“The poor inspire us to overcome difficulty and not give up.”
Mark Lutz, UnPoverty
What a week we’ve been through and it’s only the beginning! I have been so inspired by “caremongers” delivering food to seniors, hardware stores donating masks to hospitals, distillers making hand sanitizer, and musicians singing from their balconies.
It has reminded me of Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities, opening, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
On Sunday, our multi-site church all met together for one service thanks to live streaming. The worship team was in someone’s basement and the sermon came from the pastor’s basement den.
As we sang hymns to start, I was moved to tears – probably just shedding the stress of the week but also deeply inspired by the thought that we as a community were coming together in this challenging time.
We’re in this together and standing together as a community is so very important.
I’m also inspired by how the Opportunity International community is coming together. In Canada our teams meet several times through the week by Zoom to share, encourage and prayer together. A number of volunteers including our amazing Board of Directors have expressed their unwavering support during this crazy time.
I have been connecting with global counterparts in Australia, Germany, the UK and the USA as well as with our Implementing Partners in Nicaragua, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Colombia, as we stand by them and pray for each other. Incredibly grateful for technology and the ability we have to stay connected.
Many have asked me how this crisis is impacting our clients.
Our Implementing Partners have been simply awesome in sharing COVID-19 related resources with their clients and communities. And, like all of us, they have all taken necessary precautions to protect staff and client, and there are no reports yet of Partners or clients being infected. But these countries are shutting down businesses in an effort to contain the spread, which will certainly have short-term impact on clients’ microenterprises and on our microfinance partners, just as it already is on businesses here in Canada.
Yet, with all of this bad news there is also incredible hope and inspiration.
The work of Opportunity International over the past almost 50 years has been to unleash the power of an opportunity that already resides in our clients. Our awe-inspiring clients have survived in circumstances that would have done most of us in, and so they are as prepared as they can be for this crisis. Many of you have visited them in their homes or places of work and heard their stories first-hand. Their resilience in adversity is something we can all learn from in these days.
In fact, as my Opportunity International USA colleague Mark Lutz wrote in his book, UnPoverty, “So I have much yet to learn from the poor about what is essential, eternal, and attainable. The poor inspire us to overcome difficulty and not give up.”
But… there is no doubt the days ahead are going to be increasingly difficult. We simply must do all that we can to stand together and to stand with our Partners and clients. Our staff are working harder than ever (from home of course) to adapt our plans to meet this new reality and respond to the changing needs of our Partners. Microfinance remains the smartest and most sustainable form of development, and access to capital, infrastructure funds, and training will continue to be important.
Our clients need you now more than ever, and we are working on several innovative and creative ways for you to engage virtually – so stay tuned. You can also help our clients by making a generous donation, advancing your annual gift, or becoming a monthly donor.
I am so grateful to our amazing donors – the Opportunity Canada Tribe! I’m very encouraged by the private messages of support and determination to stay the course at this difficult time. One donor said, “We have decided to continue to support Opportunity now because of this crisis.”
Our work will go on thanks to your faithful prayers and donations.
We are in this together at a global level. It may be the worst of times, but by joining forces in community we can bring out our very best in response – we can only get through this together.