Stories
Giving As a Family Affair
When Jill and Steve Smith were students at Georgetown, little did they know a chance encounter during those late 1970s would shape their philanthropy for the rest of their lives.
Read MoreWaymaker Wednesday: Luz & Andrea
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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The Power of Home
Home means something different to us all. For many, the term may invite feelings of warmth and memories of joy. But for others who have experienced instability and pain, home can be a symbol of hurt or loss. A reminder of what they never had.
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“Required reading for the entire human race.”
We are so excited to dive into Nobel-Prize-winning writer Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.
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Waymaker Wednesday: Linda
Inside a bread factory in Accra, Ghana, I was greeted by men whose hands were 3 times the width of mine. The baking ovens and the hot Accra sun made the room temperature well over 100 degrees. Suddenly, I feel this big hug around me, and I turn around. This, I soon learned, was Linda, the owner of the bakery. I’ll never forget meeting this woman in the blue shirt, who you see smiling before you as she did that day. She had gone through a transformation as a client herself, starting with 1 oven…
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Untapped Potential, Enormous Opportunities
Nestled along the Atlantic coast in West Africa, Ghana is a diverse and vibrant country. It’s home to farmers and families; merchants and makers; dreamers and doers. And, like much of sub-Saharan Africa, it struggles with economic poverty.
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Waymaker Wednesday: Joanna
We are lucky to have angels like Joanna in our midst—people who live solely to make their communities a better place. Here, on the left, is Joanna with some of the children in her school. Joanna started her school here in Ghana in a rural area where children just stayed at home, and the illiteracy rate is very high. She said her school gave the parents the freedom to go to their farms during the day to make enough money and make a living for their families. Not only did she provide an education,…
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‘WHEN YOU EDUCATE A GIRL, YOU EDUCATE THE WHOLE COMMUNITY’ - INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2022
‘Time to break the bias’ is the theme of International Women’s Day 2022. This year we are putting a spotlight on one of the many inspiring female leaders we have the privilege to work with.
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A new work by an Opportunity author
Strong Connections: Stories of Resilience from the Far Reaches of the Mobile Phone Revolution features the stories of Opportunity clients and is written by our dear friend and former colleague Rosa Wang.
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Waymaker Wednesday: Student
Today, a girl in Uganda is four times more likely to have a baby, than have a high school diploma before reaching adulthood. For her, the future is not full of hope, but it’s filled with worry and uncertainty. Education is the most powerful way to break free from the cycle of poverty. But the ability to go to school is a whole different story in rural areas. Most of them travel long, exhausting distances just to go to school. Just like this girl here, making her way from her farm to her school.…
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