Education changes everything.
“Rainy season” in the Philippines is no joke. For about seven months a year, the Philippines is riddled with perpetual downpours and frequent typhoons. Since I have been in the Philippines there have been nearly twenty typhoons, most of them consisting of very heavy rains and mild flooding. My street [...]
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College is a critical junction in the transition from child to adult. It’s a time when students learn to manage their own budgets and begin to understand what “cost of living” is all about. In Ghana, few students work during the school year. The job market is competitive, and much [...]
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I am stationed at an ideal place to measure the impact of Vittana loans on students and their families. AFODENIC in Nicaragua is one of Vittana’s most established partners, having worked together since 2009. More than 100 students have graduated college because of Vittana loans through AFODENIC. I’ll tell you [...]
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At seven in the morning when I set out for FINCA Peru the streets are already overtaken. People dance around each other as they pass on the sidewalks, trying not to step into the street for fear of the taxis and tuk tuks. The tuk tuks which are a cross [...]
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For the past two weeks, I have been criss-crossing the Philippines with Sanjaya Punyasena, one of Vittana’s International Partnerships Managers, and Roger Johnson, our Chief Financial Advisor. We have spent 2-3 days with each of our three Filipino partners, meeting staff and students at each step along the way. Why [...]
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Today is a big day here at Vittana: we are thrilled to welcome Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF) as our eighth student lending partner and our first partner in the Philippines! NWTF, headquartered in Bacolod City on the western side of Negros Island, serves over 80,000 low-income entrepreneurs, 99% [...]
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Vittana community, meet Fundación CREHO, the newest microfinance institution to join Vittana’s network of innovative student lenders. It’s always an exciting day here at the office when we welcome students from a new country to the Vittana family, and we’re particularly excited to partner with Fundación CREHO. Driven by the [...]
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I’m on my way back from Granada on what’s called a “microbus”, a term that refers to the size of the bus rather than the number of passengers. I am sitting in a very small seat which I’m sharing with my 3 new best friends. There is music blasting from [...]
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In a recent entry here on the blog, Vittana Fellow Nayna Gupta told the story of Mercy Marilu, a young woman from Lima, Peru. Mercy, who works as a primary school teacher, received a Vittana loan to help her finish a degree in early childhood education. Mercy’s story was inspiring—after [...]
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Ulaanbaatar is cold. Home to XacBank, an early Vittana partner and MIX Global top 100 microfinance institution (MFI), Mongolia’s capital city topped out at 10 below zero during my visit two weeks ago. As I walked from my hotel to the XacBank office for the first time, my breath short [...]
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