A decade has passed since Tinotenda, or “Tino,” tragically lost both his parents. Still, the twenty-five-year-old Zimbabwean man and Zoe Empowers graduate can recall the experience as if it were yesterday.
Tino, the eldest of five children, was fourteen when his parents died. Afterwards, he and his siblings moved in with an uncle, whose poor health prevented him from adequately caring for the family. Tino dropped out of school and found work sourcing and delivering river sand to wholesalers.
River sand was the preferred material of builders, but procuring it from the bottom of river beds could be tricky, even dangerous, qualifying it as child labor. But Tino was desperate to feed his siblings, and his status as an orphan limited his employment options.
For several years, Tino risked his life in the river, filling buckets with sand, hauling it to a roadside, and hoping a wholesaler would drive by and purchase it. Some days, he made sales; other days, he didn’t. Those days were the hardest for Tino because he knew he couldn’t provide food for his siblings.
In those dire moments, he wished for someone to hear his frustrations and help. “In the life of an orphan, there is never anyone who will listen,” Tino recalled.
In 2018, roughly four years after losing his parents, Tino joined Zoe Empowers Zimbabwe.
Before joining the Showers Empowerment Group, Tino had some awareness of Zoe’s program, having seen its success among other orphaned and vulnerable children in the community. He felt confident about his ability to follow in their footsteps.
Tino quickly connected with the Showers group mentor and appreciated how they motivated and encouraged the group members, acting on behalf of their parents with a compassionate heart.
After receiving entrepreneurial training, Tino started a carpentry business. His first products were coffee tables and kitchen utensils. After building his craft and his savings, he expanded into making coffins. Coffins, he knew, were always in demand, which could offer him business for a lifetime.
By 2020, two years into the Zoe program, Tino moved his business to a larger market and rented a bigger production space. He knew he made a great product, but selling it didn’t come naturally. As an orphan, Tino was shy and intimidated by the businessmen who owned the funeral homes.
“Because I lived in a very isolated area and away from others, my social skills were very much behind,” Tino said. Nonetheless, he forced himself to take a coffin to local funeral homes to market himself and gain customers. This tactic worked, and he slowly grew his customer base.
Today, Tino has dozens of loyal customers and employs three young men from the community. His earnings have afforded many updates to his family’s home: adding two rooms, a new roof, a water well, and a toilet so that he and his siblings no longer use the neighbor’s latrine.
Furthermore, Tino has paid forward his success by paying for his siblings’ education and teaching them the Zoe model. His oldest sister, Violet, recently completed vocational training in clothing design and now works for TNT, a textile company. His other three siblings are still in school.
Tino also decided to continue his formal education, noting he always admired those with a college degree. In addition to woodworking, he put himself through night classes to finish secondary school and achieved high enough scores to qualify for college.
Since 2023, Tino has been working toward obtaining a Bachelor of Science psychology degree. Majoring in psychology was inspired by Tito’s firsthand experience as an orphan and not having anyone to confide in.
“So many people are suffering,” Tino explained. “Especially the young, vulnerable ones. They suffer more. They have depression, anxiety…they isolate themselves.” He continued, “I believe it’s my obligation to help others because I have been helped [by Zoe].”
Tito often compares the Zoe organization to water. “Without water, we cannot survive,” he said. “Water is the essential thing of life.” His comparison is coincidental, considering how Tino used to spend his days before Zoe.
But in a sense, Tino is still filling buckets, though he’s no longer carrying sand. He’s carrying confidence and knowledge accumulated from the last ten years, and his perspective and skillset will continue to impact his family and community for generations to come.
