Vittana

While watching Lipstick Jungle on Hulu.com last night an ad for Vittana splashed on the screen. A cause that caught my attention. My college education cost me nearly $50,000. My husband’s cost closer to $100,000. In countries less fortunate than ours, tuition can cost less than $500. Whoa! My education or an educations for at least 500 students from less than perfect countries. These countries do not have student loans programs. If the money is not available they are out of luck. But armed with the college degree they are likely to earn 3-6 times more money that they now do.

Our mission statement

Our mission is to help young people around the world get access to higher education for the first time.

The problem
When it comes to education, traditional aid and development have always been about literacy and primary school. Today, because of these and other efforts, an entire generation of young people is finishing basic education and hoping to do more.

However, because no one’s thought about higher education, these amazing, inspiring young adults are being led off a cliff. Despite the enormous investments of time and aid money so far, they’re ending up stuck in the same place as their parents. It’s hard to believe, but in most developing countries, loans for college or vocational school simply don’t exist.

Our idea

We see this as the “last mile” of education: if you can get someone just $700 more and keep them in school for just 6-12 months more, you can instantly make good on the previous 18 years of investment. If that sounds too good to be true, consider an American analogy: a high school graduate might make $8/hour but a vocationally-educated electrician might earn $33/hour. Vittana graduates earn 200-300% of their previous income — that is, about $18/day vs. $6/day.

Vittana builds some of the world’s first college loan programs in developing countries. You can imagine how hard this is: no IRS, no credit bureaus, no school accreditation. Over the last two years, we’ve developed the beginnings of a strong model to bring student loans to developing countries. We are good at what we do: Vittana students have a 95% success and repayment rate on their loans.

Students from those programs appear here on vittana.org, where they’re able to get a loan from people like you around the world. We’re not talking $30K or $50K per year — as of June 2010, the average total Vittana loan request was for $655.11. A $25 or $50 loan to a Vittana student can make a tremendous change in that young man or woman’s life.

This can once and for all completely break the cycle of poverty in a family. Consider not only how a Vittana graduate’s life changes, but also consider everyone else around them. Imagine how different the default life trajectory is for the daughter of someone selling trinkets for a living vs. the daughter of a college-educated nurse.

Pretty amazing stuff. I will be checking into this cause. Looks like a wonderful place to help others who don’t have the means.