In his short remarks to the group, President Gordon B. Hinckley said Smith's call to be a mission president was a miraculous thing, that the mission leader was able to see the need of the people and create something that would benefit generations.

"The greatest pandemic of the world is poverty," he said. "What a poor and miserable world this would be without kind and thoughtful people to reach out and provide help."

EMI thanked the First Presidency of the church for the support the church had given and created three new Brazilian scholarships named for the three members of the First Presidency, President Hinckley and his counselors, President Thomas S. Monson and President James E. Faust.

"We appreciate the work of Enterprise Mentors International," said President Faust. "It is truly remarkable. I expect we have seen only the beginning."

Anne Stewart, EMI's director of development in Salt Lake City, said the event is the first large public undertaking in the organization's history. Most of their work is done quietly, person-to-person, between potential donors and recipients. Though EMI is not formally affiliated with the church, Stewart said, LDS contacts helped the organization get off the ground not only in the Philippines but in Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru.

The Philippine affiliate is considered a medium-size microfinance organization in a nation where some 500 such groups now exist, Guanzon said. In El Salvador, Rivas said his organization is one of the smallest, "but it's growing faster than any of them" because EMI affiliates provide business training to those who receive the loans, boosting the success rate among new entrepreneurs.

The loans fund home-based businesses that produce goods or services building on the skills of recipients, the vast majority of whom are women, many of them single mothers who lack the education or means to provide adequately for their families.

Loan money to support the program comes entirely through private donors, much like the LDS Church's Perpetual Education Fund, Stewart said. Giving to such a cause is particularly gratifying, she said, "when you see how far the money goes, as it's loaned over and over again."

A donation equalling the cost of one tank of gasoline in the United States can make a significant difference to someone living in poverty, she added. Rivas said he's watched potential donors who are overwhelmed when they personally encounter the grinding poverty that keeps so many of his fellow El Salvadorans from securing decent housing, food and clothing. One EMI board member's daughter came to stay with his family recently, and he took her and his own daughter to visit a large family in one poor area. The visiting girl remained outside the metal house with its dirt floor.