Chenesai was ready and waiting outside when the visitors arrived.
On the ground, unable to walk with legs tucked to one side, wrists crossed in her lap, she takes in the unfamiliar scene unfolding in front of her: three Americans, along with a few faces she recognizes as Zoe Empowers Zimbabwe staff, have just parked their trucks on the narrow road that leads to the home she shares with her son, Tarisai.
Wearing a teal tie-dye dashiki and jeans, Tarisai is walking especially tall today. He meets the visitors as they approach. She overhears the buzz of exchanging introductions before Tarisai begins a tour around their compound. Her heart overflows with pride as she watches him, squinting to keep the setting in focus, not wanting to miss a second of this momentous occasion.
In the far corner of the lot, Tarisai pauses next to three men from the community whom he recently hired. They look up to give dutiful waves and curious stares. Then continue to remove dirt by the shovelful from the hole where their new house will stand one day soon.
The group moves on. Tarisai points to the solar panel he uses to charge his cell phone.
He stops by the cows and goats and chickens, each secured behind a handmade fence. They halt again at his vegetable garden. With broad sweeps of his arm, he indicates the several dozen acres of maize planted just beyond it.
Chenesai is entranced by the Zoe Empowers photographer, who lingers a few steps behind the group, skillfully pointing her camera lens at the mound of building materials stacked in front of the working men, the chicken coup, the livestock, the line-up of cooking pots hanging to dry, and other possessions they didn’t always own.
Eventually, the visitors meander to the back of the property where Chenesai waits patiently. Her pulse quickens as they form a half-moon around her, momentarily blocking the relentless midday sun. She turns the corners of her mouth upward as she lifts her head to meet their downward glances. With help from the translator, she expresses her gratitude for their long trek to the only place she has ever lived.
There was a time, not too long ago, when she thought Tarisai would follow in his older sister’s footsteps. She wouldn’t have blamed him, just as she didn’t resent her eldest daughter, for seeking out a life she could never provide.
As a young boy, Tarisai had always been bright and studious. He loved being in school, and she knew it broke his heart to have to drop out to be her full-time caretaker once the relatives who had assumed that role for decades passed on.
When Tarisai’s sister was still around, both of her children struggled to find piece jobs in the community to earn money for food. And when that wasn’t enough, they foraged for wild fruits and vegetables in the bush, often sacrificing their meals to give her their meager findings.
Then, when her daughter married and moved away, the responsibility of survival fell on Tarisai’s teenage shoulders. He never complained, but she couldn’t help but feel like a burden. He was smart, strong, and capable of so much more than being a prisoner to her disability.
In 2017, when Tarisai joined Zoe Empowers Zimbabwe, Chenesai didn’t know what to expect. A program was promising a permanent end to the struggles of extreme poverty that had plagued her, and subsequently her children, did not seem real. At least she had never seen it done before.
Tarisai enrolled, and shortly after that, he began making remarks about how it would change their lives for the better. He was particularly excited about vocational training. When allowed to choose a business, he selected farming to stay closeby their home to look after Chenesai.
Once Zoe Empowers granted him the tools and resources to get started, he worked harder than she had ever seen him work before. Every day of the week, he was out in the field, often with his groupmates, implementing the lessons they acquired in training.
It took a couple of months for his labor to yield results, but sure enough, the two of them began eating regular meals, including legumes and yams and tomatoes. Sometimes, Tarisai even brought home meat, a delicious delicacy they devoured down to the bone!
After Tarisai completed various tasks around the compound to make it cleaner and safer, Zoe Empowers rewarded him with a blanket. Big, orange, and warm like the sun, the blanket was unlike the torn rupees and rags Chenesai had known as bedding. What had she done to have such a luxury? Curling up under it every night gave her hope that what Zoe Empowers promised was true.
Then things got even better.
One day, Tarisai came home and told her his maize harvest was so plentiful the government wanted to establish a contract with him to buy it. The government! Her boy! Her eyes flooded with tears of joy. Had she not seen the crop being hauled to market by the cartload every three months and held the worn dollars in her hands, it all could have very well been a dream.
Just as the Americans, two of them now chatting in excited, high-pitched voices while furiously tapping their thumbs to tiny screens, could also be a figment of her imagination.
She observes Tarisai, not more than fifty feet from her, posed on their home’s front steps. How handsome her son looks. Such dignity in his eyes. Assurance in his smile. He has accomplished what he said he was going to do and more, and now look at him, getting his photo taken by the very organization who made it possible.
Then the Americans unexpectedly return to her side. Chenesai feels more comfortable as her guests squat to eye-level. She listens intently when the translator asks if she would be comfortable answering questions about Zoe Empowers. She nods, feeling the great significance for her son in this moment right now.
In short, considerate statements, she tells them how much she loves her son and his Zoe Empowers group. She makes sure to mention the blanket and her gratitude for how different things are now. She can’t help but add that she hopes Tarisai finds a good wife who will help him take care of her. They ask if they can take her picture. She nods again. She has never felt more thankful.
By forming and funding additional empowerment groups, the number of child-headed households like Tarisai will be multiplied, ending the cycle of poverty for thousands who have been trapped.
