A Prophet’s Voice
In April 2015, then-Church President Thomas S. Monson spoke in the Sunday morning session of General Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. “Our opportunities to shine surround us each day,” he said, “in whatever situation we find ourselves.”
Seven-thousand miles away, in extraordinarily primitive circumstances, a group of women huddled around their village’s only television set and listened to a prophet of God. And afterwards they decided to do some good, to “shine” in their communities, regardless of the difficult challenges they faced.
Lulu Hota was one of those women. She and her friends lived in the fringes of the deep tropical jungle surrounding the fishing village of Madang, in the eastern coastal region of Papua New Guinea. They were small in number, but strong in their testimonies. Their native villages were carved out of an equatorial jungle that was beautiful, but home to intense poverty and shockingly underdeveloped schools.
Nevertheless, these mothers, guided by the principles of self-reliance learned from worn Relief Society books donated from Australia, took President Monson at his word, and set about creating a network of village pre-schools typically made of four poles, a dirt floor, and a roof of woven palm leaves. Their teaching supplies were a few hand-shaved boards covered with letters and numbers drawn on paper recovered from village trash bins.
Humble beginnings
At the time, educational opportunities for Papua New Guinea’s remote villages were rare, and the mothers wanted more for their children than they themselves had achieved. They lived in grass huts without electricity, or any other modern conveniences. In their villages, three meals a day was an impossible luxury. The odds against achieving success with their pre-school plans were overwhelming.
Nevertheless, a prophet had spoken, the Holy Ghost had born witness to their souls, and they confidently went to work. Their dream of effective preschools to launch their children on a path towards a better education sustained.
By October 2015, their diligence in planning these schools was noticed by the Church’s Pacific Area Presidency based in Auckland, New Zealand. Regional Church committees offered direction and suggestions on how to effectively organize their schools and develop their curriculum. By the following February, eight Mum’s preschools were launched in the villages surrounding Madang. Each village’s young students learned their letters and numbers, and how to behave and cooperate with other students, teachers and their families.
The mothers rejoiced, and believed their prayers had been answered in full. But the Lord had bigger things in mind for the Mum’s preschools than these first “mums” could imagine.
Remarkable growth
As a result of their early exposure to Mums preschools, children who attended the schools entered the nation’s struggling and poorly funded public school system with significant advantages. They knew their ABC’s. They knew their numbers and colors. And they knew how to function in a class with other students, and with their dedicated, but under-resourced, teachers. Most importantly, the children knew how to learn.
Slowly, and then quickly, the word spread. After only one year there were eight Mum’s preschools in Papua New Guinea. Today, ten years later, there are 102.
Their shared written goal is to create engaged and confident teachers and young learners ready to “seek learning, even by study and also by faith.” (Doctrine and Covenants 88: 118.) They are guided by the principles of respect for themselves and others. Honesty. Fairness. Tolerance. Working together in unity.
As Mum’s preschools began to spread throughout Papua New Guinea, the Church offered assistance to support the work already being done on the ground level. In 2019 a guidebook created by the Church taught teachers how to launch their new schools, offering guidance in curriculum, and classroom management. Within a few years, the internationally recognized Reading Dynamics program became the standard reading curriculum for the Mum’s schools.
Papua New Guinea’s provincial governments took notice of the Mums preschools. After only four years of growth, it became clear that something special was happening in early childhood education in the jungle villages surrounding Madang. The rural public schools also noticed. Parents noticed their children’s rapid educational progress, especially parents who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And Church leaders throughout the Pacific region were noticing as well.
Hastening the Work
Each new Mum’s preschool reflects the individual motivation of mothers in both rural villages and often poverty-stricken urban neighborhoods to improve the lives of their children. The vision is national, but the focus is relentlessly local.
Nina Frank and her husband Robert, the parents of five children, live in the nation’s capital city of Port Moresby. They and their children joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2018. The following year a few Relief Society sisters in Port Moresby said they wanted to start some Mum’s preschools of their own. Sister Frank accepted the challenge to become a teacher. Now, six years later, she oversees a volunteer staff directing and supporting 48 Mum’s preschools in the Port Moresby region, reaching nearly 1800 students. She connects the donated supplies she receives to the often under-equipped Mum’s schools in remote areas. Her personality is as large as her impact on the lives of hundreds of young students. She sees Mum’s preschools blossoming wherever they are planted, and her enthusiasm is contagious.
“Mum's schools are good in our country,” she says. “It’s growing, and it will grow faster in the future. Mum's preschools are all about God’s children, and I love this work that God has given me. He has given me strength to do the job and to help the children come back to Him. The world is not good right now, and we need our schools to teach and guide our children.”
One School’s Story: Blessing both Students and Teachers
In the town of Gerehu, just outside of Port Moresby, the Mum’s River Pre-school provides an oasis of education in an urban environment filled with troubles and distractions.
Sister Ranu Hebore has run the Mum’s River Pre-school since 2022. The children who attend her school are blessed to be there, but she insists that the Lord’s blessings to her are just as real, and just as important.
“I thank Heavenly Father,” she says, “for this opportunity He has given me to run a school. I know that the Lord is on my side. He watches me. He teaches me. It is not easy for me, but I keep going. Sometimes I struggle, but I know the Lord is with me when I see him blessing the little children. When I was teaching the small children I was learning myself. They were learning from me, and I was learning from them. I learned to read as they learned to read. I know that the Lord knows what I am doing. He is always in our sight.”
The Future of Mum’s Preschools
Today, in 2025, Papua New Guinea’s 100 Mum’s preschools are independently run through a nationwide foundation. The Church, however, continues to provide meaningful support for the schools through the Church-assisted non-profit organization AcaPNG.
Many challenges remain. Mum’s Preschools are most often found in impoverished and underdeveloped villages. Access to the internet, and even electricity, is rare. Student fees to provide paper and supplies, though very small, are still beyond the reach of many families. Helping teachers learn not just the curriculum but the day-to-day administrative duties of running a school can be difficult. As the number of preschools grow, the government’s interest in assuring appropriate state licensing is expensive and time-consuming.
Nevertheless, what began first as an educational movement in Papua New Guinea’s northern Madang region and then in the area surrounding the nation’s capital city of Port Moresby, is now spreading throughout the nation. Motivated parents, along with dedicated non-profit agencies like AcaPNG.com, are actively seeking to develop Mum’s preschools in remote towns and villages, enabling more children to get a head start in education.
Ultimately, the success of Mum’s preschools in Papua New Guinea will be measured in generations. As this first generation of Mum’s-educated students grows to maturity, more Mum’s classrooms and students will follow, creating a rising baseline for preschool academic development that will improve the educational arc of Papua New Guinea for generations to come.
And it began with a small group of faithful Relief Society sisters living modestly in a tropical jungle who discovered through the words of a living prophet that the Lord is no respecter of persons (Acts 10: 34-35) and that He happily blesses all who seek His will and follow His commandments through hard work, diligent study, and loving obedience.
Want more information about Mum's Preschools? In Papua New Guinea contact your bishop, branch president or unit leader who can help you find your nearest Mum’s Preschool. Outside of Papua New Guinea, contact www.acapng@acahand.org.