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 changing climate of poverty
How does climate change impact people in poverty? This World Environment Day, Opportunity's Global Impact Director, Calum Scott, discusses the relationship between climate change and ending poverty. 1. Opportunity International Australia is known as a microfinance organisation. Why the interest in climate change? Opportunity’s mission is to empower people living in poverty to transform their lives, their children’s futures and their communities. We empower people through providing financial and…
Read MoreFishing for Success
Oktavin and her daughter, Natalia. Photo: Sara Bolst Opportunity is now reaching 1,000,000 people in Indonesia with life-changing small loans. This has grown from only 30,000 people just six years ago – a testament to the commitment of our partners, the vision of our team, and the giving of our valued supporters like you. It’s life-changing for women like Oktavin. Oktavin met her husband Abraham, a Rote native, on her home island of Dao. He had come to the island to sell vegetables, which Oktavin…
Read MoreSurvive to Thrive
How important is health? In the lead up to World Health Day, Opportunity's Asia Health Program Director, Jessica Carter, speaks about the importance of running health programs in conjunction with more traditional microfinance programs to help people lift themselves out of poverty. Poonam is a Community Health Leader who wanted to learn about health issues and use that knowledge to help her village. Here, she is surrounded by the women of her village following a talk she gave on women’s health. Photo:…
Read MoreWhy Women?
\"This shop belongs to me!\" As a female business owner, Anjali is part of the majority of Opportunity’s small loan recipients—over 95 percent are female. It’s a huge percentage, and one that stands out when you note the overall lack of opportunities for women in developing countries. But why does Opportunity focus so much on women? There are many great reasons—here are three: 1) Opportunity is passionate about empowering women and involving them in financial decision making. When women have…
Read MorePanchfula's Pappadums
Panchafula started her pappadum business in the kitchen area of her home – a space no larger than a single square metre, located directly beside the sleeping mat where her entire family slept each night. \"We had only a one-room space where we had the kitchen on one end and bathroom on the other end,\" she says. \"In that same small area we also had our bed and near it we used to sit and take our meals.\" It was her mother who taught her how to make the pappadums, back when she was a child growing…
Read MoreBalancing for Better
Like a vast number of professional women in the developed world, I have never felt that my life was threatened, my wealth was not in my control, nor that I would not be listened to on important matters. I won the lottery of life at birth and keep winning the lottery of life every day. Sure, I was born a female in the 1960s and have spent my career in a male dominated environment. I may have had to develop a very thick skin, but I’ve never experienced poverty – I don’t know what it’s like…
Read MoreEmpowerment: My Duty
Thousands of women in colourful saris forming a human chain. It’s a powerful image, and one that dominated our screens last week. The press reported the human chain was up to 620km in length, and may have involved more than five million women. Although social media is covered in conflicting data about how long, how many women, and even whether all women were voluntarily there, the photographs clearly show a multitude of women standing in protest. But what got them so passionate? In September 2018,…
Read MoreKnow your narrative
As a Clinical Psychologist I am often asked why psychologists spend so much time asking people about their history. Asking about someone’s childhood is a cliché but there is a reason why we do it. What I’ve realised over the years as a psychologist is the more you understand where you come from and who and what shaped you, the more you’re able to understand your strengths and weaknesses and develop compassion for yourself. Kirstin Bouse It also enables you to put events in your life into…
Read MoreThe Power of Choice
It’s not hard to figure out how families earn a living in rural Rajasthan. On the drive through India’s conservative north-east we pass marble quarry after marble quarry—a sea of white, with brightly-coloured saris a perfect contrast to the landscape. When we arrive at a local house, we’re welcomed through the front gate into a small compound with three small bedrooms, a tiny kitchen, and a shaded courtyard with a brilliant white marble floor. After a mat is laid out for us to sit on, the…
Read MoreBuilding Healthy Communities
Thanks to your support, over 50 women in West Java have become the first in Indonesia to undertake Opportunity’s community health leader training.The program in Indonesia draws on learnings from five years of working with families in northern India to improve health outcomes. In both countries, health can be a significant obstacle for families hoping to work their way out of poverty. Extensive community consultation informed the health leader curriculum which is tailored to local families, focusing…
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