The Daily Herald

Rebecca Ortega, a woman in the Philippines, was in such financial straights that her hungry family saw no future for itself, and she was contemplating suicide.

A $60 loan from Enterprise Mentors International (EMI), a microenterprise agency that started in Utah, changed her life. Able to buy a used sewing machine and a supply of cloth, Ortega went into business for herself making and selling ready-to-wear clothes on the street.

"I have reclaimed my life," Ortega said.

Alvaro Diaz, a restaurateur struggling to keep his business open in a poor neighborhood of Lima, Peru, was able to take free business lessons from a Provo-based microenterprise agency, HELP International, allowing him to expand his once-struggling restaurant and start another one.

"Over 50 million of the poorest people in the world have been helped by the microcredit movement," said Warner Woodworth, professor of entrepreneurship at the Brigham Young University Marriott School of Management and an expert in the microenterprise movement.

This weekend the Program for Economic Self-reliance at the Marriott School of Management is hosting the sixth annual Microenterprise Conference at BYU, the largest conference of its kind in the world.

Up to 1,500 development experts, academics, aid workers, bankers, business people and interested students, many from Utah Valley, are expected to attend to network and advance their knowledge of the latest tools and strategies in the microenterprise field.

Like Woodworth, many Utahns and Utah aid organizations are on the forefront of this economic development movement. BYU is considered the leading teaching and research university for the microenterprise field.

One hundred of the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) at the conference are based in Utah. Research at the Marriott School alone has spawned 13 microenterprise NGOs in Utah Valley, like Enterprise Mentors International and Action Against Poverty.

"This movement is about creating jobs and fighting poverty," said Woodworth, who is co-chairman of the conference. Last year, participating groups distributed $200 million among 1,000,000 poor families, helping them become economically self-sufficient.

"Microenterprise generates jobs in areas where there is no formal economy," Woodworth said.

Although the terms microenterprise and microcredit are often used interchangeably, microcredit refers to the lending to individual-based businesses, whereas microenterprise is a more encompassing field, referring to the formation, training and operation of very small businesses.

"Microenterprise is about providing missing pieces of the infrastructure in order to make jobs happen, things like literacy, health care, business training and small loans," said Todd Manwarning, executive director of BYU's Program for Economic Self-reliance.

Many of the groups presenting at the conference are reporting on recent successes. Robert Hokason of EMI will be announcing at the conference that the group is starting a new foundation in Peru. EMI raises most of its funds from public and community fund-raising, like many microenterprise groups. Jayann Payne, an EMI volunteer from Provo, said many of its best donors are in Utah Valley.

The Braille Resource Center in Orem, run by Norman Gardner, is reporting on a successful program it initiated last year that printed and distributed Braille books to blind children in Mexico.

Stephen Gibson, founder of The Academy in the Philippines, a school that teaches returning LDS Filipino missionaries how to start their own businesses, will be teaching a seminar at the conference this weekend called "25 Rules of Thumb of Microenterprise for Success."

"A lot of business practices that Americans take for granted come second nature to us," he said. "That's not necessarily true in poor communities in developing countries." Among Gibson's rules of thumb: Don't eat your inventory and make a profit every day.

Aside from the local presenters at the conference, many microenterprise experts from around the country and around the world are excited about coming to BYU because of the tremendous commitment of people and groups in Utah Valley focused on microenterprise.

"This is a jewel in the industry of microenterprise," said Kathleen Gordon of MicroBusiness USA, a leader in the field. "It's wonderful that there are so many young people at BYU who want to go out and change the world."

Beyond the BYU connection, Gibson saw a link to the predominantly LDS region.

"Helping the poor is definitely part of the LDS culture," he said. "Many here feel that those blessed with financial success have a duty to help the poor."

In addition to doing the right thing, the prospect of war with Iraq will also be on the minds of some conference participants.

"Some of the tensions we're dealing with in the Middle East have to do with a lack of development and opportunities over there," Woodworth said. "This conference is an opportunity for people to practice what they preach, in helping change the world."

The sixth annual Microenterprise Conference concludes today in the Wilkinson Student Center at BYU, from 8:45 a.m.-5 p.m.

Stephen Chapek can be reached at 344-2556 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it