Returning missionaries to receive helping hand in developing lands
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Solomon Aliche's story is not unique.
Like so many other returned missionaries in his native Nigeria, he needed an education to gain employment but didn't have any hope of paying for it.
So Brother Aliche borrowed 15,500 naira from the Church's International Education Fund, and earned a four-year degree. After graduating and finding employment, he repaid the entire amount within six years. Today he works as the finance assistant in the Nigeria Presiding Bishopric Office Service Center — and has continued to donate to the education fund that did so much to change his life.
Soon that education fund will become part of the larger Perpetual Education Fund announced March 31 by President Gordon B. Hinckley. (See April 7, 2001, Church News.)
Bryan Weston, Church Educational System executive assistant, said the new fund — just as other Church financial assistance programs — will continue to improve the lives of young Church members like Soloman Aliche, but will now be "much more widely available."
The Perpetual Education Fund will assist missionaries who serve from areas such as Asia, Africa, Mexico, Central America, South America and the Philippines who often return to a life of poverty after Church service, lacking the resources to pay for an education, said President Hinckley during 171st Annual General Conference priesthood session.
The program, funded by contributions from Church members, will be directed through the Church's institute program, which maintains 321 institute buildings throughout the world as well as 1,950 institute programs from Belize to Nigeria with more than 316,000 participants.
Local bishops and stake presidents will clear the applicants to determine that they are worthy and in need of help. Institute directors will accept applications and make recommendations for loans. The names and the prescribed amount of loans for the prospective students will then be sent to Salt Lake City, where funds will be issued, payable not to the individual but to the institution where they will receive their schooling.
The Church Educational System began issuing loans through the International Education Fund in 1973. Since that time, more than 25,000 young people living in 55 different countries have received loans averaging $335 each. Last year almost 8,000 young people received loans; this year the Church is on track to issue much more than that.
President Hinckley said he expects the Perpetual Education Fund to "benefit a very substantial number." Currently the Church has about 14,000 missionaries serving from developing nations who could take advantage of the program when released.
Brother Weston said there is dramatic need for this massive educational movement. In several South American countries, for example, only half of the young men who serve missions for the Church have graduated from high school.
Some of these young Church members live in such poverty that they feel blessed if they can afford just one meal a day, he added.
"The Perpetual Education Fund is really breaking the mold," he said. "It will open doors to young people who never even considered this opportunity. It really is a wonderful new day for the Church throughout the world."
Brother Weston said CES plans to work closely with Welfare Services Employment Resources to help many of these young people. In countries such as Mexico, he continued, research indicates that the majority of the educated population was sponsored by a company. English training and a career plan could play a substantial role in some young Church members becoming educated, he said.
"It is a revolutionary policy," said Elder Walter F. Gonzalez, a newly called Seventy and South America North CES area director.
Elder Gonzalez said scores of young, faithful Latin Americans will now have an opportunity to better themselves, their families and their faith.
"The missionaries will have opportunities to come back home and get an education," he said. "Their service in the Church will improve in every way. If these return missionaries can get better jobs they will have more time to serve the Lord."
President George E. Johnson of the Philippines San Pablo Mission, said his 85 Filipino missionaries are just now beginning to understand the impact of the new education program. "There is not one Filipino missionary that we have had or have now who will not benefit one way or another from this Perpetual Education Fund," President Johnson said.
He explained that in the Philippines, only 40 out of every 100 students go to high school. Out of the 40 high school graduates, only 15 will begin two-year college, and only three will graduate.
Church members who earn degrees will have a huge advantage in competing for employment in a nation where opportunities are limited — even for those with a college degree, he said. Without a degree most would become laborers, searching for the little work that is available, while raising families in poverty.
President Johnson said many of his native missionaries are already a notch ahead because they speak English. The education fund "will just help them that much more, help them make the final step," he explained.
"You don't know how thrilled we are to know about this fund," President Johnson said. "It is a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for these young people."
E-mail: sarah@desnews.com
