Just a quick follow up to my post about Vittana. I was thrilled to co host the March 8th (International Women’s Day) Twitter party in support of their goal of raising funds for the education of 100 women.
They did it!
From their press release:
Vittana, the non-profit organization that has pioneered online, person-to-person micro-lending to give students from developing countries a resource for student loans, announces that its March 2012 International Women’s Day Campaign helped empower 109 female students with loans from 584 lenders from around the globe.
“Vittana is a vehicle to help students struggling to complete their education realize their dreams and their full potential through a global connection,” says Kushal Chakrabarti, Founder and CEO of Vittana. “This March, we asked the world to rise to the challenge of helping 100 female students create opportunity and a brighter future for themselves through education, and the world responded tremendously.”
In honor of International Women’s Day 2012 and to support Women’s History Month, Vittana’s month-long initiative, which kicked off on March 8th and ended March 31st, utilized social media including Facebook and Twitter to encourage connections between students to lenders by sharing personal stories and tracking lending progress. With loan amounts starting at just $25, 584 individuals were able to give over 100 women the means to education and the potential to triple their income and build a better life.
Campaign milestones included: March 8th, kicking off the initiative with loans secured for 45 female students; March 29th, when Vittana reached its goal of funding 100 women; and March 31st, closing the initiative with a total of 109 micro-financed female students.
The female students who received access to funding through Vittana include: #100, Sylvia Eugenia Solis from Bolivia, who is pursuing an Accounting degree; #99, Maura Valeska Flores from Nicaragua, who is studying Business; and #98, Razan Qaran NEED INFO. A full list of the 100 female students who received micro-financing during March 2012 can be viewed on Vittana’s Facebook page.
If you have not already visited the Vittana.org site, now is a good time to go. There are thousands of students all over the world who need a little help (and just a little, really!) to complete their educational goals. It’s a low risk proposition for you with a major gain for the world.
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