Hope and Help through Education
The Church is blessing thousands of youth and young single adults through its education initiatives in West Africa and other nations.
Blessed by an institute teacher who helped him learn French and prepare for a mission, Bishop Darmande Legbanon (left) encourages young people in West Africa like Alexis Ahouayito (right), now serving a mission in Zambia, to take advantage of programs like Succeed in School. He says Succeed in School will amplify their opportunities.
When Darmande Legbanon joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he could not read, write, or even speak French, the official language of Benin. But with help from his stake president, he learned French in institute by reading the Book of Mormon and went on to serve a French-speaking mission. Today, he owns a successful welding business, mentors apprentices, and serves as the bishop of his ward.
Because he gained language and life skills through the Church, Bishop Legbanon now encourages young people in West Africa to follow in his footsteps. A two-tiered educational initiative—“Succeed in School” for youth ages 11 to 18 and “Gathering Places” for young single adults—is helping young people progress academically, spiritually, and socially. Coordinated through Area Presidencies and local leaders, these two efforts are blessing thousands in West Africa and other parts of the world.
Young single adults from the Tema Ghana Stake exhibit their catering class skills for government and community leaders at a Gathering Place conference in Accra.
“Succeed in School,” Succeed in Life
The after-school program Succeed in School helps youth progress in school, prepare for higher education, and become self-reliant. So far, it has been implemented in several West African nations, where the majority of the program’s approximately 30,000 students participate. It also operates in Mexico, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and the southwest area of the United States.
With Succeed in School, “we’re signaling to … the youth of the Church: ‘Education matters. We care about you, and we care about learning,’” said Elder Clark G. Gilbert, Commissioner of Church Education. He and other leaders say that Succeed in School is a powerful way to help the rising generation increase their academic and spiritual capacity.
Leaders in local seminaries and institutes of religion operate the program, and stake and district leaders decide which resources will work best in their individual areas. Lessons and activities are based on global curriculum standards of education. The lessons supplement regular subjects and help students remain in school. Volunteer teachers from local stakes teach reading, writing, mathematics, and life-skills classes in local church buildings.
Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles attributes the success of Succeed in School to the “spiritual element” combined with academics. “We are seeing in many places in Africa [that student] scores on national exams, really, have soared just with that little extra attention that supplements in a very important way what they are getting in school.”
Another goal is to help young people pursue higher education, such as through BYU–Pathway Worldwide or vocational training.
Succeed in School classes emphasize:
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Hope and faith in Jesus Christ and conversion to His restored gospel.
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The importance of becoming lifelong learners.
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The relevance and importance of the subjects taught.
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Belonging and contributing to a collaborative learning experience.
As students improve their academic, work, and life skills, they also increase their hope in the future and develop their potential for higher education and employment.
“I’m Preparing Every Day”
While attending Succeed in School, Alexis Ahouayito, of the Republic of Benin, West Africa, learned skills that helped him prepare for a mission. He read the Book of Mormon every day, studied, and prayed for the Holy Spirit to be with him. He learned in the program “how to teach with the Spirit and how to teach with authority.” Now he’s Elder Ahouayito, serving as an English-speaking missionary in the Zambia Lusaka Mission.
His mentor, Bishop Legbanon, encouraged him to attend Succeed in School while he apprenticed at the bishop’s welding shop.
Another apprentice, Kodjo Dick Amenyovo, says, “The behavior our leaders show us—how they talk to us and how they teach us—motivates us to learn and to go on missions.”
When some of his apprentices began working for him, Bishop Legbanon says, some lacked the skills in French he once had lacked.
“But now it is easier for them to read and write, do mathematical calculations, and do lots of other things,” including preparing to become successful missionaries. Succeed in School has a lot of “good things in it, and it has helped my apprentices.”
An Inspired Program
“I know that our Heavenly Father thinks a lot about us young people. In addition to seminary, we have this program,” says Marie Aimée Judith Ake of the Abidjan Côte d’Ivoire Niangon South Stake.
She credits Succeed in School for helping her gain confidence.
“I am no longer ashamed to speak in front of my classmates, and I am no longer ashamed to talk about my church. I even feel the need to serve a full-time mission,” she says.
Grateful the program combines spiritual and secular learning, Marie adds, “I know that this program is inspired by my Heavenly Father, and it is for our own good.”
Lawson Kingnadja Mintotibe teaches students in Lomé, Togo, how to succeed in school.
Gathering, Preparing, Becoming
The gospel of Jesus Christ is bringing hope and opportunity to thousands of young single adults as they come together in Gathering Places.
Young adults are “the future of families and of nations,” says Elder Alfred Kyungu, President of the Africa West Area. With that vision, Church leaders, young single adults, and senior missionaries in the Africa West Area are establishing Gathering Places to help young single adults find and stay on the covenant path, qualify for employment, and marry in the temple.
“A Gathering Place is a place where they can prepare to be leaders in the Church and in their families, and become who the Lord needs and wants them to be,” says Shirlene Wade, serving as an area young single adult missionary in the Africa West Area with her husband, Alan.
A Gathering Place, typically held in a church or institute building, accommodates young single adults and their friends as they get together for fun, educational, and spiritual activities—once a week or six times a week, depending on need and interest. Young single adults can grow closer to the Lord, enjoy healthy associations, learn a trade, and develop self-reliance. They participate in and are taught:
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Religious education and gospel learning, including institute.
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Educational opportunities, including technical and vocational training and BYU–Pathway Worldwide.
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Service and social activities.
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Temple and family history activities.
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Missionary preparation and community outreach.
Feeling God’s Love
Zachery and Rebecca Poulter, who served as young single adult missionaries from 2022 to 2024, saw firsthand how the Gathering Place blesses young single adults in West Africa. The initiative grew from a pilot program to more than 180 Gathering Places by the end of 2024 in Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
“The gospel of Jesus Christ brings hope,” says Rebecca, “and it’s bringing hope through the Gathering Place to young single adults.”
As approved by Area Presidencies, a Gathering Place is led by a stake young single adult committee overseen by a stake or district president.
“Members of the stake YSA committee meet with their stake or district president to determine the needs of young single adults in their stake, and they then obtain resources to match those needs,” Zachery says.
Elder Adeyinka A. Ojediran, First Counselor in the Africa West Area Presidency, says, “The young single adult committee helps young single adults feel the love of God as they invite and support them along the covenant path.” Leaders focus on:
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Helping young single adults live the gospel and receive saving ordinances.
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Strengthening them spiritually, intellectually, socially, and physically.
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Loving, sharing, and inviting others to come unto Christ.
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Uniting families on both sides of the veil through temple and family history work.
Young single adults learn baking skills at the Gathering Place of the Kumasi Ghana Bantama Stake.
Classes and Confidence
Classes offered through a Gathering Place can range from making soap to making shoes, baking to barbering, computer coding to clothes making, and graphic design to entrepreneurship.
“A Gathering Place can give young single adults short-term training so that within two or three months they can actually be working,” Rebecca says. “And it gives them confidence to look at something like BYU–Pathway or other types of education that are more of a long-term goal.”
Small districts might meet only on Saturdays, with about 15 to 20 young single adults attending only a few different classes. Larger stakes offer 25 to 30 classes each week, with more than 100 young single adults attending.
In addition to learning skills and trades, young single adults eat together, play games, use the internet, hold home evening, and attend Church meetings. And participants who bring their friends often experience the joy of seeing those friends baptized.
Baptisms, Jobs, and Marriages
“In just over two years, there have been more than 8,000 baptisms in West Africa as a result of young single adults inviting friends to their Gathering Place,” says Alan Wade. “During those same two years, there were over 11,000 jobs secured and more than 6,000 businesses started. And there have been more than 1,500 marriages. It feels like we’ve only scratched the surface, with many young single adults choosing to have faith and follow the gospel path.”
A great thing about the Gathering Place, add the Poulters, is that it isn’t just another program or organization that gives aid to Africa. Rather, Rebecca says, “a Gathering Place helps young single adults counsel with their leaders and work together to get the training they need so they can succeed.”
What changes people’s hearts is not a handout, adds Zachery, but rather self-reliance achieved through gospel principles.