In the heart of Chennai’s bustling streets lies a vibrant oasis called Nila Ice Cream. The small shop is owned and operated by Uma, 20, who spent weeks painting the walls in fun colors and celestial murals, hand-making decor, and procuring seating. Every detail she selected has intention and purpose.

“I chose yellow for the walls because it means love,” Uma explained during a recent visit from Zoe Empowers staff. “Brown means hope.” 

For Uma, Nila Ice Cream is more than just chocolate shakes and ice cream sandwiches to beat the South Indian heat. It’s a dream come true. 

Five years ago, Uma’s childhood was upended when her father died. As the breadwinner, his abrupt absence left his family in immediate financial hardship. Because Uma’s mother has a chronic disability, impeding her ability to walk and work, Uma assumed the role of caretaker, including responsibility for her brothers, who were four and five at the time.

Uma’s mother eventually brought her children to the temple, where they begged for food each day. Additionally, Uma found work cleaning shops at the market—grocery stores, salons, restaurants, and anyone who would hire her. Time spent sweeping and mopping floors instilled a yearning to open her own store, but Uma doubted the feasibility. 

Then, in January 2022, Uma heard about Zoe Empowers and attended a recruitment meeting. Hearing Jabez Williams, Zoe Empowers country manager in Chennai, explain the empowerment program moved Uma to tears. She had prayed for an opportunity for four years. This was it.

“He [Jabez] gave me so much hope,” Uma recalled. “It was the hope that changed my life.” 

After a couple of months of training, Uma started Nila Ice Cream. A business loan from her Zoe Empowers group covered the cost of a freezer, product inventory, and other business supplies. Uma secured a space to rent in a busy marketplace and wasted no time opening the doors. 

On the wall behind the register, Uma hung a framed portrait of her father. She credits him for teaching her to be bold and brave, take risks, and chase her dreams. She is emotional thinking of her accomplishments in one year with Zoe. Her life is unrecognizable. Rich with meaning.

However, Uma’s ambition isn’t unusual for a woman in her circumstances. “The slum kids have the biggest dreams and work the hardest,” said Jabez Williams, who has helped thousands of orphaned and vulnerable children in India through Zoe. “The more desperate their circumstances, the faster they come up.”

Today, Uma’s lively ice cream parlor serves dozens of customers a day during the summer months. Business slows in the rainy season, but Uma accommodates by saving and investing her earnings. Eventually, she hopes to franchise her business and is actively looking for the right partner and location to expand. 

With her profits, Uma can afford regular meals, rent a home, and access healthcare for her entire family, including her mother, whom Uma cares for. Overcoming homelessness, food insecurity, and stigmatization through Zoe Empowers has given Uma a hefty dose of confidence. 

“The training taught me to push through, and now I have the ability and resources to solve my problems,” Uma said proudly. “I can figure out anything now.” 

Uma’s brothers are reaping the benefits of their older sister’s success. After joining Zoe, both boys enrolled in school. One is training to become a carpenter and assists Uma at the ice cream parlor. The other is training in data transcript processing and hopes to be hired by Amazon in the future. 

Uma’s talent and determination have stood out among her Zoe empowerment peer group, who appointed her as the group secretary. The responsibility requires Uma to attend regional meetings, where she swaps stories and business lessons with other Zoe participants. 

The group aspect of Zoe has made Uma’s years of isolation and loneliness a thing of the past. “I have made a lot of good friends,” Uma said. She specified another young woman named Nivetha who sells dresses. “We like to share ideas and help each other’s businesses.”

Furthermore, Uma shares her knowledge and strengthens the economy in her community by training other children. So far, she has trained sixteen children how to operate an ice cream parlor, and six have opened their own shops. 

Friendship and ice cream have ignited a profound joy and sense of purpose Uma can’t believe she lived nearly twenty years without. It’s as if her life has just begun. And, in many ways, it has. Given her resilience, determination, and creativity, Uma’s future looks as bright as her ice cream shop walls.  

Zoe Empowers helped Pascaline find stability for her family of ten.

Extreme poverty befell Pascaline and her family four years ago. 

It happened in a matter of days following the death of Pascaline’s mother. The family returned to their matriarch’s home village in rural Rwanda for the burial. There, Pascaline’s father swiftly abandoned his six children, leaving them with their eighty-year-old maternal grandmother, who was already struggling to provide for three of Pascaline’s cousins. 

Pascaline’s grandmother had suffered an arm injury several years earlier. Without access to proper healthcare, she’d lost the function of her right arm. Able-bodied Pascaline, then fourteen, was the eldest of the nine children, ages three months to ten years old. And so, almost overnight, Pascaline became responsible for a household of ten. 

Pascaline spent days collecting leftover charcoal to sell and weeding the fields. But the meager earnings—scraps of sweet potatoes, cassava, and corn—from odd jobs weren’t enough to feed the family. Hunger haunted their household. Nights were endless, filled with crying infants desperate for milk Pascaline couldn’t afford. On occasion, mothers in the village would have pity on Pascaline’s begging, sharing milk and porridge. But when that option failed, Pascaline fed the babies solid food.

“We never had vegetables or legumes,” Pascaline recalled. “I was praying for God to send help. I felt abandoned and began to believe I was alone.”  

Unable to afford education, Pascaline and her siblings languished in perpetual need. If a family member fell ill, Pascaline could do nothing. No one had birth certificates, disqualifying them from need-based programs. 

Four years passed in this state of hopelessness and despair, each more bleak than the next. Finally, in January 2023, Pascaline heard about Zoe Empowers and attended the information event. She wept to Albertine, a program facilitator in Rwanda, as she recalled her strenuous battle to keep her family alive. 

Pascaline was accepted into the empowerment program, and at the first group meeting, she created a Dream Chart to outline her vision and goals for the program. Placed prominently at the top, Pascaline drew a picture of her motivation: children crying out of hunger. 

More than anything, Pascaline dreamed of becoming food secure. So, when she didn’t attend the second meeting, her group was confused and concerned. They tracked Pascaline down and learned she hadn’t found work that day and could not feed her family. She’d skipped the Zoe meeting to beg for food. 

Pascaline’s peers, who were also vulnerable and hungry, deemed Pascaline’s situation an emergency. They banded together, promising to help Pascaline find food for a few days to allow her to keep coming to the meetings. Their kindness and generosity moved Pascaline to tears. Never before had anyone come to her home and listened to her struggles. 

Pascaline started a small business selling fruits and vegetables with her first Zoe grant. But this glimmer of stability was disrupted when a government mandate required all children under eighteen to be in school. 

Once again, Pascaline thought she’d have to drop out of the Zoe program until Albertine, the program facilitator, proposed a solution with government officials and the school: Pascaline received a contract to supply sweet potatoes and cabbage to the school through her business, allowing her to get an education and remain in the Zoe program.

The partnership seemed promising, but Pascaline needed a loan to buy sweet potatoes from another supplier to meet the school’s upfront demand. Luckily, after many conversations, Pascaline connected with a farmer who trusted the Zoe program and rented her a plot of sweet potatoes to harvest. Her group mates helped transport the crop, agreeing that Pascaline would pay them once she received payment from the school.

After a few months, Pascaline’s business grew and stabilized. The steady income allowed Pascaline to participate in her group’s merry-go-round fund, a banking method used across program countries requiring group members to input small sums weekly to receive loans as needed to grow and diversify their endeavors. With access to the merry-go-round, Pascaline acquired more livestock, including chickens, a goat, and a pig. She expanded her farming practice, renting land and sharing crops. 

Wanting her family to build self-sufficiency alongside her, Pascaline gifted each sibling one chicken. Her family members used the money from egg sales to pay for school supplies. Zoe had subsidized the cost of medical insurance so Pascaline could focus on her business. But by the six-month mark, Pascaline could afford 50% of the cost of medical insurance. By the end of year one, Pascaline covered the expense on her own and Zoe helped her to obtain IDs and birth certificates. 

With an expanding business, Pascaline recently hired two employees, and during planting season, she hired five more—all impoverished people in the community. Pascaline pays her employees fairly, in cash, unlike how former employers exploited her for labor. She even made arrangements for an employee to care for one of her pigs, and when the pig reproduced, they agreed to share the piglets, thereby spreading the wealth.

At school, Pascaline was chosen as the leader of her grade, representing her class in conversations with school officials. When asked about this responsibility, Pascaline beams with pride. 

“Before Zoe, I thought I’d never smile again,” Pascaline said. “I believed God had punished me for something. But, today, I can smile because I’m happy.” 

Pascaline’s journey exemplifies the power of collective support and individual resilience. With two years remaining in the Zoe program and her primary goal of food security achieved, she is focused on bigger milestones: land ownership, a new home, and possibly reuniting with her father. Like many vulnerable youth, Pascaline never lacked drive and determination, only support and opportunities. With both, she’s proven herself to be unstoppable.

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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Sheeja was in school when she got the news: Her father had suffered a stroke. 

At first, Sheeja thought there had been a mistake. Someone had confused her father with another man. Her father was healthy. He had only just turned forty. He worked all-day shifts for as long as Seeja could remember. 

Sheeja and her younger sister, Pooja, raced home to meet their mother. At the hospital, they learned the blood clot had traveled to the brain. Their dad was still alive but unconscious. The doctor outlined a few treatment possibilities, and the family agreed to proceed without question. 

Sheeja and her family spent several days at the hospital, praying, hoping for the best. They spent every dollar they had on medical treatment, but soon, it became clear it wouldn’t be enough. When Sheeja said goodbye to her father for the last time, she also said goodbye to the life she once knew. 

Without her father’s income, Sheeja’s family slipped into poverty. Sheeja’s mother worked as a housemaid, but her earnings were insufficient. The family left their home and moved to the slums, where rent was affordable. They subsisted on one meal a day. The girls dropped out of school. 

In early 2020, Sheeja joined Zoe Empowers India and the Altitude empowerment group, based in Saidapet, a northern suburb of Chennai City. Sheeja was excited about the possibilities Zoe Empowers promised. 

After completing a business plan, Sheeja was provided a small grant from Zoe Empowers to start her dream business: a supermarket. She used the grant money to rent a small kiosk and purchase basic inventory, like masala packets, soap, oil, biscuits, and chocolates. 

Things were going well, then the pandemic hit. Sheeja was terrified the mandatory shutdowns would wipe out her business, ruining the little momentum she had built. She was relieved when Zoe offered her another small grant to carry her through. 

Despite pandemic-related closures, Sheeja and her business have persevered. In the last year, she has earned enough money to enroll her family in government health insurance. Pooja is back in school, and Sheeja hopes to join her soon. The family is eating more regularly and incorporating many foods they once deemed a luxury, like rice, vegetables and dhal (lentils). 

At home, the family has also acquired basic comforts, including toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, floor mats, blankets and mosquito nets. Zoe Empowers also provided grief counseling, which has been invaluable to the entire family. 

“Along with our property and things, we had lost all our hope in our life,” Sheeja said in a recent reflection on her experience. “Zoe came into our life and gave us good hope. They also gave us some grants which helped us a lot to build our life. Right from my heart, I thank Zoe for all its timely help.”  

Sometimes, Sheeja wonders what would’ve happened to her family if she hadn’t found Zoe before the pandemic. Sheeja knows the timing was a gift from God. A gift she feels compelled to pass on. Serving her community through her shop is the first step, but in the future, she aims to open a bigger supermarket, where she could employ others who are vulnerable and struggling to find work.

She often thinks of her dad, and what he would make of the life she has reconstructed for the family he left behind. She misses him dearly, but knows he would be proud of her. His presence from above motivates her to continue working toward her dream.  

380 million children are trapped in the cycle of poverty.

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Nearly three years ago, on a warm July afternoon in Kenya, Winfred grabbed a jerry-can and walked toward the river. The task of gathering water was standard for the seventeen-year-old, who had acquired the role of primary caretaker for her four younger siblings. Their mother had become an alcoholic following the death of their father, impairing her parenting abilities and creating substantial tension with her eldest child.  

However, on this particular afternoon, Winfred didn’t plan to return with a full jerry-can. In fact, she didn’t plan to return at all. She had gone to the river intending to drown herself. In her mind, death was the only way to erase the pain and suffering she felt. Her world, her responsibilities, her life as an orphan in the cycle of poverty had become too much to bear. 

But then something unexpected happened. On the way to the river, Winfred crossed paths with a former teacher. The teacher asked how she was doing, why she and her siblings were no longer in school. When Winfred explained the circumstance, the teacher mentioned Zoe Empowers, citing the program was soon coming to their village and was designed for children in situations like Winfred’s.

“I got so excited because God answered my prayers through my teacher,” she recalled. The following week Winfred was accepted into the Zoe Empowers Kenya program and joined the Joy Tuuru empowerment group. 

Group members were trained on the various aspects of entrepreneurship, including record keeping, customer service, differentiating profit and loss, and writing a business proposal. Winfred dreamed of opening a tailor shop, but she didn’t have previous experience as a seamstress. While she attended vocational training, she started another small business making samosas. She sold samosas in the mornings and evenings, before and after tailoring classes, to earn money for her family. 

The samosa-making business led to Winfred opening a convenience store stocked with a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables and packaged foods. Both businesses generated enough income for her to open a third business as a tailor. In less than three years in the Zoe Empowers program, Winfred has opened three businesses, which remain in operation today, thanks to help from her siblings.

The business proceeds have fully funded Winfred’s and her siblings’ school fees, health insurance, major housing repairs, and the purchase of livestock, which the family rears and sells for a profit. The family no longer suffers from health ailments, like diarrhea and lice, after learning the basics of personal health and hygiene from Zoe. Winfred aspires to go to college soon and has become a confident advocate of education in her community.

There is nothing about Winfred’s life that resembles her life three years ago. The life that she considered ending. Today, her energy is magnetic, bubbling with curiosity and warmth. She is a vibrant young woman who knows her worth. She is a mother and role model to her siblings. She knows the work, the lessons, the values she has accumulated are not only for her benefit but for the benefit of generations to come.    

Winfred believes she is a living testimony. Proof of God’s power to move people from nothing to something for his glory. 

Empower more young women, mothers, caretakers, orphans like Winfred by becoming a Zoe Empowers partner, starting at only $9 per month. 

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Anyone’s eyes would bulge when entering Diffati’s property. Outlined by a ten-foot brick wall that took four men (hired by Diffati) over a year to build and secured by an industrial steel door, the property’s construction has a noticeable level of stateliness. 

Even more impressive is that only seven short years ago Diffati was a young boy, brand new to the Zoe Empowers program.

Diffati welcomed our group as he unlocked the chain and slid open the door revealing an expansive space. 

His many animals—cows, goats, pigs, dogs—roamed freely in and out of their designated structures, which dot the compound’s perimeter. 

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The property is undeniably impressive. It’s also a stark contrast from Diffati’s upbringing in the rural Malawi village of Madisi. 

When Diffati was a young boy, his father passed away, leaving behind Diffati and his younger sister, Zione. Because Diffati’s father had been the primary breadwinner, suddenly, they were left without a source of income.  

Diffati and Zione dropped out of school to find labor jobs on local farms. Meals became sparse, as did access to clean water and proper medical care. They rented a single room, but for cultural and privacy reasons, Diffati was forced to find other places to sleep. 

The handful of years Diffati and his sister spent living in extreme poverty were excruciating. Diffati questioned if God loved him. Because if He did, why would he be burdened with such suffering?

“People in the community would call me a hopeless person. They would run away from me in the street,” he said. “I spent a lot of time alone.”

Diffati’s hopeless days came to an end in 2014 when Zoe Empowers Malawi established a presence in his community. He was accepted into the program and immediately got to work on his business plan alongside his empowerment group members. 

Initially, Diffati trained to be a barber. As word spread of his new skill, he grew a solid customer base and confidence in his abilities as an entrepreneur. Eventually, he started a shop selling cooking oil and eggs, and later on, phone accessories and second-hand clothing. 

By the time Diffati graduated from the empowerment program in October 2016, he was able to use the profits from his shop to acquire livestock. Only one year later, he had saved enough to begin constructing the compound mentioned above. In 2018, he moved in. 

In the back of Diffati’s compound sits a two-room home. Diffati explained that his cousin, who he has since hired to look after his livestock, stays in one room, and he rents the other out for $25/month. He stays in town in his other home, but he is always bouncing back and forth overseeing the operations. Over the years, Diffati has hired several community members to help him with his various businesses, and he has trained dozens more.

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Today, Diffati is a young adult and part of the Zoe Empowers Alumni. His transformation is apparent on the outside—a well-groomed appearance, warm smile, sizable compound, multiple businesses—but when asked, Diffati admitted the changes he is most grateful for are not necessarily tangible. 

The friendships, mentors, encouragement, and support he received from his Zoe Empowers peers and community members are invaluable to him. The spiritual development he experienced with his group members allowed Diffati to love and be loved in ways he could not have imagined. He chose to include hearts in the design across his front gate as an intentional reminder of God’s love and the love from his empowerment group. He credits his faith in God as the reason he has life.

In the future, Diffati dreams of marrying a woman who is equally hard-working and strong in her faith, someone who will dream big with him. He envisions himself as a father who will pass down his knowledge and skills to his future children, so they don’t suffer the way he did. He believes his own father would be proud of all he has accomplished. 

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When Ann married a man she barely knew at age 14, she believed the union was the only quick fix to escape her household, where an abusive step-father made life unbearable. 

Ann’s situation is not uncommon in Kenya, a country ranking 18th highest in the world for the absolute number of women married or in a union before the age of 18. Statistics show that girls living in poverty like Ann are twice as likely to marry under 18. 

Ann didn’t think things could get worse until she became pregnant. After giving birth to her daughter, Ivydinah, at age 16, her husband renounced his responsibilities as a spouse and father. He drank constantly and engaged in extramarital affairs. He’d leave for days at a time, only to spontaneously return to their home, angry and drunk, to mistreat Ann. 

This was when Ann began thinking about taking her own life. “I was so hopeless, and I became withdrawn. I did not know who to reach out to for help, but I kept on wishing that I would disappear from this world,” said Ann.

It was Ann’s family—her desire to raise Ivydinah and find a way to help her mother and younger sister, Mercy, safely leave the throes of the abusive step-father—that kept her going through this dark period. She found the strength to leave her marriage and took refuge at a relative’s home. 

Shortly after, she joined Zoe Empowers Kenya and the Joyous Kirua empowerment group in January 2019. By April 2019, Ann started her own farming business, beginning with a single plot of land and a few vegetable seeds (cabbage, carrots, potatoes). Zoe provided her with a hoe and machete to assist with land preparation. 

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After a couple of harvests, Ann saved enough money to rent a second plot of land, doubling her planting capacity. She also invested in sheep and chickens. Ann sold chicken eggs for extra income but kept a fair share for her family to eat. The integration of vegetables and eggs, both unaffordable before Zoe, dramatically improved Ann’s health and her family’s health.

Of the various trainings taught by Zoe staff, Ann was particularly struck by the classes on reproductive health and sexuality. Never before had Ann learned the dangers of child marriage, early pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, or how to care for herself properly. 

Ann began actively sharing her newly acquired knowledge about child rights by training other young girls in her community how to stand up against early marriage. “I emphasize the importance of staying single, protecting yourself, and making a future for yourself, first, instead of getting married,” Ann said.

Learning her rights and how to enforce them also led Ann to stop further abuse from her step-father. By informing the area chief of the situation, Ann perpetuated a successful intervention at her former household. Ann’s mother separated from the step-father, allowing Ann to move back home to rejoin her sister, Mercy. Ann also adopted her younger cousin, Mary, into the family. 

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Ann’s experience resonates with many young people in her community. Her relatability—having lost her father to illness when she was a child to living in extreme poverty then overcoming countless other challenges—has prompted several orphans and vulnerable children to seek her support and guidance. 

Being an advocate and mentor has brought significant meaning to Ann’s life. “Zoe Empowers has given me an opportunity to inform, educate and raise awareness on the need to combat early marriages, child abuse, and gender inequality in my community,” said Ann. “I will challenge gender stereotypes and bias.”

As a country, Kenya has committed to eliminating child, early, and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. While many organizations work to make this a reality, Zoe Empowers contributes through orphan empowerment. 

We need more vulnerable young women to know their rights and how to vocalize them. We need more advocates like Ann actively calling out gender bias and inequality in their community. We need more people who #ChooseToChallenge. 

This International Women’s Day, you can simultaneously #ChooseToChallenge AND help the world’s most vulnerable children by becoming a Zoe Empowers partner. Starting at just $9 a month, you can set in motion a life-changing transformation.

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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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