making an impact.  Close to 1 in 4 people around the world live in poverty – a reality that has only been made worse by the impact of COVID-19. Many of these…

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Students raising money through The Opportunity Challenge

by Opportunity International Australia

The Opportunity Challenge is an innovative fundraising challenge aimed at school students to empower and educate them about fighting global poverty. Starting with a small loan from their parents, students are encouraged to start their own micro-business and make their money grow. With the income they earn from their business they then pay back the original loan and donate the profits to Opportunity so that together, they can help families in developing countries start their own small businesses,…

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Bangladesh Health Leaders teaching invaluable lessons

by Opportunity International Australia

In 2021, 550 new Health Leaders were trained in Bangladesh through our health programs, serving more than 120,000 people. In September, the first local impact evaluation was produced, measuring the change in knowledge, attitudes and practices based on the 25 modules of health education delivered by the Bangladeshi Health Leaders. The results were impressive, with the greatest improvement in topics involving women’s health - Menstrual and Reproductive Health (50 per cent improvement) and Maternal…

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Jasmine's business venture with cows and goats

by Opportunity International Australia

In the last two years, the pandemic has pushed millions of people in India back into poverty. Many of the people we serve through Opportunity International Australia’s small loans have been supported through this time to keep their businesses afloat. Jasmine is one of Opportunity’s loan recipients who has managed to improve her way of life during this time. Jasmine and her husband Mamad live in a small village in the west of India, in a modest house with two rooms and a kitchen. They both…

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Vandana's creating spice for a better life

by Opportunity International Australia

The surfaces in Vandana’s shop in Nagpur, India, are covered in a fragrant, colourful dust. Not because they’re unclean, but rather because of the flurry of powdered activity that happens here every day. Vandana and her husband Pawan run a spice shop, flour mill and mustard seed oil refinery in their village – three businesses they kickstarted with an initial small loan of Rs.30,000 (A$556.26) a few years back. The businesses earn Vandana and her husband Rs.25,000 (A$463.85) a month –…

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Meet Bindu: From one small loan to owning a small business

by Opportunity International Australia

$300 — that's all it took for Bindu, a dedicated wife and mother in India, to buy the raw materials she needed to start her own broom-making business. What began as a way to make ends meet is now a thriving business with 9 employees! Watch her story below: Learn more about how small loans are helping women in Asia transform their family's lives.

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2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours for Opportunity community

by Opportunity International Australia

Opportunity International Australia congratulates three recipients of the recent Queen’s Birthday Honours. John Anderson, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and current Opportunity Council Member, was awarded the Companion in the Order of Australia (AC). He received the honour for his eminent service to rural and regional development, to leadership in international agricultural research and food security, to social commentary, and through contributions to not-for-profit organisations. John…

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New study highlights quality of life benefits of Microfinance

by Opportunity International Australia

Opportunity International is proud to be part of a new study, launched on 1st June, which shows that Opportunity clients benefit from increased quality of life, improved healthcare, education and nutrition.   60_Decibels, a global, tech-enabled impact measurement company, interviewed 18k clients across 72 Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in 41 countries in early 2022, including over 2,000 of Opportunity’s clients across 9 partners. The study, for the first time, gives standard, comparable outcomes…

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Selvi's Story: Overcoming COVID-19 misinformation

by Opportunity International Australia

Selvi is 52 and lives with her two children in a rural area of India, where she runs a small tailoring business that she started through a small loan. With the help of our locally-led health response during India's second wave of COVID-19 in mid-2021, she was able to easily get vaccinated and get her business back on track. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Selvi was nervous about getting vaccinated, unsure of what it entailed. Two previous major surgeries added to her hesitation, as did a lack of…

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One year on from India’s COVID-19 crisis

by Opportunity International Australia

In May 2021, India became the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic, recording over 400,000 daily cases and making headlines around the world as the Delta variant and a wide-reaching health crisis unfolded. With millions hungry, stranded, sick or unable to isolate safely, the COVID-19 crisis spread from cities to rural areas with a lack of health resources and access to care, leaving some of India’s poorest communities vulnerable and their essential health systems being decimated. In response to the…

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