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… Since the moment I
I have been on an education high recently and its because of a very exciting event that occurred here in the Philippines. Since my arrival, Vittana’s partner here in the province of Misamis Occidental officially launched its student loan product! Our partner, Paglaum Multi-Purpose Cooperative (PMPC), held the event to
The beginning of my journey that has lead me to the “land of a thousand hills,” Rwanda, began two years ago. It began with many casual conversations with friends, family, and mentors about how I might fulfill a deep, perhaps overly idealistic desire to change the world. Maybe I’ve been
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
More than 100 students have graduated college with Vittana loans in Nicaragua, so that’s really cool. I have the good fortune of getting to talk to them about the positive impact our loans have on their lives, which is constantly inspiring. They’ve all worked hard and made sacrifices to get
It’s been clear for a long time that Vittana’s loans were changing lives. Stories filtered in from students around the world who wouldn’t have graduated college without a loan and who are now living better lives because of their college degree. Still, there’s something to be said for hard numbers.
It began with an assassination. Elected to the Philippine Senate in 1967, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. was a staunch opponent of the then President Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos was an authoritarian ruler who declared martial law in 1972 and subsequently took over a large number of businesses, contributing greatly to a
The end of the semester at Teachers College in New York found my classmates and I scrambling to prepare for summer internships. It was a stressful but exciting time, an opportunity to put into practice the knowledge and skills we had gleaned from a rigorous year of academic work. Indeed
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