In classrooms and outside we have come to embrace the prophetic teachings of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and Gordon B. Hinckley, along with spiritual leaders such as the Dalai Lama who suggests that, "In times of need, one should rise to the occasion and fight bravely for what is right."
For readers and bloggers, my goal in this brief piece is to simply share a few examples of what you may consider doing, through stories and websites where more information may be accessed. I've been impressed by seeing the articles of my co-author and friend, Jim Lucas. Together we wrote Working Toward Zion: Principles of the United Order for the Modern World, and I continue to admire his thinking.
For now, let me highlight two wonderful cases of LDS humanitarian outreach in which caring individuals came together to diminish pain and hardship, and build social justice. One occurred after Hurricane Mitch swamped much of Central America at the end of 1998. Mitch killed over 20,000 people, left an equal number missing, and a million homeless. When the next semester began in January 1999, my students and I launched a new elective that we initially called the "Stewardship Project" to aid those who suffered. We picked out the most devastated country, Honduras, and formed seven teams to plan the process-fundraising, logistics, Honduran culture, PR, microcredit systems, organizational behavior skills such as teambuilding, etc. Campus bureaucrats said we would be unsuccessful, that these were "just students, not development experts," and predicted that sufficient money could not be raised, nor would students volunteer. But pessimism clouded their assumptions. In fact, they were flat-out wrong.
Instead of no students, some 85 attended the class and planned the process, many without even getting course credit because the add deadline had passed before they heard about the opportunity. We raised $116,000 and some 46 volunteers went to Central America for six weeks of service, or more. We funded nearly a hundred village banks, and gave 20,000-plus hours of community service - shoveling mud out of schools, teaching English and computer skills, volunteering in orphanages, and even delivering babies!
The experience was so successful that we formed additional projects the next year and went to four countries with 86 volunteers and in excess of $200,000 - to Venezuela, Peru, El Salvador, as well as back to Honduras. The name changed to H.E.L.P. International (Help ELiminate Poverty), and we spun it off from BYU so we could be more independent and innovative. Since that time we have trained and sent more than 500 volunteers as a kind of Mormon Peace Corps. Other countries we have worked in include Brazil, Guatemala, and Bolivia. In 2006, as with each of the past seven years, our HELP International volunteers provided amazing service to poverty-stricken families. This past summer some fifty young people spent at least six weeks in either Uganda, Guatemala or El Salvador - training the poor in business skills, setting up family-based Square Foot Gardens, teaching English, and launching other efforts to lift those who struggle. Over the years many of these individuals have had a life-changing experience, and returned home to design and implement other humanitarian projects with college friends, family members, or with business associates in their new jobs after graduation. They have come to understand what Henry David Thoreau meant when he said, "Live the life you have imagined." Readers may learn more at HELP's website.
For other students and me, a highlight of 2005 was establishing a new social venture by mobilizing, organizing, and training young LDS social entrepreneurs to help rebuild after the horrific Asian tsunami of 12/26/04. The destruction was terrible, killing or causing the disappearance of 260,000 people, and bringing about the loss of billions of dollars in housing, businesses, and so forth. For us it was a tough, but inspiring experience. Out of my BYU course, "Becoming a Global Change Agent," grew a little band of some 35 registered students. To counter the terrible waves of destruction, our project became called a "Wave of Hope." Out of it we formed a new NGO known as "Empowering Nations." From those pioneering individuals, the number of campus participants grew to around sixty. Eventually about a hundred individuals raised the funds and volunteered for a month or more rebuilding villages and devastated lives along the hard-hit coast of Khao Lak, Thailand. Led by BYU student leaders such as Sarah Carmichael, Mike Poelman, and Natalie Wilson, we were from seven countries, as well as from other universities between Cambridge and Berkeley. Kaye and I led a team of a dozen older Latter-day Saints- housewives, entrepreneurs, CPAs, and consultants, as a sort of "Joseph Smith Tsunami Rescue Brigade" to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Prophet's birthday in 2005.
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