After his father died, Lazaro’s childhood disappeared. His mother did what she could, but her disability prevented her from providing for the family on her own. Hoping to help support them, Lazaro’s oldest brother eventually left home in search of work in a larger community far away. The separation was painful, but they saw no other choice. With his older brother gone, the responsibility of caring for his three younger siblings fell to teenage Lazaro.
Searching for Work
While other children hurried to school with books tucked beneath their arms, Lazaro left home each morning in search of work. If someone needed help in the fields, he offered his hands. If sacks of grain needed to be carried or firewood gathered, he was the first to step up.
Lazaro accepted whatever work he could find, hoping that by evening he would have enough money to buy food for his younger siblings. Some days he returned with a few coins in his pocket. Other days he came home with nothing at all.
Those were the hardest evenings. His siblings looked to him with the desperate hope that he had found enough work that day. Often, there was only one simple meal to share. It quieted the hunger for a little while, but before long the empty feeling returned.
As the months passed, Lazaro found himself making impossible choices. Every day spent looking for work was another day away from school. He watched other children continue their education while his own future seemed to grow smaller with each passing season. There wasn’t time to think about what he wanted to become someday, only how to feed his family for that day.
An Invitation to Something Different
Then one afternoon, a community leader invited Lazaro to attend an informational meeting about a program for orphaned children and extremely vulnerable youth called Zoe Empowers.
Lazaro almost didn’t go. Programs had come and gone before, often making promises but not delivering anything. But something about this invitation felt different. The meeting wasn’t about receiving a handout. It was about learning how to build a future, and Lazaro felt lucky to be accepted into it.
He joined together with other young people from the community, carrying burdens much like his own. They had lost parents, cared for younger siblings, and knew what it felt like to wonder if they would be able to feed their families that day.
While Lazaro did not fully understand it then, God was already working in his life. The group he joined would learn practical skills that would become a source of social, economic, and spiritual support—and the beginning of a different future.
Learning to Build a Future
The members of the empowerment group met week after week to learn skills and provide mutual support, shaping every part of their futures. They talked about health and hygiene, planted gardens, learned to budget and save, explored business ideas, and practiced turning those ideas into thriving businesses. They learned about their rights, how to make wise decisions, how to solve problems, and how to care for one another. As they grew in confidence, they also grew together, discovering that every lesson shared and every obstacle overcome strengthened not just one young person, but the entire group.
As Lazaro’s hope grew, his group supported him in his dream to become a barber, and soon he began his vocational training.
Becoming a Barber
For the next month, Lazaro immersed himself in barbering. Every day was another opportunity to learn, practice, and improve. The more he mastered the trade, the more he realized he wasn’t simply learning how to cut hair. He was gaining the skills and confidence to build a life that could comfortably support his family.
When his training was complete, Lazaro opened a small barbershop. His fears about whether he would succeed faded once the first customer was pleased with his haircut, and then customers started returning. Soon neighbors began telling one another about the young barber who worked so carefully and treated everyone with respect.
The shop slowly became busy enough that Lazaro was earning a steady income that supported all his family’s needs.
As Lazaro’s business grew, so did those of the other members of his empowerment group. They continued learning from one another, proving that every success strengthened more than one life.
Building on Success
Lazaro continued to set his sights higher. Instead of spending everything he earned, he saved what he could and looked for the next opportunity. He planted soybeans and invested the profits from them in livestock. Later, he opened a small grocery shop. Eventually, he purchased donkeys and an ox cart that farmers hired to transport maize, fertilizer, and other goods between their villages and the market. Each carefully considered business venture created opportunity for the next.
His younger siblings were able to stay in school, and meals were now consistent. The constant uncertainty that had shaped so much of his and his siblings’ childhood slowly began to loosen its grip.
Laza B
Lazaro’s dignity grew alongside his success. One of his first actions after buying his ox cart was to pick up a paintbrush and paint the words, “Laza B” across its side.
“Laza” is the name his friends always called him. The “B” stands for Benson, his father. Every trip to market now carries both of their names. It is a quiet tribute to the father he continues to miss and whose death forced Lazaro to grow up too soon; but it is also a tribute to what God has made possible for Laza to take his father’s mantle in caring for the family.
When Tragedy Came – Again
Years after leaving home in search of work, Lazaro’s older brother had built a life of his own. Then word came that he had died, leaving behind a wife and two young children.
As Lazaro looked into the faces of his two young nieces, he saw the frightened boy he had once been. He remembered the uncertainty that followed his own father’s death and the quiet fear of wondering who would care for the family now.
This time, however, the story was different.
After his brother’s death, the girls’ mother left, and the children were suddenly alone. Lazaro welcomed both nieces into his home, but the weight of that decision was impossible to ignore. Overnight, the number of children depending on him had grown to five. For the first time in years, he wondered whether everything he had worked so hard to build would be enough.
When Lazaro shared the news with his empowerment group, they listened. They reminded him that he wasn’t walking through this season alone. For two years they had celebrated one another’s successes, shared ideas, and carried one another through setbacks. This time, they gathered around Lazaro, encouraging him to keep moving forward when the responsibility felt overwhelming.
Their encouragement didn’t erase the challenges ahead, but it strengthened his resolve. Each morning, Lazaro unlocked the barbershop, tended to his businesses, and returned home to five children who now depended on him. The businesses he had patiently built were no longer changing only his own future. They had become the foundation for another generation of children who could grow up surrounded by family, stability, and hope.
A Legacy Continues
The barbershop still welcomes customers each morning. The ox cart marked Laza B. still carries harvests to market. His siblings are in school. His nieces have a home. Young people now stop to ask how he built the life they see today. Lazaro smiles and begins telling them where his own journey started.
His story didn’t begin with a barbershop.
It didn’t begin with an ox cart.
It started when God called people to stand behind a group of once-desperate youth who chose to believe that together, their futures could be different—and discovered that when one life changes, others change with it.
