By Jessica Forsyth
The 7th Annual Microenterprise Conference opened Thursday, March 11, 2004 with a culturally diverse mix of speakers and musical entertainment.
Students, practitioners and community members gathered in the Wilkinson Student Center to immerse themselves in different cultures and discuss issues of microenterprise, a method that works by giving poverty-stricken people small loans to start their own businesses.
The conference was sponsored by the Center for Economic Self-Reliance and centered on giving people a better education on world issues of poverty.
The conference included a brief film about Muhammad Yunus, one of the fathers of microenterprise. He described how after receiving a doctorate in education in 1971, he returned to his home of Bangladesh to teach.
'I felt funny teaching all the elegant theories of economics, when just outside people were starving,' Yunus said.
It was then he created the idea of microenterprise so impoverished people could pull themselves out of poverty.
Local entrepreneur, Steve Gibson, spoke about how he created the Center for Entrepreneurship to teach Latter-day Saint returned missionaries in the Philippines the skills needed to start their own businesses.
He described several turning points in his life that changed his focus from making money to helping others.
'It''s not about the dollars you stack up, but the lives you build up that matter most in this life and in the life to come,' Gibson said.
Chris Dunford from Freedom from Hunger, a non-profit organization, described his efforts to integrate different services to help the poor.
Scattered throughout the conference were performances from several different cultures and ethnicities.
Los Hermanos de los Andes combined authentic string, wind and percussion instruments dating back to the Incan civilization to create the sounds and rhythms of Central America.
The group performs throughout the region to raise awareness of different cultures and create a spirit of unity and peace.
The Black Student Union choir sang several songs about freedom and happiness, and a group of Buddhist monks performed a chanting.
Thursday''s program concluded with a Cambodian couple performing a dance to bless the audience and world with peace and prosperity.
Before the conference began, the Center for Economic Self-Reliance had a grand opening dinner for the center.
Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve was among the speakers at the dinner. He was recognized for his humanitarian efforts and spoke about how the gospel must precede humanitarian efforts in every country because it will help people become teachable.
Members of the center also gave a special thanks to Bob and Lynette Gay, the sponsors of the center.
The conference ran from Thursday to Saturday. Several entrepreneurs and non-profit practitioners spoke about their experiences with microenterprise and how to become involved in different aspects of microenterprise.