Against All Odds: Pascaline and her family of ten.
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 […]
Priya Designs Her Dream
Priya becomes an award-winning designer. Priya was eleven years old when her father died. He had worked a modest job, and while his income had not been substantial, it supported a family of four living in Chennai, India. Priya’s mother stayed home while Priya and her younger brother, Gopi, attended school. After their father’s death, […]
A new door opens for Faith
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 […]
Risper rises up to challenge gender bias
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, […]
From Hopelessness to Hope, Clarisse tells her story.
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 […]
Beatrice Shatters the Cycle of Poverty
“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 Beatrice’s earliest memories are in the hot, dusty fields with her mother, Verina. After […]
Daniel’s Ascent into Fatherhood
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 […]
Sheeja was a Grieving Daughter Looking for Hope
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 […]
An Unexpected Challenger
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 […]
Reversing a Cultural Narrative
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 […]