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.

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.

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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“Losing my biological father at a young age and being abandoned by my stepfather made me feel that everything was lost,” said Beatrice. “Little did I know that Zoe Empowers would come and change the direction of my life.” – Beatrice

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Beatrice’s earliest memories are in the hot, dusty fields with her mother, Verina. After Vernia’s husband died in a motorcycle accident shortly after she gave birth to Beatrice, she had no option but to bring her newborn daughter along when she ventured to find work in their rural Malawi village. 

Strapped to Verina’s back, Beatrice quietly observed Verina’s grit as she picked crops and pulled weeds and watered rows for as long as it took to get the job done. The pay was never enough, but it kept them alive. The mother and daughter maintained this routine until Beatrice reached school age, when she exchanged the fields for the classroom. 

Then Verina met and married a new man. Finally, they had someone to help them, Beatrice thought. She believed their hardest days were behind them. Her mother had two additional children with her second husband. But, as a family of five, their needs only increased, and it soon became clear Beatrice’s stepfather wasn’t interested in the role of provider. He abandoned the family to marry another woman in a neighboring village. 

Beatrice was heartbroken by the betrayal as was Verina. They resumed the grueling hours in the fields to earn enough for the family. For the better part of a decade, they subsisted on one meal a day. Their home fell into disrepair, and there wasn’t enough money for any of the siblings to attend school. They wore ill-fitting, worn clothing and were often sick from malnourishment and malaria and parasites borne in contaminated water. 

This was how the family was living when Zoe Empowers entered their community in the spring of 2020. 

Once accepted into the empowerment program, Beatrice wasted no time getting her first business off the ground. Given her childhood, farming was a natural business choice for Beatrice. Zoe offered her a grant to purchase two pigs, which she quickly reared into seven. She sold two pigs, and used the profits to launch another commercial vegetable farming business, growing leafy vegetables, tomatoes, soybeans and maize. 

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From day one, Beatrice said her goal was to ensure her family had enough food at all times, and after her first year with Zoe Empowers, she has already achieved it. The family now eats three meals a day, and Beatrice sells the surplus vegetables at the local market. Her siblings have enrolled in school, and their home has been repaired, although Beatrice’s new dream is to build a new, larger home for her family.

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More recently, Beatrice has begun to explore other avenues of entrepreneurship. Some days she makes and sells doughnuts from a small kiosk. She also hired three men in her community to mold bricks, which she knows she will be able to sell for a sizable profit due to the current demand for building materials. 

Despite the setbacks of the pandemic, Beatrice currently has FOUR businesses in action, and she has no plans of stopping any time soon. Her spunk and ambition are truly contagious, and she is admired and respected in her empowerment group. In her community and at church, Beatrice often volunteers her time and talents, citing the need to reciprocate the support she received when she was struggling. 

“Losing my biological father at a young age and being abandoned by my stepfather made me feel that everything was lost,” said Beatrice. “Little did I know that Zoe Empowers would come and change the direction of my life.” 

While Zoe Empowers gave Beatrice the opportunity, she is the one who has put forth the effort. And she is not alone. Thousands of orphans and vulnerable children like Beatrice have the same work ethic, dreams and talent. They are just waiting for their chance to reach their full potential. 

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Daniel was 11 years old when he became the head of his household. 

His mother unexpectedly passed away of a mysterious illness, and his father had died a couple of years before that. As the eldest of four siblings, Daniel acquired the role of caretaker. 

Still a child himself, Daniel’s understanding of parenting could be distilled down to one word: Survival. He knew he needed to keep the family alive, which meant he needed to drop out of school to earn money to buy food. 

Daniel took a job rearing cattle. But his siblings, ranging in ages 3-7 at the time, were too young to stay home alone, so he brought them along. Daniel’s boss didn’t care for this and eventually fired Daniel.

“It was the worst day of my life,” Daniel said. “I told my siblings that they had to stay home whenever I went into the community to search for a job.”

Daniel secured a new job selling roasted meats. But, like many orphaned and vulnerable children, he was paid poorly, often compensated with little money or food for a day’s work. It wasn’t enough to sustain his family, and Daniel had no choice but to begin stealing meat.

One day his boss caught him. He was beaten and chased out of a job. Word spread in the community that Daniel was a thief. Community members shunned the family and told them they didn’t have proper clothes to enter public spaces or socialize at gatherings. 

The family became increasingly isolated. They lived like this for eight years before Zoe Empowers entered the picture. In February 2019, Daniel and his siblings joined the Ineza-Kansi empowerment group in Rwanda. By April 2019, Daniel had started his first business selling fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Daniel quickly expanded his inventory with the profits to include cassava, sweet potatoes, beans, sorghum, arrowroot, Irish potatoes, and maize. He invested in goats, hens, and a pig and now dreams of buying a cow. The family went eating every three days to eating three meals per day. 

Because Daniel had been so young when he took over as a caregiver, he lacked exposure to many basic hygienic practices. Through Zoe Empowers, he and his siblings learned to boil their water, wash their food and eating utensils, sleep under mosquito nets, and build a latrine and handwashing station. 

These small changes produced powerful results for Daniel and his siblings. The illnesses—malaria, diarrhea, intestinal worms—that plagued their past were suddenly not factors. All three siblings were able to return to school within the first year of the empowerment program. 

Daniel’s faith in God has also grown significantly. He said he used to believe God didn’t have time for him and his life. But, now, he feels differently. “With Zoe Empowers, I feel content with God’s kindness. I believe that even in sorrows, God was with me,” Daniel said. “Whenever I meet with vulnerable people, I feel that I have a big duty of saving others as I was saved.”  

Daniel and his group have already initiated an incredible project to give back to their community. Together, they planted a large garden where they hold regular demonstrations on constructing, growing, and maintaining a garden. They give away the harvest to children suffering from malnutrition. 

The community has responded positively to Daniel and his group’s work. “With Zoe, I feel respected, and I attend all community events whenever I am invited,” he said. 

Nearly a decade after the death of his parents, Daniel still misses them dearly. Although he has grown into the role of father, he knows he will never fully take the place of his parents. Yet, he is proud of his effort. He knows his parents would be proud of him too.  

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