Charity Raises Money for Small Loans to Help Overseas Students

By Nicole Wallace

The Vittana Foundation, a new organization in Seattle, has created a Web site that allows people on the Internet to make smalls loans to help students in emerging countries, such as Nicaragua, Peru, and the Philippines, pay for college or vocational training.

Microfinance institutions want to make student loans, but because that idea has not been proven in the developing world, they can't get the capital needed to make the loans, says Kushal Chakrabarti, the nonprofit organization's