View from my window at BancoFie

Just outside of my office at BancoFie is a poster that caught my eye on my first day of work as a Vittana Fellow. It says:“La Paz no es un obyecto encontrado por casualidad. Es el producto de la igualidad entre los hombres.” – -“Peace is not an object found by chance. It is the result of equality between men.”

I can’t help but read it nearly every time I come to work, as a reminder of what Vittana and BancoFie are all about and the reason I’m here in La Paz. Access to credit for young people is a small but vital step towards improving equality and peace around the world.  I have always thought access to quality education is among the most profound inequalities, as education is key to breaking the cycle of poverty, to meaningful wages, to improving quality of life and uplifting individuals and communities alike.  It cannot be an option only for the privileged, the wealthy or geographically advantaged – a quality education must be accessible for us all.  Thanks to the collaboration of Vittana with partners like BancoFie, more and more young people are grasping an opportunity to further their education and brighten their future! I’m proud to be partnering with an organization with such a focus on improving lives and offering hope to their fellow citizens.

Passing Plaza San Pedro on the way to work.

On my first day I made the 20 minute uphill trek to the BancoFie headquarters in San Pedro and although still out of breath from altitude sickness, I settled right in to a discussion on the current success of the student loan program and the desire to expand the program outside of the city. There was a specific interest in reaching more rural areas where there are even less opportunities for higher education. I got a strong sense of social responsibility from my colleagues at BancoFie and I was happy to hear that they were thinking “outside the box” – or in this case outside of the city centers.

I took a good look at the BancoFie manual and was instantly drawn to their slogans “Un banco para la mayoría” and “ Llegamos donde nos necesitan”  – “A bank for all” and “We go where we are needed”. I can relate to this as a social worker interested in addressing marginalized populations – those most ignored and left behind in society.  So I figure that is why I’m here: to reach those for whom Vittana and access to educational loans is most desperately needed, where others might not venture, where a true difference can be made. So here I am, taking a path less traveled, just like Vittana and BancoFie; “donde me necesitan”.

Outside of BancoFie Headquarters

A Little Bit of History

BancoFie is a bank with a very interesting history that only proves further that big things start small.  Starting with five inspired and motivated women over twenty-five years ago, a small NGO was created in La Paz that eventually became the largest microfinance institution in Bolivia. What’s even better is that BancoFie has held steadfast to their mission and focus of dedicating their work to those who otherwise have no other avenue to access credit. Dedicated to reaching the most marginalized populations, slowly but surely they went “From one computer to the biggest microfinance bank in Bolivia”.

Settling In 

Lake Titicaca from Cobacabana

Of course my first week in Bolivia hasn’t been all work and no play. It has included some adjustment to the altitude and culture, some exploring at Lake Titicaca and taking in the hustle and bustle of La Paz.  Although navigating around the intense traffic is quite scary (even for a New Yorker!), I’ve managed to encounter great people, charming cafes, beautiful plazas and parks and even a yoga studio!

I am truly enjoying this extremely diverse city in many ways; a place where the temperature and climate changes both by the minute and by the zone of the city you happen to be in. A popular local saying is “Las cuatro estaciones en un solo día” — All of the seasons in one day.  In just my first week here, I believe it!  La Paz is definitely a place with much to discover and will keep you on your toes. Of course the view of snow capped mountains peeking through high rises above scattered homes climbing the hillside; well that isn’t too bad either. Check it out!

La Paz Skyline

                                           “What happens to Africa matters to the world.” – Patrick Awuah

"Education is the Key to Development"

As a fellow in Ghana doing market research on the potential for an education loan I, along with my co-fellow Megan, have had the chance to meet some incredible people here. One of those we’ve met has been Patrick Awuah, the founder of Ashesi University. Ashesi University is a school in Ghana that is famous for its liberal arts curriculum and students’ dedication to remain in Ghana and serve their country. Many of the students there are becoming the next leaders in government, business and technology. In a lecture Mr. Awuah gave as part of the TED talk series, he outlines what he found are the three key issues that limit the growth of many sectors in Ghana: corruption, weak institutions, and the people who run them. He advocates that it is not until we properly educate our youth, who are the leaders of tomorrow, that we will see a positive change in Ghana’s institutions and leaders that are honest and transparent. He claims that a typical student now has a stronger sense of entitlement than responsibility. This can be true anywhere there is a small percentage of people being given the privilege to participate in something everybody wants, in this case the opportunity to go to college. Only 9% of those 18 and older in Ghana are enrolled in tertiary education but the numbers of enrollment are skyrocketing. Larger and larger portions of each generation are seeking to go to college, but not all of them can attend due to the cost of education.

I’ve lived in Ghana for 10 months – 6 months as a volunteer and 4 of those months as a fellow at Vittana devoted to its efforts to introduce student loans into the products offered by Vittana’s partner, Opportunity International Savings and Loans Ltd. In my brief time as a resident of Ghana, I have been graced by the unconditional friendliness and helpfulness of Ghanaians. It seems that in whatever you are doing here, you will always have a helping hand. In a meeting I had with the head of the Student Financial Aid Office at the University of Ghana- Legon, she adequately summarized how helpfulness is such a poignant part of the culture. She explained “we are all in this struggle together” and all need help at some point in our lives, so why not lend help to someone who needs it? Ghanaian by birth but having lived in the US for a large portion of her life, she amusedly compared a potential scenario between an American and Ghanaian: you visit your friend and find she has not yet finished washing her clothes, so you sit and wait patiently, chatting with her while she finishes. In Ghana, you don’t sit and chat but jump right in, get your hands wet, and help her finish.

Students during break

In our focus group sessions with tertiary students they also echoed the sentiment of lending a helping hand. When asked if what they do if they cannot pay for school, one of their first responses was that they find the money from family or friends. Here in Ghana you can call someone a brother or sister even though they are not related: and the likelihood that your “brother” or “sister” will be willing to help you out with paying your school fees, whether expecting to be paid back or not, is just as strong as if it were family. But sometimes the main family business hits a low point. Or times are unusually tough and it seems like everyone needs help from a friend. This is where Vittana comes in: to also lend a helping hand.

Students cannot take their exams unless they pay their fees

Vittana can be another form of support in Ghana to help send to school the vast population of students whose friends or family don’t have the financial means to help them through. When a student has no other options he/she can visit a branch at Vittana’s partner Opportunity International and take out a loan to pay for school fees, hostel fees and/or whatever else is difficult to pay for related to school. Thousands of students are enrolling in university in Ghana at an exponential rate but a large percentage will either drop out or not even attend because they will not be able to afford it. This percentage of students, who are doing their best to help out their friends or help out their family when in need, could be the future leaders of Ghana who wish to help out their nation as well. A number of of our student survey responses at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, when asked why you are pursuing your studies, responded “to serve my nation”, “to improve the quality of our media”, or “to bring transparency and accountability to our leaders”. It is this sentiment that drives Vittana, to empower young people to live their life in the way they imagined and to open up the potential of an entire generation of young people.

The other day, I came across a what seemed like a strange clause in the policy for ASKI and Vittana’s pilot Loan for Educational Development Program (LEAP): Only third and fourth year students would qualify for a loan. I found myself wondering, what kind of impact are we making when the person has already made a commitment to go to college and already found a way to pay for it? Why loan them money to do what they already planned on doing?

After travelling to rural areas across Central Luzon and meeting with many potential borrowers, I found the answer. In providing loans to students through ASKI, Vittana is opening two doors simultaneously, one for the student and one for the parents. Let me explain. In contrast to many other countries around the world, higher education is not something that is only available to those fortunate enough to have wealthy parents, to receive a scholarship or to qualify for a loan. Even among the poorest households in the Philippines, higher education is a family effort, where many parents are determined to make sure their child goes to college and are willing to pay for it, regardless of their financial ability. Thus, it’s not a question of: “Will my son/daughter go to college?” Rather, it is a question of: “How much am I going to have to sacrifice to give my child the opportunity for a better life?” By offering loans to students who are already in school, Vittana is bringing their families out of a cycle of debt and poverty, providing opportunity for the student by keeping them in school long enough to graduate and providing opportunity to the parents by freeing up money for them to invest in their small businesses. Let me give you some examples.

Rice farmers hard at work in Central Luzon

Lourdes Andres is a rice farmer from a little province called Bongobon  in Central Luzon. Aside from rice, Lourdes earns a living by raising pigs and selling clothing and homemade rice cakes. Anna is Lourdes’ youngest daughter, who Lourdes boasts is a 3^rd year marketing student at the Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology. No one in Anna’s family has ever gone to college, and Lourdes wants nothing more than to see her daughter graduate college. Because rice harvesting only provides seasonal income and Lourdes’ other entrepreneurial activities only make enough money for living expenses, Lourdes is in a perpetual cycle of borrowing from her neighbors in order to afford her daughter’s school: She borrows money, then pays her neighbors back after the rice harvest and gives them cavans (or sacks) of rice as interest payments. The interest payments take away potential profits she could obtain from her rice harvests, resulting in a need to borrow from them yet again. In fact, for every 1,000 pesos (about $20) she borrows, the interest is one cavan of rice worth nearly 1,000 pesos, meaning that her borrowing interest rate is 100%. No wonder she has trouble scraping by!

Lourdes’ biggest worry is that she will not be able to afford to keep her daughter in school. Over homemade rice cakes kindly provided by Lourdes, we presented the new student loan product that is now available to Anna through Vittana and ASKI. We explained to her that we could lend Anna up to 20,000 pesos per semester at a low 4% interest rate (that definitely beats 100%!), and told her that this money comes from generous individual lenders far away in the United States. We then asked her if she and her daughter would be interested in applying. While I did not understand the words of Lourdes’ response (I was speaking through a translator), her moving display of tears and smiles said enough. Yes, she would love to apply for this loan.

Maria, excitedly telling me about her daughter

Many poor families in Central and Northern Luzon are rice farmers, and this business of using sacks of rice as interest payments is quite common. Maria Concepcion Magpali is a single mother with seven children. Twenty-two year old Cheryl is the youngest, and her father died from rabies when she was just 10 months old. Cheryl attended two years of vocational school for computer programming, funded by her mother. To pay for school, Maria, like Lourdes, borrowed from friends and neighbors and paid them back with an interest of one cavan of rice per 1,000 pesos borrowed. Maria struggled a lot during Cheryl’s education, and she knows that she cannot afford to do this again. She laments that Cheryl will not be able to continue her education if she does not receive a loan.

Because ASKI is in the beginning stages of implementing an educational loan program with the help of Vittana, part of my job is assisting in marketing and getting the word out about ASKI’s newest loan product. I spend lots of time in a tricycle crisscrossing fields of rice in the sweltering heat to attend ASKI community meetings held in little huts in rural areas.

ASKI Puangi Community Center

At the community meetings (each comprised of about 20 people), I introduce myself and Vittana and present the educational loan product to interested mothers. They are all very excited to meet me (At most centers I am the first foreigner to ever attend their community meetings) and many are interested in applying their son or daughter for an educational loan. Like Maria and Cheryl, countless families become overburdened by a cycle of debt, resulting in many students dropping out after their first or second year of college. Providing loans to 3^rd and 4^th year students relieves the financial burden of the students’ families, allowing them not only to invest more in their family businesses, but also allowing their children to continue college, obtain a degree, and substantially increase their income and create a better life for themselves and their families.

*Anna Lourdes was fully funded as of September 2011. Click here to view her profile.

We’re floored on a daily basis by students who have struggled against all odds to finish their education, lenders who time and again come back to change yet another person’s life, and Fellows who dedicate a portion of their own lives to bringing microloans to more students in developing countries. It’s the students, the lenders, our partners, and our Fellows that compel us to do what we do. But at the end of the day, it’s our supporters and donors that make it all possible.

So we are thrilled to announce that Vittana’s efforts received a big boost today! Google.org announced that it will support Vittana to build 24 additional student loan programs by 2013.  This support is perfectly timed at the end of an insane year of growth. We doubled our field partners from 10 to 20 microfinance institutions over the course of 2011 – that puts us in 12 different countries on 4 continents. Whew.  And after taking a little more than two years to reach our 1,000^th student, we’re on track to pass 2,000 students in December, less than six months later.

On stage at TEDx Brussels in November, Vittana CEO and co-founder Kushal Chakrabarti asked “What’s the one thing that can truly change the course of someone’s life? Education.” We’re thinking big. We’re out there to start a global market for education microfinance – one that will reach 1 million students by 2015. Because at the end of the day, we believe student microloans are the most scalable, sustainable, and impactful tool we have to fight global poverty.

So thank you to Google and to our many other donors and supporters for helping us change the conversation about global education.

As I sit here on the day before Thanksgiving, what comes to mind is the over 250 students on Vittana right now who are poised to transform their lives by continuing their education. Whether it’s Omar Ahmad‘s desire to become a civil engineer in Jordan or Lidia Severina Aban‘s goal to drive economic development in Bolivia, each one of our students has a dream. And that dream will not only change their lives, but the futures of their children and their grandchildren.

As many of you know, the past two weeks have been a rollercoaster ride as we swelled to the top 3 of Chase Community Giving – a crowd-sourced philanthropy program that allows users to vote for local charities to help them win up to $250,000 in grants. On the last day of the competition, however, we were devastated to find out from Chase that over 8,000 of our votes were considered ineligible due to technicalities in voting that they are unable to disclose to us for proprietary reasons. We have been in ongoing communication with Chase to discover why these votes have been called into question since Vittana would never engage in auto voting, robo voting, or any other means to create fraudulent votes. We were thrilled to see that our international community turned out in full force to support us and are deeply saddened by the disappointing results of this competition.

What I’m most thankful for today though is our phenomenal Vittana community of supporters and lenders. Whether you voted for us in the Chase Community Giving challenge or have lent directly to our students, you have personally made a difference in someone’s life. And for that every one of you counts.

When I see my 93 year old grandmother tomorrow, who is still full of as much gumption and drive as I can imagine she was seventy years ago, I’m going to thank her. She was the one who set the direction for my family when she graduated from college and gave each and every one of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren the chance for a better life. With your support, every one of Vittana’s students can turn to their grandchildren one day and ask, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

I must admit I knew very little about the Philippines before I arrived. What I did know was that it’s an archipelago in South East Asia and the only Christian nation in Asia. I knew basically nothing about what the people, politics, economy or food was like. It was a big surprise to me that there were travel warnings for the Philippines, specifically the island of Mindanao where I’d be stationed, due to kidnappings, terrorism and political corruption. I was plainly told by Vittana about the risks prior to my departure and was even given the opportunity to change my host country to one without travel warnings. However, I decided to pursue my fellowship in the Philippines.

The Philippines is a nation in turmoil. There are a lot of problems with political corruption as it is widely known that in most important elections the votes are paid for by the politician with the most money. If money doesn’t work then fear and violence are used to ensure power. Less than two years ago the Maguindanao massacre occurred where more than 50 people were murdered with small arms. They were delivering the nomination of a candidate who would oppose the governorship of the reigning family in the province of Maguindanao. 22 journalist were murdered and it became the single deadliest day for journalists in history. Even before this event the Philippines was the second deadliest place for journalists. Second only to Iraq.

Aside from political violence there is violence from extreme terrorism. In the south of the Philippines Abu Sayyaf is a serious threat. They are Islamic extremists who are responsible for bombings, kidnappings, mass killings and are said to have links to Al Qaeda. Abu Sayyaf are often connected to lawless pirates throughout the Sulu Sea making travel throughout the region extremely hazardous. Currently the group has kidnapped several people which are being held for ransom.

Philippine soldiers across the street from the Paglaum branch in Tudela

Another Islamic group that is fighting the government is the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Possibly seen as a more legitimate group, they are fighting for self determination and the ability to govern themselves in Islamic regions of Mindanao.

There is also the New Peoples Army (NPA) which is the military arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Residing mostly in the jungles of remote areas throughout the Philippines the NPA has been fighting the government since 1969. The fight wages on and it is not uncommon to see Philippine soldiers in the streets armed and ready for action.

Researchers, like Patricio Justino of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, have found that violence often exacerbates existing problems in impoverished societies. Lack of health, nutrition and education are serious side effects of widespread violence. Support from the state diminishes as more efforts are focused on military activities. Especially in places where corruption runs rampant, like here in the Philippines, very little money is invested in education. The lack of investment in human capital has long term affects for the country and seriously impairs the ability to improve the economy or combat poverty.

This is what makes Vittana’s work so important. Vittana works to combat this lack of investment in human capital. Vittana’s mission statement makes it clear that “we believe the biggest waste in the world is not oil or food or, really, any other material thing–but rather, human potential.” Vittana enables lenders to invest in students who are willing to overcome poverty, violence and any other hindrance placed in their way in order to succeed.

Average Filipino home in rural MIndanao

Cresti Luna Caliguid is a wonderful example of a student that is willing to overcome challenges in order to pursue education and make a better life for herself and her family.

Cresti Luna Caliguid’s mother passed away when she was only two years old. She is one of five children and is the second youngest. Her father is a public school teacher in Ozamiz City. As a single parent, he has somehow managed to send almost all of his children to college even on a meager teachers salary of 15,000 Philippine pesos per month($350 US dollars). Making ends meet has always been a challenge. Aware of her families financial difficulties Cresti Luna has always studied hard. Due to her hard work she received a partial scholarship at La Salle University and was also given a job at the school to help pay for her schooling. Although extremely helpful this financial assistance only covered about half of her expenses.

Sometimes Cresti doesn’t have enough money to pay for school projects, books or field trips like the CPA convention last year in Cagayan De Oro. The convention would have been a perfect opportunity to network and make vital connections that would help her land a job after graduating. However, the trip cost was well out of her price range and she had to pass up a golden opportunity.

This is a tragic and all too common story among students that I have met here in the Philippines. They scrape by with what little money available to them and are often unable to take full advantage of educational opportunities offered. For Cresti money has not prevented her from excelling in the classroom or taking part in extra curricular activities as the Chairman of the student government. This loan from Vittana is a blessing that will help her finish her Accountancy course and prepare for a successful future in business.

If you’re like us and believe in human potential then we invite you to be a part of our movement to combat poverty. Lend to one of our students here and invest in the human potential of students like Cresti Luna.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcG2bdeWg_4[/youtube]

I would like to begin this blog entry with one of my favorite quotes: “Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told.” Well, it ‘hit’ me at a very young age…

Me, on top of the Great Wall of China

Since the moment I was able to think beyond material needs (When is mommy going to feed me? I wanna take a nap, etc. etc.), I have always had an interest in travel and in learning about cultures beyond the ones I knew. When I was 5 years old, I boasted that my goal in life was to visit every country in the world, and once I had done that, I would become an astronaut so that I could visit other planets. Since then, I have slowly been making that goal a reality. I have traveled quite extensively during my 29 years on Earth, having so far visited 42 countries (and no, I have not been to any other planets…yet!).

My name is Kim and I will be serving as a Vittana Fellow in the Philippines for the second half of 2011. Since you will be hearing from me quite often, I thought it would be important to first give you a little background information about me.

While I had a few brief vacations outside of the United States growing up, my extensive traveling did not really begin until college. Originally a film major at the University of Colorado in Boulder, I switched to international studies in order to get into a study abroad program in Belgium. My classes there fascinated me, and being able to hear opinions on international issues from students from all over the world really opened my eyes to the cultural differences that can sometimes prove a barrier to international development. After that, film was forever placed on the back burner as a future hobby, and I continued my education in international studies. After obtaining a B.A. in International Studies, I realized that the economics side of international studies most captivated me, as it seemed to be the driving force behind the functioning of the entire world, yet I felt I had only scratched the surface of understanding what exactly international economics entailed. I needed to conquer this thing called economics, and to do so I decided to attend the University of Denver’s Graduate School of International Studies to obtain a master’s degree in Global Finance, Trade, and Economic Integration. And conquer I did, learning about the many dimensions of international economics such as inflation, exchange rates, fiscal policy, trade, taxation, labor migration, banking, capitalism, liberalism, and Marxism, to name a few.

Handing out school supplies in rural Tibet

Moreover, during one of my summers off, I traveled to Tibet with a non-profit called the Tibetan Village Project, and visited rural villages to assess their educational, healthcare, and income-generating needs. This trip, combined with my economics education, strengthened my belief that one cannot apply a blanket strategy of development to every country in the world and thus reaffirmed my opinion that top-down development approaches often do not reach the people they are intending to help. “Grassroots development or bust!”, I told myself. And my interest in microfinance was born, although at this point I didn’t call it that, because I didn’t know what microfinance was.

After graduation, I moved to San Francisco, where I got a job in finance at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. While I learned a lot there, I wanted to refocus my career towards international endeavors, and I quit my job, bought a one-way ticket to Thailand, and took off to explore the world and see what I could do to help impoverished people in less developed countries. During my year of traveling all over Southeast Asia, I learned about this thing called microfinance, and was elated to learn that there was something out there that combined all my piecemeal ideas on how best to achieve economic development into one malleable strategy that could be molded to serve the needs of whatever community it was intending to help.

Local Man in the Baliem Valley of Papua, Indonesia

When I returned from my journey, I immediately went to work looking for a way to get involved in microfinance, and spent the first few months of 2011 in Peru, volunteering as an Economic Development and Microfinance Monitor for SKIP, a small non-profit in Trujillo. There I assisted families in obtaining small business loans, helped manage a community income generation project through shoe and jewelry-making, and performed research that contributed to helping families open their first bank accounts. However, my extended time in Southeast Asia gave me a soft spot for the region, and I decided to leave Peru and try to refocus my energies on Southeast Asia. Browsing the internet for opportunities in Asia, I stumbled across Vittana. I had never heard of a microfinance non-profit that specializes in student loans, and this idea seemed brilliant to me, as it combined microfinance with what I believe to be the root cause of poverty: lack of education.

I have only been in the Philippines for 3 days, and already I am amazed at the positive attitude of everyone I meet. In fact, I am not sure how people’s faces don’t get sore from so much smiling. I think I am going to like it here (sore face-muscles notwithstanding!). During my 6 months as a Vittana Fellow in the Philippines, I am looking forward to gaining a greater understanding of microfinance in practice and I hope to help communities in the Philippines to establish a student loan framework, so that hard-working people here have the opportunity to obtain a better future for themselves and their families. At the end of my fellowship, I plan to seek a microfinance-related job either in SE Asia or in the United States, in order to continue my goal of improving the lives of people who lack the opportunity to do so on their own.

Hot, humid, busy, loud and exciting are good words to describe my experience stepping off the plane at the airport in the Philippines. My destination, you ask? A tiny, rural province called Misamis Occidental on the island of Mindanao, the second largest island of the Philippines.

Everywhere I looked, constant business activity was taking place and although I was a little loopy from traveling for two days it was very evident that this was an energetic and vigorous place. As I was driven to Plaridel, my final destination where I’d be living for the next 5 months, I noticed even on rural country roads and in small hamlets of houses that there were always people working away.

Filipino street food...delicious

Like many impoverished people of the world, Filipinos use every resource they have available to make a life for themselves. They use every scrap of food, plastic or metal to make this meal, patch that hole or cook that fish. Not only was it immediately apparent that Filipinos are resourceful, but also that they must be the happiest  and friendliest people on Earth. Every person that I meet, from the cab driver in Manila or the five Filipina ladies I live with in Plaridel, goes out of their way to accommodate and be as hospitable as possible. They are easy to laugh and joke with even in times of hardship or plight. This is a far cry from my hometown of Seattle where most people in the street hesitate to look you in the eye and are very reluctant to say hello to strangers.

After getting to know some of the people here I also noticed how dedicated, honest and sincere they are. People truly care about one another. Whether it is a beggar on the street, a co-worker or a family member Filipinos go out of their way to help one another. I constantly hear Filipinos referring to one another as brothers and sisters even though they are talking about people they do not even know.

A Filipino rice field. Like many places in Asia, rice is a staple and is consumed at nearly every single meal.

The microfinance institution that Vittana has partnered with here is the embodiment of that Filipino spirit. They are called Paglaum Multi-Purpose Cooperative or PMPC. Paglaum means “hope” in the local dialect.  PMPC provides services to the community with the goal of lifting people out of poverty. I will be spending my time in the Philippines working out of their offices and living with their employees (the five Filipinas I mentioned earlier).

PMPC started as the livelihood arm of Paglaum Community Development Foundation which is focused on “child development through a holistic approach.” The cooperative grew from 35 members and initial capital of 2,000 pesos ($500 dollars)  when it started in 1992. It now serves 30,000 members with capital of 100 million pesos ($2.5 million dollars).

The cooperative’s work with Kiva over the past few years is a good example of their dedication to service of the community. Through that partnership they have been able to provide low interest micro loans to assist entrepreneurs such as farmers, grocers and butchers to better their businesses and improve their standard of living.

A customer being helped by the always helpful staff at a Paglaum Multi-Purpose Cooperative office in Misamis Occidental.

Here at Vittana we hope to build off of that success and expand into education to empower students in this rural area. By bringing low interest student loans to this area of the Philippines we hope to make higher education attainable and assist people that need education most. Low interest student loans of this nature are quite rare in Misamis Occidental and in most places in the developing world. It is truly an honor to be able to offer a service that is in such high demand to this hard working, dedicated and under-served population.

I have no doubt that we have an amazing partner in Paglaum. While working with Kiva in less than 3 years PMPC has given loans to over 7000 entrepreneurs worth nearly 2 million dollars. Vittana’s goal to reach 1 million student loans by 2015 is definitely within reach if we continue to partner with folks as focused and ambitious as Paglaum.

Stay tuned until next time to see how things are going in the Philippines and click here to check out some of our students.

And the winner is....my first Filipino beauty pageant. The winner received $500 dollars cash prize and a year of free college tuition

“A Key”
“The Greatest Thing”
“The First Priority”
“Opens Your Mind”
“Empowerment”
“Life”

These are just some of the answers that students at various schools across Kigali gave to the question, “What does education mean to you?” As I spoke with students about education, I started to reflect on my own choice to continue my education at the University of Michigan this upcoming fall. In my own video response to the same question about education, I said that education means sacrifice. A few years back, I was driven by my “holy discontent” to pursue higher education. To prepare myself, I read about

how other students have taken the plunge to pursue graduate school. Besides sacrificing their current income to incur tens and even hundreds of thousands in student loan debt, they talked about the personal sacrifices. At the time, I knew little of the enormity and scale of these sacrifices. But just like these students did, I made those same sacrifices in the coming years as I spent hours upon hours studying for the GMAT and writing (and rewriting and rewriting..) my applications in hotel rooms (after long days working with my client) and coffee shops.

Tea and Me

More importantly, I sacrificed my personal time that I could have spent with those close to me. And like the other business school applicants, I was making this personal choice consciously with no guarantee of return. But true sacrifice, as the definition of the word dictates, is surrendering something of value (my time, effort, money, and life) to gain something more desirable: the education to achieve my goals. And from my conversations with more than a hundred students from six different schools and reading more than 500 student survey responses, there is no question in my mind that they understand what education means.

Although all of the students have inspired me with their passion to pursue higher education, I have been especially motivated by my experiences with the students at the Akilah Institute.

Welcome to Akilah

A two-year vocational college for women in Rwanda, the Akilah Institute started around two years ago to develop leaders intent on transforming customer care in Rwanda’s rapidly growing hospitality/tourism industry. Some of my natural affinity towards Akilah probably comes from my focus on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in my former life as a consultant. As a CRM consultant, I collaborated with large corporations to shift their operations and strategy from an internal, product perspective to a customer’s perspective or in industry-speak, “customer-centricity”. From my experiences, I could foresee both the challenges that these young leaders will face and the enormous opportunities for them to transform customer experiences in Rwanda.

My conversations with the students at Akilah, however, are the real reason for my continued drive towards creating a student loan market in Rwanda. In countries like Rwanda, financial institutions often perceive students as a ‘high risk’ investment mainly because the student loan market does not exist and little to no information is available. From our focus group sessions, student surveys, and student interviews, however, the students would wholeheartedly disagree with their ‘risky’ status. With Urwego Opportunity Bank (UOB LINK), Vittana’s partner organization in Rwanda, we intend to prove that students in Rwanda and across the world have the same potential and drive to achieve their dreams.

Classroom at Akilah

My most recent interview with Jackline Kirabo, a student at the Akilah Institute, leaves no question in my mind as to whether student loans will have a positive impact on students and the country as a whole. As Jackline proclaimed, education is truly the key to your life. A life that, with education, you can call your own.