If all students in low income countries left school with basic reading skills, 170 million people could be lifted out of poverty. That would lead to a 12% reduction in global poverty. Our Education finance programmes supports local community schools and parents to improve access and quality of education to children.
Every child deserves a quality education. Yet access to schools—good schools in particular—is all too scarce for children in developing regions. In fact, more than 2 million children and adolescents around the world, half of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa, have never started school or have already dropped out.
In countries crippled by poverty, public schools do not receive adequate funding to build good classrooms, hire new teachers or offer transportation for rural students, many of whom must walk miles each day to attend school.
Parents living on less than $2 a day are unable to afford required educational costs such as uniforms, fees and lunches for their children.
Because education is the single greatest determinant of future economic status and self-reliance, Opportunity International is committed to putting and keeping more children in schools around the world.
Opportunity works from the inside-out. We invest in parents and educators who are committed to making sure the children in their underserved communities have a chance to escape poverty by getting an education. We empower them with access to the financial tools and training they need to make sure that children can not only go to school, but also receive a quality education essential for their future success.
We start with providing access to finance, a critical first step in sending and keeping kids in school.