What is an Area Welfare Specialist?

Quite often we are asked: "What is an Area Welfare Specialist and what do you do?"  According to the description on the Internet - "Area Welfare Specialists support senior humanitarian missionaries as they develop and implement humanitarian projects."

On a typical day we go to the office (an 8 minute walk from our flat) between 7:30 and 8:00 am.  If it is raining there is a shuttle that will pick us up at the apartment building at 7:45.  Gary nearly always walks - the arthritis in Susan's feet determine if she will walk or ride.  Upon arrival at the office we turn on our computers to check emails and the humanitarian project database for new requests and updates. Each morning, Susan checks the United States Geological Survey website for earthquakes with a magnitude over 5.0 and tropical storms in the Pacific Area.  She then sends an email to the Area Welfare Manager and office staff. Everyone is made aware of any possible emergencies.  

Gary at his computer

Our Administrative Assistant, Luisa

On Mondays at 8:30 am there is a devotional for all church employees and missionaries.  It usually lasts about 15 to 20 minutes.  At 9:00 am we then meet with the Area Welfare Manager and our Administrative Assistant where we discuss plans for the week.

Gary, Luisa, and Hans

Tuesday through Friday the office work is similar if we are in New Zealand. We read and respond to emails, monitor earthquakes and storms, answer phone calls and help do our best to support our humanitarian couples and staff throughout the area.  

Once a month we attend the Area Welfare Counsel Meeting (AWCM) with a member of the Pacific Area Presidency, the Director for Temporal Affairs, ourselves, our Administrative Assistant, the Area Welfare Manager, the Self-Reliance Services Manager, and the Area Controller.  At this meeting we present, review and discuss humanitarian and welfare proposals for the Pacific Area.  It was just last week that we held our monthly AWCM.  Prior to the meeting, our humanitarian couples submit their requests to fund various humanitarian projects in their countries.  Gary looks over these requests, tweaks them if necessary and puts them into a power-point format which we present for review and discussion in the AWCM.  This month we had 17 projects submitted and also approved.  The project requests range from materials to help a village complete a water system, or providing school playground equipment to shipping donated school furniture to one of the poor island countries. Other examples could include equipment and supplies for humanitarian dental clinics or helping a poor subsistence agriculture village prepare their land to plant crops. Each project is reviewed on it's merits and either approved or returned for further development.  

When our couples submit their projects we suggest that they contain the following elements: 

1.  Have the support of the local priesthood.   

2.  The beneficiaries are involved in the project - its good to have "sweat equity" as part of the project.

3.  Have volunteers participate - include project recipients and volunteers from the Church and the community.  

4.  Do something so the community will grow and benefit from this project.  To the extent possible, they will be better able to respond themselves to meet future challenges.  

5.  We try to use "local solutions" to the problem.  If local solutions are used, the community will know how to maintain the project and hopefully fix future problems. 

After our meeting, we go back to our office and notify the couples that their projects have been approved (or need to be modified) and take care of other challenges and difficulties that may arise.  

Gary's main role is working with the couples, developing the larger projects, budgeting for the next year and  helping them solve problems as they arise.  

Susan's role is humanitarian blogger.  We request that the couples send us a short paragraph and pictures each month with their successes.  When all the reports are in, she puts together a newsletter.  The newsletters help the missionary couples see what the other couples are doing and hopefully spark ideas that they might consider in their own country.  It also gives the Area Presidency an overview of the work.  Here are just a few of the pictures she receives along with a short comment of what they are doing.

There you have it - what an Area Welfare Specialist does.  Since we are making this post on Sunday night we will start all over again tomorrow morning.  We enjoy the work we are engaged in, love exploring New Zealand on the weekends and are very happy with the life of a Area Welfare Specialist in New Zealand.  We are only missing one thing - our family.  

"No one has learned the meaning of living until he has surrendered his ego to the service of his fellow man." Thomas S. Monson, Service Bring Joy, New Era, October 2009