I just got a go fund me request via FB for a family member to go to Fiji to do this. Trying to raise thousands.

It looks like it is LDS sponsored.

What is this? Is it new? I really have some mixed feelings about supporting it.

gemini Wrote:
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> It looks like it is LDS sponsored.

Yep.
From their web site:

"With headquarters in Provo, Utah, HEFY is an LDS-oriented service group dedicated to engaging youth in global and interpersonal growth."

https://www.hefy.org/index.php/about-hefy/who-is-hefy

The current HEFY dates from 2011.

If it were my family member, I'd politely decline to fund it. What you do is, of course, up to you :)

This program seems like EFY with a little service thrown in.

Reading the description of HEFY, the first thing that struck me is how the humanitarian projects are first and foremost for the youth doing them. The youth do humanitarian work in order to have an "experience." Why does it always seem like the goal of Mormon service is to build testimonies? Why can't the goal of service ever just be about helping others who are less fortunate?

The thing that got me is that they expect the youth to raise the money to go on this "experience". Thousands! WTF!

--for teens 16-19.

They are just lowering the age of missionaries this way. And at the families' expense, of course.

Fiji sounds like a nice vacation to me.

The churches in my area sometimes send their youth groups to Central America to do service projects, often vaccination clinics.

I personally would not feel obliged to fund a youth service trip overseas.

Our church (Christian, non-Mormon) had teens go to inner city Denver and work on a Habit for Humanity project. Another year teens and parents went to Guatemala to help with a school building project. Plenty of work to be done on this continent.

From the HEFY introduction ("Our Story"):

"What better way to build testimonies, resiliency, and prepare our youth for missions and a sensitivity to those in need than through humanitarian service! With 130 expeditions planned in 2018, HEFY continues to expand its reach into new countries."

It looks like it's a business masquerading as a charity. It may be set up as a non-profit organization, but that doesn't mean that the founders and others can't draw big salaries from it and all-expense paid travel around the world related to their humanitarian projects in Fiji, etc...

The business is selling "humanitarian experiences" and they would like you to contribute.

The founder is "Southern Utah entrepreneur" Glenn Bingham.

About Glenn Bingham:

"A self-described 'serial social entrepreneur,' Bingham has founded three different organizations over the past 15 years that focus on providing solutions to different social issues. He founded the Corrective Education Corporation, which works with corporations to reduce shoplifting and employee theft, and the Ashby Foundation, a provider of employment assistance to Cape Verde, West Africa. Additionally, Bingham is the founder of Humanitarian Experience for Youth, which sends thousands of high school and college-age youth on humanitarian aid projects to more than 10 countries around the world annually."

https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2013/09/16/dsu-business-ethics-forum-returns-presentation-entrepreneur-glenn-bingham/#.Xbfw8HhR2Uk


I guess it's possible that they offer good value for the money and, just like a well-run summer camp, maybe they even do provide good "humanitarian experiences" to the kids.

But at first blush, after reading through their website, my first instinct is to check to see if my wallet is still in my pocket. A kid signing up will (or her parents will) pay a lot of money to get an "experience" which will primarily consist of the kid providing free labor in a far-away country--which labor will be unskilled labor, i.e. nothing different than any of the local kids could do. Why not pay the local kids to do the work in the first place, instead of flying a bunch of first-world kids in so that they can pretend like they're "saving" the locals? That question leads me to question how legit many of the projects may even be. They may just be "Potemkin village" make-work projects designed specifically to sell the "humanitarian experience" without really contributing anything of lasting value to the local communities.

It all sounds eerily too similar to all of the free-labor busywork projects that the Church runs.

It also reminds of that pineapple farm racket:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_Developmental_Enterprises