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DoubleR
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« on: April 16, 2009, 10:47:28 PM » |
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I came across the website for Vittana Foundation, a nonprofit group based in Seattle that is looking to launch a P2P platform for making educational microloans to students in developing countries. I've signed up to receive e-mail updates from them so that I can be notified when they go live. I know KF has many supporters and donors to Education Generation. For me, however, my charitable giving dollars have already been designated so I am hoping this will give me an opportunity to support specific students through a loan without having to make a donation. Discovering this website was quite timely since the topic of loans to first-time teachers was mentioned on the Kiva conference call. More information about the organization and its mission can be found here: http://vittana.org/
As a side note, the founder and CEO is also a guide dog trainer. The Puget Sound Business Journal did a profile of him: http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/04/13/story13.html?b=1239595200^1809710Regards, Ronan |
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Karoline
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« Reply To This #1 on: April 17, 2009, 10:04:04 AM » |
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I also signed up for the newsletter. It'll be interesting to see what this site will be like.
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"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do." - Edward Everett Hale.
"Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light." - Norman B. Rice.
"Life is God's gift to man. What we do with it is our gift to God."
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Jan & John
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« Reply To This #2 on: May 02, 2009, 06:51:08 PM » |
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just got an email to say Vittana is live... ...first student I read about is partnered through Fundacion Paraguaya so that's a good step, I think... I wonder about the repayments though - there is no set time - just "when the student gets a job" I'm still going to watch this site... jan edit: I decided to try one $25 - here is what the confirmation email says... Thank you, Jan. We’ve received your $25 loan to María Noelia Gomez Nuñez. 100% of your $25 loan goes straight to the students. We don’t keep a single cent of it.
How It Works:
Next, we will pass on your loan to our partner microfinance institution working with María.
1. Your students will go to school and study towards their chosen profession. Our partner and the student will try to provide updates during this period. Depending on the loan, your student may also begin repaying at this time.
2. After they graduate, they will start repaying your loan. Congratulations! You’ve helped them take the first step towards truly breaking the cycle of poverty.
3. When your loan has been fully repaid, we will re-deposit your loan back into your PayPal account. At that time, you can choose to re-invest it another student or withdraw it entirely.
Onward!
The Vittana Team
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« Last Edit: May 02, 2009, 06:58:51 PM by Jan & John »
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"The place God calls you to is the place where your deepest gladness and the world's deepest hunger meet" - Fredrick Buechner (in Wishful Thinking). "Every child should be well born, well fed, well taught, well housed and well treated." Maude Riley, Alberta Council on Child and Family Welfare 1923 "Each of us feels that we are just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less without that missing drop." --Mother Teresa 1 click per person per day on this link means 1 additional cent for the Fistula Foundation - thanks! |
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Mona
Kiva Supporter
Berlin
Gender: 
Posts: 2255
Dawn at 3.069 m on La Reunion's Piton de Neige
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« Reply To This #3 on: May 03, 2009, 12:38:38 AM » |
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I'll give it a try, too. In the upper right corner it is said that the loan is "$881 loan for 12 months" so I think we could expect the money in about a year from now on - assumed that Jose will be able to find a job so fast.
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Jan & John
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« Reply To This #5 on: June 09, 2009, 10:45:14 AM » |
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I saw that too, Charmaine, and I'm tempted because I worked in a bank all my working life. The one thing that I find missing on the Vittana site is that I can't find any connection with any other lenders. Here at Kiva and on the Education Generation site you can see who else is helping the same person. waiting to see how this grows... jan  |
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"The place God calls you to is the place where your deepest gladness and the world's deepest hunger meet" - Fredrick Buechner (in Wishful Thinking). "Every child should be well born, well fed, well taught, well housed and well treated." Maude Riley, Alberta Council on Child and Family Welfare 1923 "Each of us feels that we are just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less without that missing drop." --Mother Teresa 1 click per person per day on this link means 1 additional cent for the Fistula Foundation - thanks! |
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wannado
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« Reply To This #6 on: June 09, 2009, 12:18:38 PM » |
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I saw that too, Charmaine, and I'm tempted because I worked in a bank all my working life.
The one thing that I find missing on the Vittana site is that I can't find any connection with any other lenders.
Hey Jan! If you want to join me I just lent Natalia $25 for her bank teller training  Marsha |
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cjp1973
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« Reply To This #7 on: September 09, 2009, 06:32:17 AM » |
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If there is anyone who would like to comment on improvements that they would like to see on Vittana.org can you please send me a pm. I received the following email from Kushal Co-Founder and CEO of Vittana. So I will be chatting with them the beginning of next week. Charmaine The missing student on your dashboard was due to us only showing your
most recent 6 newsfeed items. We've increased this to showing 12 for
now. This should enable you to see your missing student. To be
clear, this is a stopgap measure.
Originally, the dashboard was intended as a newsfeed and it was
expected that old news items would "fall off" your newsfeed. We
planned to add something to allow you to see all your loans you made
in the past, but, these past few months, we've been totally focused on
just getting new students to the website. We currently have 11 MFIs
spinning up throughout the world (look for Mongolia and Vietnam in the
coming weeks) and a number of students coming online. We're now
returning our attention back to the website.
Pretty soon, we'll be redoing parts of our website. Some of that is
definitely intended to address the concerns that you mentioned, i.e.
to make the site more personal and usable. If you have some time, I'd
love to go over with you any ideas you have to make our site better.
Among other things, you mentioned you'd like to have more control over
your portfolio and I'd like to make sure we do our best to cover that.
Would you have some time to talk on the phone in the next 1-2 weeks?
My schedule looks a little crazy for the next week, but perhaps next
week sometime?Brett will be joining us too and looks forward to
talking more with you. |
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ray210
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« Reply To This #8 on: January 20, 2010, 11:29:02 AM » |
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Just started lending to a Vietnamese student on Vittana. Maybe they'll merge with Kiva some day!
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Jan & John
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« Reply To This #9 on: January 20, 2010, 01:17:53 PM » |
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Hi Ray... good for you. We have 7 students on our 'dashboard' right now on Vittana. 3 have already started paying back and that's cool because the credits don't stay at Vittana, they go directly back into our PayPal account and we are notified via email. however, they have reported one of our students as missing the November payment but still in touch. so all is not peachy keen just yet  -jan- edit: Missed Payment
Dania did not make her November payment on time. Dania remains in contact with Vittana’s partner organization, AFODENIC, and is committed to paying back her loan. |
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« Last Edit: January 20, 2010, 01:21:21 PM by Jan & John »
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"The place God calls you to is the place where your deepest gladness and the world's deepest hunger meet" - Fredrick Buechner (in Wishful Thinking). "Every child should be well born, well fed, well taught, well housed and well treated." Maude Riley, Alberta Council on Child and Family Welfare 1923 "Each of us feels that we are just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less without that missing drop." --Mother Teresa 1 click per person per day on this link means 1 additional cent for the Fistula Foundation - thanks! |
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Amy-in-PHX
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« Reply To This #10 on: February 17, 2011, 08:44:39 PM » |
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FYI, Vittana.org has several new student loans posted - all Nicaraguans.
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We can do no great things - only small things with great love. (Mother Teresa)
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