$0 is what Zoe Empowers spent to help Yakimi’s family.
Not because they didn’t matter.
But because empowerment multiplies.
Yakimi’s new beginning was made possible by business profits generated by youth who had once stood where Yakimi stood.
Standing outside of Yakimi’s home in 2019, the air felt heavy with uncertainty.
The house leaned slightly, its mud bricks soft from years of rain without repairs. The thatch roof was so thin that light pierced through it — and when storms came, so did the water. Inside, the sparseness was overwhelming: a single blanket for three children and a small bag of flour set in the corner. No beds and no hedge between them and hunger.
Yakimi’s father had died. His mother was too sick to provide for the family. And so Yakimi, still a boy himself, had quietly stepped into the role of provider for his sisters, Eliza and Teresa, and his mother.
One year earlier, a group of vulnerable youth in the same Malawian community had joined Zoe Empowers. They named themselves the Praise Empowerment Group. Through training, small businesses, and savings, they were rebuilding their own lives and beginning to thrive.
When the group learned about Yakimi’s family, they did not look away. They adopted them into their own group.
Using profits from their own businesses that were started from the training received from Zoe Empowers, they gave Yakimi a micro-grant and mentored him as he and Eliza started a tea room. As the business grew, Yakimi saw additional opportunities for irrigation farming. He used the profits from the tea room to sublease land where he planted vegetables and maize.
Today, the changes are unmistakable. A sturdy home stands where the fragile hut once sagged — roofed with iron sheets and fitted with glass windows. The family eats three nutritious meals a day. Teresa is back in school and dreams of becoming a teacher. Yakimi now runs both farming and pig enterprises, and all of his businesses are thriving with Eliza’s help.
It cost Zoe Empowers $0 to help Yakimi and his family. Because when young people are empowered, they don’t just lift themselves — they multiply hope.
