Press Sheet Vittana is a community wor king together to help young people around the wor ld get access to higher education for the first time.
OFFICE
206 1st Ave S. #310 Seattle, WA 98104 PHONE
(206) 395-4332 EMAIL
[email protected] WEB
http://www.vittana.org
It's hard to believe, but in most developing countries, student loans just don't exist. Traditional aid and development efforts have focused on primary and secondary school, but haven’t touched higher education. Now, because of those efforts, more and more young people are graduating high school and dreaming of doing more, but Betsy Olivares, a Vittana graduate and mother of two, with her because there isn’t any support beyond family on graduation day. that, end up in the same place they’ve always been. Basically, no matter what your GPA or even if you’ve already been admitted to the top law school in the country, if your family doesn’t have the money, you can’t go. Vittana builds some of the world's first college loan programs in developing countries. Students from those programs appear on Vittana.org, where people from around the world lend $25 or $50 to help them get the loans they need to graduate college. We're not talking $30K or $50K per year — as of March 2010, the average Vittana loan request was for $755.20. Education is the only real way to break the cycle of poverty. Vittana graduates earn on average 200-300% more than before. However, not only does a college education completely change someone’s life forever, it also completely changes the life of everyone after them — their children, their community. Imagine not only how Betsy’s life will be different now (she’s earning $300/mo now vs. $100/mo before) but how completely different her daughters’ lives will be. WHERE WE ARE TODAY •
general: programs in 5 countries (Vietnam, Peru, etc.), total loan dollars to students doubling every 2-3 months (30% mo/mo growth), adding a new country every 3-4 months
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press: featured in NYT ("the next new thing in charity"), voted the "#1 Game-Changer in Philanthropy"! by 1.7M readers on Huffington Post, named one of "5 Social Capitalists Who'll Change the World in 2010"!& “Top 10 Most Innovative Finance Companies” by Fast Company
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funders & partner organizations:!top-level execs from companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google & Microsoft; top firms like frog design, Orrick & Perkins Coie; leading microfinance networks like Grameen, Women’s World Banking & Unitus; tech legends like Mitch Kapor
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community: people from over 22 countries have made nearly $200K in loans to 250+ students wanting to become teachers, mechanics, lawyers, nurses and much more; loan requests are fully funded by 8-15 lenders in 2.9 days on average: http://www.vittana.org/community
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students: average loan request is $755.20, 97% repayment rate, two-thirds (62%) are women, 200-300% average increase in income; many work part-time and begin repaying early, many are young moms who are finally able to go back to school