Stories
Read With Us: June Book Club Selection
The sun is shining and we are ready for a few months of rest, relaxation, and reading. Instead of diving straight into the beach reads, we’re kicking off our summer reading by tackling a big, powerful book. This June, we are reading King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild. Described as "a story of greed, terror, and heroism in colonial Africa," King Leopold's Ghost recounts the story of Belgium's King Leopold II's brutal destruction of the Congo in the 1890s. It's a heavy topic, to be sure,…
Read MoreA Message from Colombia
Elsa Martinez is an Opportunity client in Cartagena, Colombia. Recently, she shared her incredible story with us in her own words. We were moved and inspired, and wanted to pass along her powerful words to you. …
Read MoreCelebrating All Women on Mother's Day
While Opportunity International exists to empower people—especially women—to improve their lives, we did not pioneer the concept. Since the beginning of time, mothers and grandmothers have been naturally wired to instinctively know what their children need to survive and thrive. They are also wired to acquire those things above all else. I have learned so much about being a mom of grace from Opportunity moms.A few weeks ago, I became a first-time grandma or “mhamo.” I fretted over my daughter…
Read MoreRead With Us: May Book Club
We’ve been eagerly waiting for this month’s book to release, and now it’s finally here! Join us this month as we read Melinda Gates’ new book, The Moment of Lift. This will be one of the most talked-about books of the season—as Brené Brown put it, this book “changed how I think about myself, my family, my work, and what’s possible in the world.” Malala Yousafzai writes, “This book is an urgent manifesto for an equal society where all women are valued and recognized in…
Read MorePowering Students' Futures with Clean Water and Sanitation
A look into how Opportunity is helping schools access clean water and sanitation to give students, especially girls, a chance at a healthier future.
Read MoreA Song in the Middle of Suffering
In an open, breezy room in a hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, women are singing. They are all gathered together—patients in various stages of recovery. Some are still waiting for the surgery that will restore their lives. They have suffered physically, emotionally, and socially. Many have been cast out of their homes and communities, and others are so young that they won’t raise their eyes to meet mine. But here they are, singing. These women are part of the Fistula Care Centre on the grounds…
Read MoreRemembering Rwanda
"When you forgive, you in no way change the past—but you sure do change the future." —Bernard Meltzer The joy I felt from the people I met in Rwanda didn’t reconcile on the surface; after all, this nation has a long-standing history of poverty and a decimating genocide 25 years ago where 800,000 people were murdered in 100 days. So, where was all this vitality and hopefulness I saw all around me coming from? Author Darryl Miller says a spirit of poverty is a pattern of thinking that…
Read MoreRead With Us: April Book Club Selection
As we enter a new season, it's time for another Opportunity International Book Club book! But first, let's recap what we just completed: In March, we read the short and powerful story, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. This New York Times bestseller tells the story of two 11-year-olds in Sudan, growing up decades apart from one another. Through alternating narratives, the book tells a story of both hardship and hope, educating us about pieces of global history we might…
Read MoreRead With Us: March Book Club Selection
It’s a new month, which means it's time for one of our favorite things: sharing our next Opportunity Book Club selection with you! But first, let’s recap what we’ve been reading: Following an intense January reading of Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao, we dove into an incredibly eye-opening (and incredibly long!) read: Why Nations Fail by Daren Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. We were so challenged by the concepts raised by Acemoglu and Robinson in this book. It’s easy to think we…
Read MoreTop 5 Reasons to Go to Ghana
“To move, to breathe, to fly, to float,To gain all while you give,To roam the roads of lands remote,To travel is to live.”—Hans Christian Andersen I’ve spent the last five years of my life crisscrossing the globe. It’s been challenging and exhausting, eye-opening and heart-shattering—and it’s the best thing you could ever do. Travel is absolutely as powerful and incredible as everyone says, and all I can say is this: take the risk. Get on the plane. Take the adventure. I promise you…
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