Who We Serve Women
Worldwide, 70% of those living on less than $2 a day are women and girls, according to UN Women. Unfortunately, these women are more vulnerable to forced labor, malnutrition and violence. The greatest challenge facing these women is not lack of knowledge or motivation, but a lack of access to financial services and training to launch businesses, support their families, educate their children and strengthen their local economies. Opportunity International focuses significant attention and resources on empowering women.
A woman is a change-agent. She can feed her family. Build her business. Raise her kids. Employ her neighbours. She can inspire sustainable transformation and create a new story for herself, her children and her entire community. A woman is powerful and full of often-untapped potential. A woman can change the world. But first, she needs to be given an opportunity.
With your help, Opportunity International can provide that opportunity and empower women in the developing world to break free from the cycle of poverty. Through small-scale financial tools and training, clients are able to build their businesses, create jobs, support their families and transform their communities.
"Study after study has taught us that there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women. No other policy is as likely to raise economic productivity, or to reduce infant and maternal mortality. No other policy is as sure to improve nutrition and promote health – including the prevention of HIV/AIDS. No other policy is as powerful in increasing the chances of education for the next generation. And I would also venture that no policy is more important in preventing conflict, or in achieving reconciliation after a conflict has ended." - Kofi Annan
In spite of the challenges they face, women worldwide show resilience and determination to break out of the cycle of poverty. 97% of the clients we work with are women, reinvesting in their children and communities.
Your gift to Opportunity will empower women to develop new roles as income earners and community leaders. With access to transformational training, and critical financial products such as savings, loans and insurance, women in poverty can build financial security and create stability for their families, often for the first time in their lives.