Help free a struggling family from the grip of poverty.
Help fund a small business and enable a family to leave poverty behind.
Give a family in poverty the HandUp they need to start a new life.
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Why we need your help
Change lives and fight poverty
Your gift helps Opportunity reach out to families in need.
We provide loans to families as a HandUp to help them grow their business.
The new business helps generate the income they need to afford food, shelter, medicine and education.
The loan is repaid and recycled to help other families grow businesses.
We keep you updated on how your gift is changing lives.
In the red-dirt village of Soe in West Timor, Indonesia, Frederica Tahun couldn’t afford proper meals for her four children, or even just rice some days. Sometimes they lived in the dark. But worst of all – Frederica struggled to afford clean drinking water. The dirty water sources available would make her family sick.
Because of a loan thanks to someone like you, Frederica started a small business selling cakes and breads she makes herself. Her life changed. She now can afford nutritious meals for her family and the water they buy is clean and safe to drink.
It has been a tough few years for Herminigilbo and his family. Four years ago, his wife passed away, leaving him with his five children. When there has been no money left, they have had to eat wild roots they found growing on the side of the road. "It made us dizzy," he says. Learn More.
Edita Muhi lives with her husband and their four children in a room in her mother’s house – a small one-room structure in Pagbilao, the Philippines. Across the road is a humble eatery and sari sari (grocery) store, a small business that Edita hopes will give them the income they need to leave poverty behind. Learn More.
Dewi has stood with her two children, Apit (11) and Nabila (6), outside a shop crying because of hunger. In front of them she has had to beg the shop owner to give them food just so they could eat. When her children started crying, she became even more upset. She wondered how life could be so unfair. Learn More.
In a crowded slum in the city of Vijay Nagar, India, sits a basic two-room structure – home to 23-year old Imrana, her husband Aslam and their two children. There are very few belongings in their home. But it’s the basic things, like food and education that concerns Imrana. Learn More.
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It has been a tough few years for Herminigilbo and his family. Four years ago, his wife passed away, leaving him with his five children. When there has been no money left, they have had to eat wild roots they found growing on the side of the road. "It made us dizzy," he says.
Herminigilbo is a rice and coconut farmer from Dipaculao in the Philippines. It's in a remote, rural area that faces a lot of challenges, particularly from natural disasters, which threaten the livelihoods of the farmers.
Herminigilbo is a hard worker, constantly out on the farm, preparing the land and caring for his crops. His favourite time is harvest time. "It is nice to be able to provide people with something to eat," he says.
Small loans will give him the hand up he needs to keep his crops healthy and his harvests secure, giving him the income he needs to take care of his family.
"I want my younger children to finish school and have a stable life so they don't experience any more hardship," he says. "Without an education they have no choice. You have a better future with an education."
Edita Muhi lives with her husband and their four children in a room in her mother’s house – a small one-room structure in Pagbilao, the Philippines. Across the road is a humble eatery and sari sari (grocery) store, a small business that Edita hopes will give them the income they need to leave poverty behind.
In the past, Edita’s husband Odelon has worked in construction. But his jobs have been irregular and many weeks have gone by without a pay check. When there has been no money, they have been forced to pull their children out of school. Many nights have seen Edita unable to sleep – desperately trying to work out how they were going to survive.
The eatery and sari sari store have given Edita and her husband new hope. They enjoy the work – Edita’s favourite part is talking with the customers.
With a hand up through small loans, Edita will be able to add more items to the menu and ensure the shelves in the store are properly stocked.
“I want my children to finish school and give their own children a good life. I want to grow a successful business and grow old with my husband. We will eventually save to buy our own home – but first our children must finish school. Our house can wait.”
Dewi has stood with her two children, Apit (11) and Nabila (6), outside a shop crying because of hunger. In front of them she has had to beg the shop owner to give them food just so they could eat.
When her children started crying, she became even more upset. She wondered how life could be so unfair.
Dewi’s husband Agus works in construction but is often only able to work once a week, if that. This means that they have sometimes been left without any kind of income at all.
Dewi has started a business weaving traditional bamboo rice cookers, known as kosan in her village, which is about an hour outside of Jakarta. She needs to grow the business so that she no longer has to beg for food and can also send her children to school.
She knows that with an education, Apit and Nabila won’t face the same struggles she has. Nabila can grow up and become a teacher like she dreams.
But without a growing income, she’s not confident that she will be able to pay for them to finish school. She worries a lot about this.
Dewi wants to build a small grocery store to run alongside the weaving business. From it she can sell items such milk, noodles and oil to people in her community. Items that she knows people need and will want to buy.
With small loans, Dewi can grow her businesses so she can earn the income she needs to provide for her children – without having to beg to survive.
In a crowded slum in the city of Vijay Nagar, India, sits a basic two-room structure – home to 23-year old Imrana, her husband Aslam and their two children – a daughter Kashish (4) and Ayaan (3 months).
There are very few belongings in their home. But it’s not their possessions that Imrana’s concerned about – it’s basic things, like food and education. With two children, she’s worried they won’t have enough money to send Ayaan to school when he gets older. Kashish’s own school fees have sometimes been missed – simply because they didn’t have enough money to pay them.
It’s not just schooling they can’t afford, either. “When we get sick, we can’t afford medicine. I worry we will need it and not be able to pay for it.”
But they’re hopeful. Aslam used to sell toffees to earn an income, but often his employer wouldn’t pay him, leaving them with no money to afford even the most basic of items. Today he’s working as auto-rickshaw driver, but it’s the small loan Imrana is hoping for that they believe will help them turn their lives around.
“I want to open a shop selling children’s clothes from our home. The cost of living here is high. I want our children to go to a good school so they will have a better life than us.”
A small loan will help Imrana’s dreams for her children come true. “They will get good jobs,” she says.
