P.E.F. Realities

Mark writing:

My big brother Dave in Bonita Springs, FL says,

"About your blog; it's nice with all the included pictures, which tell more of the story than the words. Sorry that you had to scramble for some turkey; I ate more turkey than you had in just one of the birds.

You have not related much about some of the success you have had with helping others to train for new job experiences, or to do better on their own in business. Tell us some news about that: who have you helped, how have they done, and what are their futures looking like?"

We thought of little successes we have had, like not getting dysentery, but have not wanted to say much about the Perpetual Education Fund, because it seems pretty discouraging. We like the work and are motivated to serve, but we found quite a financial immaturity among the students. Who can blame them, since their mamas and papas probably never had a bank loan in their lifetimes. The PEF is tailored to third-world environments, and one reality is that there is no way to send you a loan statement. Who among us has ever made payments to stores or banks or other institutions without a monthly bill?

Instead, the program opts for a personal phone call to every beneficiary each month. It's great, it can be mentoring and encouraging, but here is where I diverge from the norm. I think the call needs to be focused and specific. Not just "how are you doing" but maybe "when are you going to make your payment, and why did you break your promise last month and the month before?"

In my mind the student is not a strength to his family, congregation and community if he doesn't have integrity or is totally disorganized. So, I've tried to stick on them until we get them on the phone and they make a specific commitment. Last week I had six people left on my call sheet whom we had not reached. I had left voice mail or sent texts to the number we had for them, but it wasn't until I called moms and dads, brothers and sisters and even bishop in the church that we discovered that the phone numbers were wrong for four of the six. The phone they had previously was destroyed or stolen or whatever. Yet, in the database, I could see that other callers from our program had said "we called, we'll try again later," and left it at that.

For us, the PEF is two things. Elaine is application processing, and has done as many as 8 apps in one day, providing all the documentation, and doing it all packaged up electronically for review and approval. She is also responsible for our working fund, and has become quite the little accountant and spreadsheeter. I am mostly collections, and have gotten into it heavily. There has been some wonderful progress there. Students who were previously "lost" have been found and are making payments regularly. There are maybe 20 of those, among maybe 100 who are far behind on their payments. Still Elaine and I sometimes need some moral support.

In this picture, our boss is grinning, because our stake president, sitting in the middle, is making PEF calls with us. He called all the most delinquent in the stake, about 20 people, and told them all to get the payment in. Several, he set meetings with in his office. I started the first call, and mentioned that Président Eustache was sitting with us, and he grabbed the phone. After that he made every single call by himself, while I scribed.

He used all the same approaches I do, like setting a specific deadline, and committing the student to a specific amount. He seems to believe that a student who pays his obligations is a valuable member of the stake, the family and the community, and the contrary not so much. He didn't accept excuses like sickness or unemployment for these chronic non-payers. He was sympathetic, but said they needed to exercise faith and make a commitment for a payment date. It was very gratifying to see him in action.

From a business point of view, I very much like the discipline of getting the students to make a small payment every month. I think that skill alone (and the underlying budgeting) will set them apart. Not to mention that we have 400 people in the program and most if not all will get a college degree of some kind or higher learning or trade certificate. That's pretty darn good in a country where there were only 30 people who had college degrees in the whole country when they liberated from Belgium 50 years ago.

Quite a few of our kids have gotten skilled positions with good wages. Many others will have to create work for themselves in the informal economy that is 80% of the whole here. Dozens of them are a success at self-employment. We've got nurses, teachers, drivers, plumbers, lawyers, managers, carpenters, and information techs. I think it all works out eventually, and I don't think you should judge the "hiring rate" in the first couple of years. Things move much more slowly here.

Elaine has a custom of making a chocolate cake when one of the students makes a $100 payment. The last couple went like this:

Our bishop in the LDS ward we attend is Aimé Ngoy. He has a wife and two beautiful little girls.

Elaine holds the Ngoy's newborn baby girl.

Aimé has a law degree and magistrate certification. He is employed by the Church and works in our mission office handling all legal affairs. As a magistrate, he has the ability to arrest even police officers he deems to have committed a crime. So if any couple or young missionary in the mission is badly treated by the police, Aimé gets a call, and goes to the police station and negotiates for us. He and his wife also raise chickens and sell eggs (we buy a couple of flats a month, 30 eggs for $6.) The Mrs. also has a small store. He got his magistrate certificate through a PEF loan. I called him as part of the routine a month ago and asked why he was late. He said he was thinking of paying it off. Since then he has made a $90 payment and a $100 payment. Elaine baked him a cake. (Congolese don't favor sweets. He ate a piece and we, well, we took care of the rest with a few friends.)

The next $100 payment was from a girl aged 25 or so who found work as a computer programmer out in the provinces after studying I.T. at Cisco Academy (they exist in the States, too.) She hadn't made her payment because there was no Ecobank out in the boonies. We set it up for her to send in a payment via Western Union to her bishop, who took it to Ecobank, our processor. She sent in $100, putting her into the black by $30. I told her bishop about the chocolate cake, and said there was no way to send it to her that far away. He said to make the cake and he would enjoy it by proxy for her. Elaine is getting it ready for tomorrow.

The young woman wants another certification from Cisco. However, she reported that they were not cooperating with her in setting up distance learning over the Net. We put her on to Pépitho, our first Cisco grad 16 months ago, who knows the director of Admissions and other administrators. Pépitho makes a whale of a salary working at the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa, and supports another P.E.F. student for whom he is the legal guardian. Out old boy network worked and the young woman will get further Cisco credentials in due time, and improve her situation further.

Out of our 400 beneficiaries of P.E.F., 300 are established and required to make payments currently. Of those, I think 100 are always on time, 100 have so-so payment records, and 100 were seriously late when we arrived. With involvement with priesthood leaders like President Eustache, we probably have 20 who have reformed, and probably another 20 in process of change. That makes us happy.