The day Salome’s father disappeared is one she’ll never forget. 

She and her two younger siblings had gone to school. Their mother was tending to the small home the family of five shared, while their father provided for the household. This pattern of life resembled many other families living in rural Tanzania. 

When Salome’s father didn’t return home, the family worried but tried to remain hopeful. However, after days turned to weeks without correspondence, Salome knew her greatest fear had come true: her father had abandoned them. 

As an uneducated woman, Salome’s mother had limited income potential and was only able to find work weeding her neighbor’s gardens. Salome dropped out of school to help support her family as they struggled to find enough food, often going without. Eventually, Salome’s siblings dropped out, too. 

When Salome heard Zoe Empowers was starting new empowerment groups in her community, she went to the meeting and explained her situation to the facilitator. Zoe accepted Salome and her family to the program, and within three months, she received a start-up kit to open a hair salon.  

Salome was interested in hairdressing even before her father disappeared, but it wasn’t until she joined Zoe that she believed she could pursue her dream. Her passion for the trade and desperation to feed her family motivated her to run a successful business. 

For the first year, Salome shared a salon with another Zoe group member, which allowed both girls to split expenses and resources while saving money to take care of their families and make improvements at home. One of the first projects Salome completed was building a new latrine. She also added a floor, windows, roof and door to improve her home. 

After Zoe’s staff taught Salome and her group mates the importance of clean water, Salome began educating her neighbors and started a second business selling bottled water and soft drinks. She also sold hotcakes and cassava to earn extra income.

In November 2022, one year into the program, Salome heard that the Tanzania government was encouraging people to move to a new area roughly a one hour drive from her community. The planned development would include new businesses and housing. It sounded promising but risky.

Salome decided to take a leap of faith and relocate her salon business to the new development. She wanted to be the first hairdresser in the market before other salons moved in. 

The risk paid off. Salome’s business grew exponentially—so much so that other young women in the area took notice, and Salome began receiving requests to train other young women to be hairdressers. 

One trainee, Gladness, started the Zoe program one year after Salome and said that Salome inspired her. 

“Salome gave me hope,” Gladness said. “She helped me believe in myself and pushed me to do more.” Gladness said there were times when she felt like giving up, but Salome was there to remind her that the Zoe program works and encouraged her to keep attending the meetings. 

Salome’s impact on Gladness was profound but not uncommon among Zoe groups. Many successful Zoe participants often mentor younger group members. Training cannot only become a source of income for experienced participants and soon-to-be grads like Salome but also creates a robust network within the program. 

To date, Salome has trained thirteen women. “I’ve realized that I love giving back,” Salome said. “Now that I have much, I want to share it with others to experience the same success I have achieved.”

Most recently, Salome has been working on building a new home beside her original house, which she has since renovated with a new door, roof, cement floor, and windows. As a 2023 Zoe Empowers graduate, she continues to meet with her group and participate in their group project. All profits earned by the group are loaned out to its members to expand their businesses. 

“I push my group to the max,” Salome said. “We hold each other accountable by following up with each other, and this encourages us to keep going for our next dream.

As a child, Gladness dreamed of being a hairdresser. When she wasn’t in school, she often hung around the salons in her neighborhood, observing the shop owners. Sometimes, they’d even let her help with small, easy chores, which always seemed big and important to Gladness. 

Gladness’s mother worked in the fields with other women in the community—one of the few jobs available to an uneducated Maasai woman in rural Tanzania. Gladness’s father had long struggled with alcoholism and wasn’t around. 

Life turned upside down when Gladness’s mother passed away unexpectedly. Gladness hadn’t even known she was sick, and then, all at once, she was gone. Gladness, who was a teenager at the time, dropped out of school to care for her three younger siblings. The family didn’t have relatives nearby. 

Gladness assumed the only job available was farming, so she took all she was offered. She couldn’t earn enough to pay for food and keep her siblings in school, so they dropped out, too.

The family’s house, which had been in a fragile state before their mother’s death, slowly became decrepit. No floor, no windows, no roof. Gladness and her siblings patched up holes with cardboard, plastic tarps, and sheets of paper. 

Gladness had a friend in town, who had joined Zoe Empowers a year prior. As Gladness battled to survive the challenges of extreme poverty, she saw Salome, who was also caring for her siblings, grow a successful salon business. Salome gave Gladness hope and inspired her to do the same.

So, in October of 2021, when Zoe launched more empowerment groups in the community, Gladness went to the recruitment meeting. She was accepted and got her first start-up kit three months later. Gladness partnered with another group member to open a salon. The two young women split rent in a high-traffic area to build up their clientele. Before long, they could each afford to move to their own space.

With her income, Gladness re-enrolled herself and her siblings in school and restored her home to a safe, habitable condition with a new roof, door and windows. She also purchased goats and chickens to rear and sell at the market. 

Gladness is especially proud to own livestock in addition to running her salon because after she dropped out of school and before joining Zoe, she believed farming was her only future. Now, it’s merely a source of supplemental income. 

Furthermore, as a member of the Masaai tribe, she always believed she’d have to be married as a young girl and have children. Since becoming an empowered businesswoman, Gladness now understands that she can choose her own husband.

Like Salome, Gladness has become a mentor to other girls in other local Zoe groups. When her trainees ask for advice, Gladness encourages them to believe in themselves. 

“I tell them their potential is limitless,” Gladness said. “Girls especially don’t have to get married at a young age,” she added. “I tell them to stand in their position. They can do anything and succeed in it.”

Gladness’s message is important and illustrates a distinct aspect of the empowerment program: the robust Zoe network. 

Current Zoe participants always have access to upper-level participants and program graduates. Newcomers get to see their struggles and challenges reflected back to them from other youth who have already overcome them, instilling hope and faith early on in their empowerment journey. 

So far, Gladness has trained five young women to become hairdressers. Looking ahead, she would like to continue mentoring while expanding her salon business to include cosmetics. She will graduate from the program at the end of 2024.

In honor of the Day of the African Child, five Zoe Empowers groups united to donate 270 textbooks to Chimungu Full Primary School. The five empowerment groups, which consist of over 130 orphaned and vulnerable households from Chimungu region, collectively raised MK1,323,000 from a recent maize harvest to buy the books. The donated books include essential subjects such as Chichewa language, English language, and mathematics for grades 6, 7, and 8.

During the book handover ceremony, Clever, a 2nd-year Zoe participant and group spokesperson, expressed pride and commitment to making a difference.

“Despite being orphaned, we don’t take ourselves as beneficiaries,” she said. “Through the necessary support from Zoe Empowers, we now have what it takes to be change-makers in our community. We believe that education is the key to a brighter future for an African child, and we are committed to ensuring that our younger brothers and sisters have the tools they need to succeed.”

Frackson, Zoe Empowers Malawi communications facilitator, explained that the initiative for the book-buying project was sparked during a recent regional meeting involving the 5 Zoe empowerment groups. Some group members are students at Chimungu Full Primary School and informed their colleagues about the school’s challenges. The head teacher at the school confirmed that it was common for ten students to share one book during classes.lear

Now, with support from Zoe youth, Chimungu school has additional resources to enhance the learning experience and academic performance of its 1,478 students. Lead administrators in the district applauded the Zoe groups for such a wonderful gift, noting the books will significantly improve the quality of education at their school.

Furthermore, the book donation highlights the spirit of the Zoe Empowers’ mission. Not only is the organization helping orphaned youth become self-sufficient, but it is also fostering a generation of compassionate and community-oriented young people.

This post was authored by:
Frackson Maocha, Zoe Empowers Malawi communications facilitator

Manley is no stranger to grief and hardship. After losing his mother in 2006 and then his father in 2008, he went to live with his aunt and uncle. Manley’s aunt used brutal ways of parenting: shouting, beating, corporal punishment, and food deprivation. She depleted him of the little confidence he had left. But still, he stayed for five years.

After Manley finished the advanced level of education to qualify for the university, his uncle kicked him out of the house for good. Manley returned to his rural home, where he learned his paternal relatives had assumed control of his parent’s land. They had even sold off part of the estate for profit. Manley was devastated, but as an orphan, he knew he could not make demands of his elders. He drifted on the streets, toiled in the fields, and begged for corn and cassava. Occasionally, he grew desperate enough to return to his uncle for food or ancillary needs. 

In 2014, Manley joined Zoe Empowers Zimbabwe. He received training on starting a business and a grant amounting to 150 USD. With the grant, Manley bought several broiler chickens, which he reared, then sold. As his income grew, he diversified his offering, tending to pigeons, rabbits, guinea pigs, and other larger farm animals. He bought and sold groceries and second-hand clothing. The more his businesses grew, the more self-reliant he became. Eventually, he did not need to return to his uncle. 

The Zoe Empowers staff equipped Manley with the resources to repossess the land his relatives had stolen. There, he settled into the most stable living arrangement he’d had since before the death of his parents. Because he’d achieved high marks in the advanced level of post-secondary education, despite his miserable home life, Zoe staff and his peers encouraged Manley to consider going to college. This possibility had never occurred to him, but he couldn’t unsee it once he envisioned himself in a college classroom. 

Manley enrolled at Midlands State University (MSU) in 2016. He chose Psychology as his major and was accepted into the Honors program. Because Manley relied on his businesses to afford tuition, he hired an orphaned young person in the community to manage his operations while he was at school. Before long, his entrepreneurial spirit prodded him to start another business at college. 

Manley consulted his Zoe Empowers group about the idea, and they loaned him money to start a new endeavor: printing and photocopying. He also bought and sold clothes. All the money he made went toward his school fees. During semester breaks, he returned home to participate in his empowerment group activities and check on his other businesses. 

In 2020, Manley completed his Bachelor of Science degree. He was recognized for his stellar academic achievement, winning the Best Undergraduate Student Award, Nyaradzo Life Assurance Award, MSU Book Prize Award, and First Mutual Health Award for best undergraduate student in the Department of Psychology. After graduation, he returned home to intern for Zoe. 

One year later, in 2021, Manley enrolled in a Master’s program at MSU, focusing on Community Psychology. Upon completion, he was, again, awarded the MSU Book Prize; and the Allied Health Practitioners Council Award for being the top student in his class. He aspires to earn a Ph.D. in psychology in the near future. 

When Manley reflected on his journey with Zoe Empowers, he described himself as “a village boy with a city dream.” A dream he never thought was possible until his Zoe group  helped him realize it. The dream chart taught him that a negative mindset is a barrier to success, but a growth mindset opens avenues for the less privileged. “A dream does not become a reality through magic,” Manley said. “It took sweat, determination, and hard work to fulfill my city dream. But I know that, with God, nothing is out of reach.” 

Zoe Empowers recently hired Manley as a program facilitator in Zimbabwe. As a Zoe team member, he shares his testimony with the young people in the program, offering advice and encouragement to orphaned children and vulnerable youth as they endure the challenging process of changing their lives for good. He often shares with them, “Men die of boredom, psychological conflict and disease. They do not die of hard work. Zoe Empowers is the catalyst that propelled me from dust to destiny.”

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Timothy’s grandmother gave him two gifts before she passed away. The first was a small gourd, meant to symbolize giving. The gourd only darkened if he gave to others. “The darker the gourd, the richer his life will be,” she told him. At the time, Timothy didn’t believe he had anything to give. He was an orphan, living in poverty, struggling to keep himself and his family alive. 

But, in January 2020, Timothy, then 15, joined the  Amani Kanthali empowerment group. Shortly after that, he opened a business selling bananas. When the pandemic hit, the little savings he had accrued vanished quickly, forcing him into manual labor. He feared Zoe would shutter and that he would be forgotten, left behind by another organization that failed to keep its promises. But Zoe Empowers was different. 

Timothy and his younger siblings, Emaculate and Raphael, received regular contact from Zoe throughout the pandemic. The family earned soap, a hand washing bucket, and sanitizer upon completing their health and hygiene training. Timothy recalls this gesture filling them with hope. In July 2020, Timothy reopened his business, this time selling hard-boiled eggs. He met with his group mates, participated in table banking and merry-go-round fund, and added more fresh vegetables to his store’s inventory. 

However, when a second lockdown occurred in 2021, Timothy’s momentum halted again. Government restrictions limited hours of operation, making it a challenge for Timothy to sell his vegetables. Around this time, Timothy received a Covid grant from Zoe to stay afloat. “This made me feel like God was giving me a second chance,” he recalled. “It made all the difference.”

Timothy’s business weathered the storm, but the turbulence didn’t leave much to invest at home. And so, Timothy leaned into his grandmother’s second gift, a large tree on her property. In late 2021, he cut it down and harvested the wood to build another room next to his grandmother’s home, where he and his siblings had lived since he was 12. This addition was a tremendous accomplishment for Timothy. “I feel surrounded by my grandmother inside my new home,” he said.

Timothy also submitted paperwork to regain ownership of his former home. After his father’s death and his mother fled, Timothy approached an uncle for help, but instead of offering support, the uncle stole their property. Through Zoe Empower’s child rights training, Timothy learned that his uncle broke the law. Zoe connected Timothy to local officials to report the case and is hopeful he’ll regain control of the property soon. 

Before his death, Timothy’s father strained the family’s reputation, often caught stealing and abusing others. Timothy noticed the community treats him with more respect now that he owns a store. He made friends in his empowerment group and at church. His siblings are excelling at school. Emaculate dreams of becoming a doctor, while Raphael wants to join the military.

Although his path to empowerment was riddled with challenges, Timothy, now 18, persevered, not only because Zoe Empowers gave him encouragement and strength but in memory of his grandmother. He keeps the gourd in his store, hanging from a piece of twine in the corner. Its once pale yellow flesh has turned brown like the soil, making it easy to overlook, displayed next to bright packages of coffee and tea. But whenever it catches his eye, Timothy is struck by her memory and the meaning behind her two gifts. She was right all along. His life has become richer.

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Faith still remembers the day she knocked on her uncle’s door.

It wasn’t long after the death of her parents. She was fifteen, and her younger brother, Martin, was eight. They hadn’t eaten in several days, and Faith was beginning to fear they wouldn’t survive on their own.

After a few seconds, the uncle’s new wife opened the door. They didn’t know her but asked for help anyway. She took one long look at their clothes, stretched at the neck, soiled on the sleeves and knees. Her nose wrinkled, and her eyes turned cold as she told them to leave.

When Faith begged, she chased them away and slammed the door. In tears, they ran home.

The years that followed were the most dismal of Faith’s life. She worked in the fields, tilling farmland, carrying firewood, and completing any task that promised food or money to buy food. But still, she and Martin often went to bed with growling stomachs.

Finally, through the local leaders in her community, Faith learned of Zoe Empowers Kenya and joined the Harmony group in early 2019.

Immediately, she began entrepreneurship training. Faith started her first business, a convenience store, less than two months later. She used a small grant from Zoe to rent a kiosk and invest in basic inventory: flour, cooking oil, and rice.

Eventually, as her income and confidence grew, Faith added more inventory–fresh produce, packaged goods, personal care products–to her store’s shelves. She purchased several farm animals at home, including chickens, two cows, and one goat. She planted maize and potatoes and bought new clothing.

When it seemed as though she had hit her stride, the pandemic shut down the entire community, halting all momentum. Although she was frightened by the virus, Faith didn’t panic. Zoe’s training had taught her how to be flexible, to problem solve.

Early in her program, Zoe taught her how to start a savings account and diversify her assets. Luckily, she had listened and accrued a substantial amount to draw on during the business closure. She had also built up inventory at her store and a food supply at home to sustain them. She shared the surplus with her neighbors, who weren’t as prepared for an unexpected crisis.

Faith used the quarantine time to make much-needed improvements to her decrepit house. She sold one cow to buy materials to repair the roof and paint the exterior. She also added solar panels and a large water tank for cooking, washing clothes and bathing.

This was an especially monumental change since, before Zoe, the two siblings didn’t have access to water and soap and therefore couldn’t bathe regularly. Faith had stopped going out in public because she was ridiculed for her body odor. After learning better hygiene practices, Faith’s social anxiety began to dissipate.

Little by little, week by week, she and Martin got through the pandemic alongside their empowerment group members.

In December 2021, Faith graduated from Zoe Empowers. She recently reported that her business is still growing and doing well in 2022. Martin will finish Form 1 (9th grade) this year and dreams of becoming an electrical engineer.

Meanwhile, Faith dreams of expanding into a large wholesale shop. She envisions herself as an employer because she is passionate about paying forward her good fortune. She often gives farming and table banking lessons in the community and has become a trusted resource for other orphans, providing food and basic needs. She’s even considering adopting in the future.

Today, Faith has restored the relationship with her aunt and uncle and has forgiven them for turning her and Martin away. She knows it took that one door being slammed shut, for another, better door to open.

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After three years of running her own grocery business, Risper has a system. At a market in rural Kenya, she piles tomatoes and green peppers into neat, heaping rows. She adds onions and papaya to the table then arranges stacks of cilantro before chopping cabbage and lettuce to sell in individual bags. 

Across the aisle, her grandmother preps an inventory not dissimilar to Risper. During the pandemic, Risper helped her grandmother open her own produce stand. Now they work together to sell the food Risper grows at their property.

The market is near a university, which plays a critical role in daily foot traffic. It also helps Risper connect with countless young girls and women in her community to share her story. 

Before August 2018, when Risper joined Zoe Empowers, she had reached the most miserable point of her life. She had lost both parents and acquired the caretaker role for her three younger siblings. She felt overwhelmed by the responsibility, so she asked her aunt for help. 

At first, the aunt claimed she would help Risper, but then made secret arrangements to marry her off. Marriage would require Risper to undergo FGM. When she resisted, the aunt locked Risper in a bedroom and called personnel to perform FGM at the house, against Risper’s will. 

Risper narrowly escaped through a window, and she and her siblings fled to their grandmother’s house. However, their grandmother was elderly and unable to provide for a family of five adequately. Shortly after, Risper enrolled in the Zoe Empowers program. Through Zoe’s training, Risper learned about child rights and that what her aunt had attempted to do was illegal. 

This information was not only enlightening but motivating to Risper. She began doing outreach work, sharing her experience and the dangers of FGM with other young girls and women. Today, she speaks publicly about how women can protect themselves from this tradition. She even attends meetings with local officials to advocate for girls in her community. She is considered a role model and a trusted resource by many.   

In addition to her advocacy work, Risper regained control of her parents’ land, which relatives stole after their passing. She constructed a new house, a sizable farming operation, and a fenced area for her two pigs. She affords the school fees for all three of her siblings. 

Eventually Risper wants to open a bigger store to stock more canned inventory and dry goods like sugar, flour, and maize. But, for now, she said, “I am proud of myself and my accomplishments.”

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The sun was almost set when Clarisse climbed up the mango tree. Warm tears traced her cheeks as she processed what she was about to do. She had no choice, she believed and only wanted a way to stop the pain. 

Since her parents and eldest brother went to prison a few years ago, Clarisse’s life had managed to go from bad to worse. First, her grandmother, the family’s only living relative, passed away. Then, her older brother and sister left the family entirely, leaving Clarisse, a 12-year-old, responsible for her two younger brothers. 

Clarisse tried to care for her siblings but had grown defeated by the effort. The starvation was unbearable. The community stigma was crippling. She was tired. Done with it all. She climbed higher. 

When she reached a fork in the tree trunk, she stopped. She sat down, and through jagged sobs, she surveyed the branches. There was one within reach that appeared to be sturdy enough, high enough. She grabbed it. 

Her hands and fingers stung—the flesh rubbed raw from weeding crops and carrying firewood—as she secured the rope. Soon it would all be over, she thought. She sat back down to tie a knot. She was nearly complete when she heard a voice from the ground yell, “Hey!” 

Clarisse peered down. There, standing at the base, was the familiar face of a neighbor. Clarisse could feel him assessing the rope, her distress. “Hey!” he shouted again. “Come down from there.” 

Clarisse shook her head no. “Please come down,” he begged. And through a series of pleas and promises, Clarisse eventually surrendered. She was still a 12-year-old child, after all. Obedient to the commands of her elders. 

No more than a month later, Clarisse and her brothers joined Zoe Empowers Rwanda. They arrived at the first meeting in dirty tops and pants nearly worn through and ill-fitting shoes. The only clothing they owned. 

As Clarisse tried to explain their situation, she broke down. The conflict and abuse of her childhood, the history of abandonment, the community stigma had all scarred her deeply. The family immediately began grief counseling with Zoe Empowers staff. 

As the weeks progressed, the empowerment group became a source of refuge for Clarisse. Meeting other orphans who faced similar challenges was comforting. Little by little, Clarisse came to realize she could rely on her group members like family. Their care and support began to soften the rigid grooves of her heart. She began to open up and trust and smile again. 

Once Clarisse completed entrepreneurship training, she used her grant money to start a small business selling beans. This eventually generated enough profit for her to diversify her inventory. Rice was her first addition, then avocados, then maize flour, followed by peanut flour, eggplant, onions, and tomatoes. 

The growth of her food-selling business was a significant point of pride for Clarisse. Before Zoe Empowers, her family would often go a week without eating. Even when Clarisse had been able to get a job, farmers would usually not pay her or offer a single sweet potato as a consultation. Knowing this wasn’t enough food for three, Clarisse would give the potato to her brothers and forgo eating. 

In the past, community members often questioned how the family was able to survive at all. They knew the reputation of her parents and eldest brother. They had accused Clarisse and her brothers of stealing food to survive. They threatened to kill them if they were caught. 

But once Clarisse started her business, she was able to rightfully purchase food from the same community members who had once made such hurtful remarks. And so, the community’s perception of her and her family began to shift, as did Clarisse’s confidence in herself. 

During the first year of the empowerment program, Clarisse and her brothers moved into a new house, built with help from the empowerment group and the local church. They had previously been homeless, having lived in their grandmother’s house until it collapsed. Its demise had pushed Clarisse’s older brother and sister to leave many months earlier. 

Once the new home was constructed, Clarisse’s neighbor helped her track down her older siblings. She told them of her new home, her business, the way her life had changed since they had left. Both of them agreed to come home. 

By the time Clarisse graduated from Zoe Empowers in 2018, she was running a business large enough to employ and support all five siblings. Today, the family continues to live and work together, which Clarisse considers her greatest blessing. Both of her younger brothers are in school, and everyone is insured and able to access medical care when they are sick.  

Watch as Clarisse shares her story.

Clarisse’s faith in God has also been restored. She admits she was angry with Him before Zoe Empowers, but she feels differently now. She will never forget that day in the mango tree. The pain and hopelessness she felt then still evokes heaviness on her chest. 

But the memory is also a source of light. Clarisse believes that had her neighbor not intervened, she would have never joined Zoe Empowers mere weeks later, and she would have never come to know the richness of her life today. She thanks God and Zoe Empowers for unveiling the path when it was too dark for her to see. 

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When Sangavi was born, her parents considered her a curse. 

The firstborn daughter in an Indian culture overly concerned with producing male offspring, Sangavi was a disappointment and thought to be a considerable burden. So, Sangavi’s parents did what most other Indian parents would do: They conceived again, this time saying extra prayers for a boy. 

And, once again, they were let down when Sangavi’s mother gave birth to her second baby girl. The imminent sadness and despair continued. But, her parents refused to give up hope and opted to conceive a third child. Surely, they couldn’t be that unlucky. 

When Sangavi’s mother gave birth to another girl, her father lost it. Without warning, he abandoned his wife and his three daughters, and they never saw him again. Three years later, Sangavi’s mother followed suit, and the three orphaned sisters went to live with their grandfather. 

Their grandfather was elderly and barely earned enough to feed himself, let alone three grandchildren. At best, the sisters ate four meals a week, which Sangavi usually scrounged together with nominal earnings from a piece job or a handout at a temple. 

But most days, they went to bed without any food at all. It was on these days of hunger and desperation that Sangavi found herself internalizing what her parents had said all along: Was she cursed? 

Even though her parents had not valued their daughters, they deeply missed them. Mostly they missed feeling like they belonged somewhere. When their parents were around, they looked like a real family, which was better than being alone. 

For the better part of a decade, Sangavi bravely carried her family through the trenches of extreme poverty. The belief that one day their prayers would be answered kept her going. And in January 2018, Sangavi’s hope paid off. She and her siblings joined Zoe Empowers India. 

Gaining food security became the priority. Along with her group mates, Sangavi was trained in agricultural practices, prompting her to cultivate a vegetable garden at home. With a small grant from Zoe, Sangavi purchased ten chickens, which, combined with the vegetables, provided regular meals for her and her sisters. 

Once her family was eating regular meals, Sangavi shifted her focus to income generation. The Zoe Empowers facilitator taught the group a range of lessons, including analyzing the market, identify gaps in goods and services, managing cash flow, among others. From there, Sangavi felt confident creating a business plan for a jewelry store.  

When the plan was approved, Zoe Empowers provided Sangavi with inventory as part of a start-up kit. The inventory was predominately plastic beaded jewelry, and the sight of it, organized by style in neat little compartments, thrilled Sangavi. One day she would work up to selling precious jewels and stones and maybe even gold or silver as she had seen in other shops, but for now, this was perfect.

There proved to be a market for Sangavi’s jewelry, and her business multiplied. After a few months, she was making as much as $9 per day. In addition to selling pieces, she expanded her business by renting out necklaces and bracelets for special occasions.  

In the evenings, Sangavi helped her empowerment group with its collective project. They sold popular Indian snack foods, such as samosa, bajii, bonda, and vadai, out of a small kiosk at the market. Whether it was chopping vegetables, kneading dough, cooking, washing plates, serving customers, or collecting money, all groupmates found a way to contribute. Sangavi’s role was to knead the dough. 

When Sangavi began Zoe Empowers, she and her sisters lived in a single-room thatched home with a coconut leaf roof that inevitably leaked. They used the bushes as a latrine. Since joining Zoe, Sangavi afforded a roof upgrade and built a latrine next to the house. Soon, she hopes to move the family to a new home. 

Sangavi also applied for government health insurance cards, and the family was approved. Access to proper medical care, combined with improved daily hygiene practices, has significantly enhanced the family’s quality of life. Both of her siblings are back in school, and Sangavi is diligently saving money for her older sister to pursue higher education. 

In January, Sangavi will graduate Zoe Empowers, having accomplished every goal on her dream chart. She has become an entrepreneur, a caretaker, a groupmate, a valued member of her community, but she also succeeded in reversing the cursed mindset instilled during her childhood. Now, she believes the cursed narrative to be false. She wants her story to inspire other young Indian girls who thought the same lie.  

“According to me, Zoe not only gave us the grant, it gave us confidence, hope, perseverance, self-motivation, and many more to achieve in our life,” said Sangavi. “I thank Zoe for all of these and I assure that we all will shine in our life.” 

380 million children living in extreme poverty will rely on charity forever.

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A monthly gift of $9 over 3 years empowers one orphan out of poverty. How many children like Sangavi can you give lasting sustainable change?

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