Client Vivian Adama (pictured with two of her students) started a creche and school 15 years ago in Ashaiman, Ghana so that local children could go to school while their mothers worked. Now Vivian educates and cares for more than 300 students, working hard to improve the lives of others in her community.

In that spirit, we wish you love, peace and kindness on this and every Valentine’s Day. Here are a few thought-provoking quotes that expand the meaning of love and hopefully inspire you to agape love today.

1. Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.
      -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
2. To love another person is to see the face of God.
      -Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
3. Where there is love there is life.
      -Mahatma Gandhi

Looking for a way to share your charitable love with your sweetheart? Give them an online gift card at OptINnow and they can use it to help fund the loan of an Opportunity International client working her way out of poverty. Go to optinnow.org/giftcard to print or email your online gift card today.

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”
     -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

What Are You Doing for Others from MLK Day on Vimeo

Today, Martin Luther King Day, is not only a day to commemorate the teachings and ideals of Dr. King, but also to let the life and legacy of the great civil rights leader inspire you to take action yourself. With that in mind, the United We Serve initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service is championing the 25th annual MLK Day of Service.

They’ve launched this year’s Day of Service as the MLK 25 Challenge. It’s a call to all Americans to honor Dr. King by pledging to take at least 25 actions during 2011 to make a difference for others and strengthen our communities. Patrick Corvington, CEO of the Corp. for National & Community Service, describes the event as “a day on, not a day off.”

I want you to say on that day, that I did try in my life… to love and serve humanity. -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

3 Ways to Take Action through Opportunity International:

1. Stay informed by subscribing to the Opportunity Blog, ‘Liking’ Opportunity on Facebook and following us on Twitter
2. Volunteer your time by sharing our mission and our work at your church, school or community organization, and let the group know how they can take action and donate too
3. Start an online fundraiser at OptINnow for clients living in poverty

How will you take action to carry on Dr. King’s legacy? Leave us a comment in the field below and tell us what actions you will take in 2011 to improve your community and your world.

Today we honor the loving legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Photo: mlkday.gov)

The core value of Dr. King’s ideal, the “Beloved Community,” was agape love, which he described as “understanding, redeeming goodwill for all.” It is an “overflowing love which is purely spontaneous, unmotivated, groundless and creative”… “the love of God operating in the human heart.”

Dr. King said that “agape does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people… It begins by loving others for their sakes” and “makes no distinction between a friend and enemy; it is directed toward both… Agape is love seeking to preserve and create community.”

This is highly compatible with what Opportunity International is doing–we are helping communities thrive, not through condescension or handouts but through compassion and by empowering the community to put its own resources to work for a better future.
We commemorate the timeless values he taught us through his example–the values of courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service that so radiantly defined Dr. King’s character and empowered his leadership. -Coretta Scott King

Thank you to every partner in the Opportunity family. Your deep agape love for those living in difficult financial circumstances is helping to build thriving communities.

This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation’s self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, […] for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.

On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.  

 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Speech at Riverside Church (extracts), 1967.

We at Opportunity International are committed to restructuring the edifice.  We are committed to building a financial infrastructure that includes everyone, and specifically caters to the needs of the most outcast: the poorest, the women, the isolated, the minorities, the forgotten.  Upon this financial infrastructure, stronger communities will have the resources to build inclusive and permanent health, education, sanitation and business solutions. 

Thank you for being partners with us in this mission.