Here at Vittana, our mission statement is our engine. It’s what gets us moving each day, keeps us emailing late into the night, and inspires many whiteboards’ worth of brainstorming. The statement itself is pretty straightforward: “Our mission is to bring student loans to the developing world through the power of person-to-person lending.” But what do we mean by that?
The first answer is obvious. Through Vittana, people like you make loans directly to motivated students in countries like Nicaragua, Peru, and Paraguay. The students pay you back, and you then have the opportunity to re-invest in the future of another hard-working young person. By creating an outstanding web-platform and a high-functioning network of innovative microfinance partners (MFI’s), we will directly provide student loans in countries where they simply did not exist before. Thanks to the commitment of Vittana’s lenders, who’ve already lent more than $10,000 in just a few months, this element of our mission has gone from inspirational dream to inspirational reality.
The second element of the mission is less obvious but just as important as the first, and the key lies here: “the power of person-to-person lending.” MFIs want to lend to students. Students want to go to school. But because no one has ever proven that students are worth the risk, few large banks or development agencies (where MFIs get the money they lend to their borrowers) are willing to give MFIs the money they need to make it happen. By doing this right, we — you as lenders and Vittana as a non-profit — can prove them wrong, and that’s where person-to-person lending can really flex its power. We can bring $1 million (give us time!) in student loans directly to the developing world, but if the success of person-to-person student lending inspires a investment ten times larger from a large bank, then we’re really bringin’ it (sorry).
Just this week, Vittana got a piece of news that will help the second element of the mission take some baby steps off of the whiteboard and into reality: David Antonio Adorno Arriola, an 18-year old computer student from Paraguay, used the skills he learned in his short training course to find a job!
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Thanks for this article. I worked and went to school in Hong Kong. After getting a degree in journalism, I owe quite a bit of gratitude to my old institution. I’m trying to work with them to help set up opportunities for students in China to attend the University of Shantou to get journalism degrees, and while I am focused on helping students from within that developing country, I am also trying to work to help students from America study there, as well. There are truly multiple benefits for China, the US and for the families of the students from mainland China in enabling young men and women to do this kind of work.
Let’s chat if you read this and can discuss opportunities with me.
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