A young father in the Philippines held a number of coins tightly in his hand. He told Elder Marion D. Hanks, then an LDS area executive administrator, of a terrible choice: The man could either put a bowl of rice on the table to feed his family of seven children or use the money to purchase a ride on a "Jeepney" to attend their LDS meetings. Temporal or spiritual food - which do you choose?
The Philippines, like other developing countries, suffers from unemployment and hunger. While the government says unemployment is at 9 percent or 10 percent, former Philippines mission president Menlo F. Smith says it is more like 50 percent unemployed or underemployed."Two-thirds of them go to bed hungry each night," Smith said. "They will never in their lives see a paycheck. They work in the `informal' economy, scavenging at the local landfill or trying to make some little product to sell, struggling to live by their wits."
The two were among a group that did more than just shake their heads at the injustice of life. They found a way to give a "hand up, not a handout." Relying on the expertise of such men as BYU Marriott School of Management profes-sor Warner P. Woodworth and private investor Steven H. Mann, the International Enterprise Development Foundation (or Enterprise Mentors) was founded in 1990.
Gathering in Salt Lake City for a recent board meeting Smith, Enterprise Mentors president explained, "As a businessman, it was obvious to me these people lacked entrepreneurial management skills. After a series of meetings we formed the U.S.-based Enterprise Mentors as a support foundation for training and support. We find local people in a position to organize and administer this program of self-help." Enterprise Mentors serves people of all faiths and is privately supported, receiving no government funds.
Enterprise Mentors then went looking for people in the Philippines to organize local foundations to administer the program. "These people had been disenfranchised by the system, they could not walk into a bank and borrow a half-million pesos. Instead they were at the mercy of the `5/6th' lenders who charged 30 and 40 percent interest," Smith said. The local Filipino foundations give training in business skills, offer opportunity education and business consulting, teach record-keeping systems and set up small loan facilities. Loans are administered through a "village" banking system, giving small loans to people without collateral. "There are five or six other people in the village bank who are mutually responsible for one another's success. It's a peer pressure form of collateral with a 96 percent repayment rate. When one small loan is repaid, they can work up to a larger loan," Smith said.
The ties of Elder Hanks, now an LDS general authority emeritus, with the Filipino people go back to when he served as executive administrator for the LDS Church's Southeast Asia Area. Enterprise Mentors, he said, "offers the purest kind of sensible assistance: help the hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless and sick."
Elder Hanks visited a woman the foundation was assisting. "We walked out about a half-mile and up steps carved in a muddy hillside. This little person lived in a hut with no electricity. On an ancient treadle sewing machine she made shoe coverings, packed them in attractive packages and put them on her back. She would take a `Jeepney,' then cross the River Negros to sell her backpack full of materials. She would pay some guy `6 for 5' or worse and have nothing left when she was finished. On Monday she would have to borrow money again. She had six or eight little children. She now pays a rational market rate and is feeding her children. She is able to pay two helpers and her children help, too. This really made a convert of me," he said. Elder Hanks now serves as chairman of the board of Enterprise Mentors.
Maria Luisa "Elo" Lopez is the executive director of the Manila foundation. She is the longest-tenured executive director among the three foundations in the Philippines. As with many of Enterprise Mentor's staff and clients, Lopez is not a member of the LDS Church.
Lopez told about a "downsizing" that cost 861 people their jobs. With help from the local foundation that she heads, 40 of the employees were encouraged to use their combined severance pay as working capital. "These people formed a cooperative contracting service and got a one-year contract and started to buy machines. They now employ 200 and have $4 million pesos in assets and now contract to San Miguel, the company that laid them off," she said.
Besides its three foundations in the Philippines, Enterprise Mentors has just been established in Guatemala, and another foundation is being formed in Mexico City. A foundation in slightly modified form is now in Brazil.
Smith said, "The only way to help people is to help them help themselves. We teach self-sufficiency and self-reliance."
Enterprise Mentors is a nonprofit foundation, and 100 percent of contributions go directly to client services. All administration funds are covered by board members. Those wishing to help this humanitarian organization can send contributions to: Enterprise Mentors, 510 Maryville College Drive, Suite 210, St. Louis, MO 63141. Phone numbers are 314-453-0006 or 314-453-9700.