Under the pitch-black cover of night, Luz was still digging through mounds of garbage. She’d been at it for five hours. Her determination wasn’t because she was looking for a precious treasure that had been accidentally thrown out; she was instead searching for anything she could salvage and turn into pesos through a recycling exchange. This nightly routine could yield about $1.00 USD, or $1.50 if she was lucky, to feed her children the next day.

Luz had always been poor. This was far from the life she’d dreamed of, but it was the life the hardened hillsides of Colombia had told her to expect. While she spent her days caring for her six kids, her husband was assassinated by guerillas. With only a few sparse stints of traditional schooling in childhood and no official work experience, Luz felt her world caving in.

She trekked her children to Bogotá, where she hoped for opportunity. Illiterate and without a husband who could secure a home or a loan on her behalf, the only way she could see to stay afloat was to rummage through piles of what others deemed worthless while a friend watched over her kids at night. She was stuck in the endless cycle of trying to turn trash into a future.

Luz’s story is not a poverty trope, but the living, breathing reality of a real woman in today’s world fighting for survival. And it’s the story of far too many women across the globe.

A portrait of Luz, Colombia

The Heart of cabi Foundation has partnered with Opportunity International in their quest to end extreme poverty, empowering women like Luz through an open door to a better future for her and her family.

Several years ago, we could see a steady path toward achieving that audacious goal within our lifetimes. And yet, “Progress in reducing extreme poverty has essentially halted in tandem with subdued global economic growth,” according to World Bank Group President David Malpass. Since 2020, an additional 75 to 95 million people have been pulled into extreme poverty. There are now 657 million double the U.S. population—living under $2.15 USD a day (the most recent extreme poverty marker). After decades of massive progress, eradication appears much more ladder—the treasured dedicated groups of people, like our cabi community, increase our commitment to those on the bottom rung of the economic ladder, the treasured lives we won’t allow to be accidentally thrown out.

The key to ending extreme poverty is empowering women. It begins by recognizing their worth.

The Global Poverty Project states, “Women make up half the world’s population and yet represent a staggering 70% of the world’s poor.” There’s a compounding effect, which UNICEF calls “multidimensional poverty,” indicating a web of reasons women are uniquely kept down:

The World Bank believes, “Putting resources into poor women’s hands while promoting gender equality in the household and in society results in large development payoffs.” Just in the world of farming, they project that giving women equal access to financial and agricultural resources could decrease the number of hungry people across the globe by 150 million.

Lifting women has an exponential impact, because as women rise, they lift up those around them, too.

“Female income-earners are more likely to allocate significantly more resources to food, health, education, and children’s well-being, ending the generational cycle of poverty for millions.” (The World Bank)

Linda from Accra, Ghana proves the wide lift women bring. Struggling to provide for her family, Linda would bake loaves of bread, put them in a basket on top of her head, and go sell a few a day, working hard but not managing to grow her income. She learned about Opportunity International and through a small business loan, she invested in a bakery, employing women throughout the community. Within a few short years, she flipped her bakery for a big factory. She and her large team bake thousands of loaves a day that they take out back to the long line of local mothers. They’re not customers, but rather small business owners who sell Linda’s bread throughout their communities, feeding thousands every day. She has even bigger dreams for the future of how she can pay forward opportunities to more women.

Linda in her bakery, Ghana

EMPOWER WOMEN, EMPOWER THE WORLD

The road to doing so feels steep, but at cabi, we’re more committed than ever to finding those who might feel like they’re among a heap of statistics few see as valuable; we’re eager to find and behold them as uniquely valuable, with something all their own to bring the world.

Through our one-for-one program, for every cabi Stylist who begins her business, cabi provides a small business loan for a woman in the developing world to build her business, too. Just like at cabi, Sister Entrepreneurs are brought into a circle of community to support them, called Trust Groups, where they meet regularly to share ideas, benefit from accountability, and learn skills to help their businesses grow.

Opportunity International got connected to Luz, who’s now engaged in a Savings Group, the equipping step to then receive a small business loan. She’s now studying at a local center to complete her elementary and high school education, feeling a deep weight of pride for how these actions will inspire and guide her children to do the same.

Let’s be inspired by Luz, Linda, and so many other women around the world to dream big dreams to do the seemingly impossible. Together, all of us in the cabi community can empower women through Restoration, Vocation, and Education.