Providing small loans and other financial services allows families to build their own small businesses and earn reliable incomes, giving them the tools to break free from the cycle of poverty.
More than 1 in 5 people around the world live in poverty.
Surviving on less than US$3.20 a day, people struggle to afford even the basics, like food, shelter, or medicines. Living in poverty means they're often unable to provide education for their children, are more likely to experience hunger and poor sanitation, and often contract preventable illnesses, diminishing their capacity to work. As this cycle repeats itself, families living in poverty struggle to survive.
But there's a surprisingly simple solution: small loans.
Small businesses are often the only head start a family needs to break free from the cycle of poverty. Starting a business is next to impossible without capital—no matter where you live—but it can provide incredible freedom.That's where Opportunity comes in.
Small loans give families the ability to purchase the tools they need to start or grow their source of income. With help from trusted local partners, Opportunity provides these small loans and financial training to individuals who are determined to leave poverty behind for good.
Some spend their loans on a sewing machine or material to start a tailoring business, others on bulk goods which they resell for a profit, and others on animals, like chickens or cows, that can provide food items to sell. And once their business is up and running, these families pay back their loans, allowing Opportunity's partners to re-lend the same funds to other families in need.
It's a smart, scalable and sustainable way to end poverty, once and for all.
How small loans help break the cycle of poverty
Donations are received
Your donation enables Opportunity to reach out to families living in poverty.
Loans are distributed
We provide small loans to these families to help them grow their own small businesses.
Impact is increased
Families generate regular income to afford food, shelter, medicine and education—and in many cases, employ others in their community.
A new cycle begins...
Each small loan is repaid and recycled to help more and more families over time.
In 2025, your support is helping
6.6 million families
leave poverty behind, with the help of small loans in India and Indonesia.
RAZIA'S STORY
A booming buffalo business creates a sustainable income
Razia and her husband Gulab live in rural Gujarat, India, and have three adult children, as well as grandchildren. They worked in farming jobs and were not paid well.
Life was tough and due to the lack of decent work in their village, they worked on others’ lands for wages, where they felt like they were at the mercy of the wealthier land-owners. They didn’t always have enough money even to meet their basic needs like food for the family.
Razia applied for a small loan with Opportunity International Australia’s local partner, seeing the opportunity to build a buffalo milk business. She used her knowledge of the fodder and grass varieties in the areas to gather nutritious feed for the buffalo, and the skills she’d learned tending to buffaloes in her farming jobs.
Her business has grown and Razia now tends to six buffaloes and 12 cows. She milks them herself, yielding about 100 litres of milk a day. Gulab works at the local milk chilling plant, owned by dairy cooperative Amul, where Razia sells her milk. She has been able to improve her family’s income and quality of life. With the money earned from her business, Razia and Gulab were also able to open a small snack shop nearby, which their son Javed runs.