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Living Below the Line with My Family

By Opportunity International on May 1, 2013

“I’m going to send my grandchildren a food parcel.” – my mother
“Can I give you a loan so you can buy more food? Very low interest rate, you can pay me back over the next month.” – my boss
“Would you like to come over for dinner – is that allowed?” – my friend

My well meaning friends have found it strange to think that we – Harry, me and our three kids aged 13, 11 and 6 – are about to embark on a week without food.

I, too, thought it would be extremely difficult to live on just $1.50 per person per day, but after undertaking three simple steps, I don’t think it’s going to be as hard as everyone thinks. I have:

1) analyzed the cost of each item I plan to buy – rather than just choosing the brand I prefer
2) carefully planned our menu for the week, using the same ingredients like rice or pasta several times so there’s no waste – rather than thinking I have to have a different meat and a different carb each evening
3) allowed myself time before each meal to make things from scratch – rather than buying jars of spaghetti sauce, or similar time-saving products

Although our menu for next week looks very different from last week’s, my children won’t starve and I won’t need any extra money to get by. While we’d like to be social, we also don’t need to depend on a meal from a neighbor to bulk up our diet.

In fact, I’m looking forward to the challenge. I’m looking forward to reminding my kids that most people in the world have the same meal every night of the week – for their whole lives, not just for 5 days. I’m looking forward to that slightly gnawing feeling we’ll have before meals that will remind us why we need to eat – not just consuming more food because 6pm has rolled around. I’m looking forward to going without some luxuries – remembering that 60% of the world may have never enjoyed a good cut of beef or the finest dark chocolate.

However, let it be known that while I think we can complete the Live Below the Line Challenge, this is not something I would like my children to have to live with year round. Our diet will be high-carb, low-protein and low in vitamins and minerals. Not ideal for healthy growth and disease prevention. Having worked in poverty alleviation for nearly ten years, I’ve seen the impact of a subsistence existence on thousands of children. Full height is never achieved, teeth rot without a healthy digestive system, stomachs bloat due to insufficient protein, scurvy and anemia can result from vitamin deficiency and diarrhea is an ever-present risk due to unclean water supplies.

So, although living on $1.50 per person per day is possible, it is not desirable. Let’s continue to work toward a better future for our brothers and sisters across the globe. With their own drive and our support they can and will step up into a higher standard of living – so they, too, can enjoy a balanced diet and their children can thrive.

Posted in Hunger, Poverty, Uncategorized, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity

Why I’m Giving Up Choices for a Week

By Opportunity International on April 17, 2013

In a few weeks, I’m going to take the Live Below the Line challenge. For five days, I’ll spend just $1.50 each day on food to raise funds and awareness for the 1.4 billion people worldwide who have to live below the extreme poverty line every day.

Living in suburban Chicago, it can be difficult to really grasp the effects of extreme poverty. I’ve traveled to parts of the world where hunger is a fact of life; however, in my everyday life here at home, I don’t always feel compelled by a sense of urgency to address this crisis.

I try to budget my food expenses each month, but I don’t actually have to live within those boundaries – if I want or need to go over budget on my daily meals, I can. Some mornings when I’m getting ready for work, I realize I don’t have any coffee beans in the house, but I don’t worry, because I can just stop by the coffee shop for a venti nonfat cappuccino that costs $4.28. (Yes, I have the exact amount memorized, and yes, I know that caffeine isn’t a necessary food group.) When I don’t have enough time to pack my lunch in the morning, I have the option to run over to the deli at lunchtime and spend $7 for a sandwich. When I get home late and don’t feel like making dinner, I can spend $12 for takeout Thai food from the restaurant down the street.

My trips to the coffee shop and the deli and the restaurant aren’t necessities, though – they’re luxuries. Many people around the world don’t even have enough to buy the food they need, and that’s why I’m living below the line. By skipping those trips and instead eating only $1.50 worth of food each day, I hope to experience – in a very small way – what daily life is like for so many people.

Although it’s valuable to have an experience that challenges you to view the world differently, I don’t want to simply take this challenge for the sake of experience. I also want to raise awareness and funds so that more people can have the opportunity to live above the line. Living on $1.50 per day for five days will be difficult, but I believe it’s a small step I can take to advocate for those who live below the line every day.

Join me in Living Below the Line by either taking the challenge with me, or by giving a gift which will help provide opportunities for others to work their way out of poverty.

Lauren Hawley is a Young Ambassador for Opportunity in Chicago. Sign up to Live Below the Line with Lauren at https://www.livebelowtheline.com/us-opportunity, or support her Live Below the Line fundraiser at https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/laurenhawley

Posted in Our Method, Our Mission and Vision, Our Motivation, Our Work, Poverty, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
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Does the Shoe Fit?

By Opportunity International on April 11, 2013

Day 2: Opportunity International Philippines Insight Trip

A post by Lisa Leslie Henderson

As I reflect on the experiences of the day, in the hopes of choosing one to highlight in this blog, my thoughts drift to Imelda Marcos – the wife of Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. I’m thinking of her shoe fetish—she had over 3,000 pairs of shoes at one time, 765 of which today are on exhibit in the local Marikina Shoe Museum—and I think: how on earth did she choose which shoes to wear every morning? Renewed by the idea that I have many fewer items to consider, I circle back to the events of our first full day here, and find myself adding to the list of memorable experiences upon which to write, rather than narrowing. Like Imelda’s shoes, what would you choose?

  • Receiving an economic briefing on the Philippines and the state of local microenterprise from the US State Department
  • Spending time with women from various OI lending groups at their local centers, learning about their individual businesses and how their success is changing their families’ lives
  • Delighting children with the magic of Polaroid photos and taking the time to shoot a few hoops with them in the street
  • Hearing from OI lenders and administrators about what makes OI successful and what ancillary products they are offering to further opportunity and reduce risk in their client’ lives
  • Connecting with other Insight travelers over meals and on long bus rides?
  • Discussing local health reproduction legislation
  • Observing passionate discussion about the legality and business consequences surrounding staggered insurance payouts
  • Walking through the marketplaces in search of OI clients’ stalls, tasting their garlic cashews and cooked rice snacks dipped in coconut sauce
  • Gleaning a firsthand understanding of how the promise of Manila’s economic opportunities draw men and women from rural areas right into the urban slums

What about this one: listening to Filipino mothers talk about their hopes for their children. Hearing dreams like, “I want them to finish school” and “I want them to have a better life.” It made me reflect for a moment about how mothers are so similar everywhere in the world; they want what’s best for their kids and they work hard, day after day, to make this possible.

It was amazing to see the joy on their faces when they told stories their son, an engineer in Dubai, or their daughter, working successfully in Manila – both direct results of OI’s college scholarship program.

It was also gut-wrenching to see the total disappointment of others, their eyes welled up with tears, as they talked about how their college-aged children have had to drop out of school for financial reasons.

Rumor has it that Imelda Marcos once said, “It the shoe fits, buy it.” And that is just it, if the shoes don’t fit, the person wearing them may trip and fall or be unable to walk due to painful blisters. Imelda had plenty of shoes that fit, and these Opportunity International clients are doing their best to equip each of their children with a pair that can take them places.

Read about Day 1 of Lisa’s Trip to the Philippines

Posted in Client Stories, Donors, Events, Faith in Action, Health, Insight Trips, Loan officer, Local Staffing, Our Method, Our Mission and Vision, Our Motivation, Our Work, Poverty, Resources, Women
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Step Into Someone Else’s Shoes

By Guest Post on April 9, 2013

The following is a guest post from Mandy Graessle. Mandy is a Young Ambassador for Opportunity in Houston, Texas and is Living Below the Line for Opportunity from April 29-May 3. Join her in the challenge, support her fundraiser, and learn more at https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/favouritethings

I was raised with a sense of responsibly for my community; I learned that if I don’t do something to help to change my immediate community and world, no one will. I volunteer at soup kitchens, donate clothes and household items to those less fortunate, advocate for small, local non-profits I believe in and I invite others along for the ride.

However, I’ve actually never walked in the shoes of someone who’s been less fortunate than I have. When my best friend participated in the Live Below the Line challenge last year, I began to think about it in great detail. How much did it cost to drive a mile to work? How much did that plastic grocery bag cost to make? How much did the company spend every day on those single-serve coffee machines? How much food did I waste weekly? How much money did I waste daily on completely useless, obscene purchases? While I know we can’t live on $1.50 day with car expenses, cell phones, internet, electricity, toll roads – even the amount of water we use daily – I felt that I needed to try something. Could I, for five days, eat for $1.50/day? Could I only spend $7.50 at the grocery store for five days of food?

As I type this on my laptop connected to high-speed internet, check twitter on my mobile phone, have fresh produce from local farms delivered to my doorstep, enjoy filters attached to my faucet to triple-filter (already drinkable) water or drive my dogs to daycare, I know that I will struggle to Live Below the Line. How much can $1.50 buy? One soda from a vending machine? Clearly I couldn’t have happy hours with girlfriends or a pint of strawberries from the farmer’s market.

However, instead of thinking about it from my perspective, I decided to actually step into someone else’s shoes. It was then that I realized something really, really important: to some women and mothers in developing countries, that $1.50 could be the chance to change their world for them and their children; the chance at opportunity.

Posted in Donors, Education, Events, Our Method, Our Mission and Vision, Our Motivation, Our Work, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
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Every moment show up stupid

By Opportunity International on April 8, 2013

Day 1: Opportunity International Philippines Insight Trip

A guest post by Lisa Leslie Henderson

I showed up very stupid this morning in a country that I hadn’t intended to visit last night.

Flight delays and missed connections due to electrical difficulties—our plane wouldn’t start—took us to Tokyo, rather than Manila, last night. When we arrived in our hotel room, sometime in the middle of the night and eager for a hot shower, I couldn’t figure out how to coordinate the three knobs to turn the water on; after figuring it out, I couldn’t remember how to turn it off again. This morning I gulped down sake at breakfast thinking it was sparkling water. Yep, I showed up stupid…multiple times in fact.

Some wise person once said, “Every moment, show up stupid.” I love that quote—and not because of days like today, or because I am a fan of foolishness in general. Rather, I believe that whoever originally spoke those words was encouraging us to show up curious, wherever we are, and pay attention. To fight against “psychoschlerosis,” or the hardening of the attitudes, and against the kind of “knowing” that keeps us from “seeing.”

At the kick-off dinner this evening, it became clear that everyone had shown up for this insight trip stupid, in the best sense of the word. We introduced ourselves and spoke briefly about why we had traveled this distance to participate in this insight trip at this particular time. Myriad reasons were given, including: wanting to learn about poverty firsthand and gain insight into how poverty is similar and different across regions of the world, getting a reminder about how we can make a difference, experiencing how microenterprise is lifting families and changing lives, understanding how insurance products developed by OI are benefiting microentrepreneurs, tasting the Philippines—her people and culture— and meeting interesting people, and celebrating a 50th birthday, knowing that this trip would set a different tone for the next fifty years of this woman’s life.

In addition to showing up stupid, I hope to remember to consider the following* often during this trip:

  1. This is what I thought….
  2. This is what I learned….
  3. This is what I am doing next…
  4. This is what I’m keeping in mind…

Here are my answers for this evening:

  1. As we drove through the streets of Manila today, seeing slum villages to our left and our right, I thought, “I wonder if this trip is going to exhaust me completely.” (Mind you I was already a wee bit tired from our travels.)
  2. As the college students performed so animatedly and enthusiastically for us, I learned that in the midst of poverty, Opportunity International is bringing real hope and opportunity (the students’ parents were all Opportunity International loan recipients and these students had won college scholarships through the APPEND Program and the Smith Foundation).
  3. This is what I am doing next: going to bed.
  4. This is what I am keeping in mind: There is much to be learned here.



*Ponderings borrowed from Steve Blank, entrepreneur and creator of Lean LaunchPad

Posted in Board of Governors, Donors, Education, Events, Insight Trips, Our Mission and Vision, Our Motivation, Our Work, Poverty
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