This is why securing a stable and nutritious supply of food is our first priority when orphans join ZOE’s Orphan Empowerment Program. Though it may seem counter-intuitive at first, we have found providing food directly is not the best solution. A single meal will never solve these orphans’ long-term need for better nutrition.

Instead, we teach these orphans to cultivate their land, give them the necessary seeds and tools, and support them as they learn to grow their own food. ZOE also provides them with animals, such as goats, for fertilizer and milk. When children do not have access to land, ZOE adapts by teaching them to run a small business, and giving them a micro-grant for startup capital. This enables these children to quickly generate enough income to purchase the food they need locally.

When Jeanne Niyimpa’s parents both died, she was 19 and left to care for four younger siblings: Uwitonze, 13, Twagirayezu, 10, Theogene, 8, and Pelagie, 7. Unable to find work to feed her family, Jeanne would sneak out in the middle of the night and search her neighbor’s farm fields for whatever cassava and potatoes she could find on the ground after harvest. Frequently, this near-starving family went four days without a single meal.

Today, after joining ZOE’s Orphan Empowerment Program, Jeanne and her family are eating well. She has grown beans and vegetables on her land after receiving seeds and training. She has cared for the goat that ZOE gave her, and it has reproduced. Jeanne now has four goats, which provide her family milk, fertilizer, and extra income when she sells their offspring. The neighbors, who she used to have to beg and steal from, now call her “boss,” when they work for her small business making and selling banana juice.

With your support, these once-impoverished children can have access to not just one meal, but enough food to feed themselves and their families permanently.

Moving beyond traditional aid models, this is precisely what ZOE aims to do for orphans and vulnerable children in Africa. One essential component of the program is small business training, which gives these children the skills they need to provide for themselves and their family for the rest of their lives.

This summer I was privileged to meet two girls, both named Helen, whose lives were being transformed by ZOE’s Orphan Empowerment Program. I met both orphans in rural Kenya as they were hard at work in a hair salon started several months earlier by the older Helen. The younger Helen was training with her each day for about half the normal cost.

As they took turns working on styling their customer’s hair, who also happened to be the adult mentor of the Working Group, they went back and forth between smiles, laughter, and serious talk about the proper way to blow-dry hair and use a hot comb. A couple of customers waited in line outside this clearly thriving small business.

It was evident when you talked with them that the training they received had given them confidence, and dreams for a better future. The younger Helen had four school-age siblings she was supporting, and dreams of someday owning a large hair salon.

“I want to support my siblings to achieve their life goals,” she said. “Whatever they want to achieve in life, even if they want to be doctors, I will support them.”

Your support of ZOE provides the training and tools for these children forever changing their lives. ZOE’s training model not only addresses the needs of one orphan, but makes use of the ripple effect of training several children, encouraging them to train others, and then the others go on to share knowledge with even more members, until the whole group is lifted out of poverty.

— Mandie Sellars
Director of Communications, ZOE Ministry

So why doesn’t ZOE simply build an orphanage for these children so they can have immediate shelter?  The answer is rooted in African culture, where having a sense of people and place is extremely important.  Removing an orphan from their tight-knit village for 5-10 years, even if provided with good care and schooling, isolates them from their people and often leads to stigmatization upon return. Spending years away in an orphanage may cause an orphan problems keeping land left to them by their deceased parents. Finally, a child can “age out” of an orphanage, being turned out to live on the streets while just a teenager.

Rather, ZOE’s approach empowers orphans to make decisions for themselves, keeps children in their home communities, and provides a more permanent step out of poverty. By providing grants for home-building materials to a “Working Group” of orphans, these children are then able to meet and decide among themselves who needs housing most urgently.  After obtaining materials, group members assist in building the home. The project culminates in a joyous dedication ceremony where the children worship God and celebrate with the new homeowner!

Alice, a teenage provider for her four younger siblings, had only a small one-room hut for shelter, meaning her siblings often had to stay with Good Samaritans in their village.  Her Working Group decided to build her a new house so her family could be together.

The home was completed in February this year. Because Alice’s group was a Hope Companion partner with Suncreek United Methodist Church in Texas, members of the church were able to visit Kenya and help the other members of Working Group construct her new house. After the home was completed, many of the villagers attended the home blessing ceremony and sang with her family in joy and celebration.

During the ceremony Alice’s beaming smile was contagious. This home was a major step in her family’s journey out of poverty. Your support of ZOE enables orphans to build homes for each other that offer protection, reconnect families, and transform lives.

Now, imagine if your parents had died before you got to learn any of that and no one stepped in to share such wisdom with you. Many of the children ZOE encounters are in that very situation. The orphans just starting ZOE’s Orphan Empowerment Program are frequently suffering from an array of health problems because they never learned basic health and hygiene practices.

Fortune, a 17-year-old orphan in Rwanda, was very young when her parents died and left her to care for her three younger siblings. When the ZOE African staff met her, she and her family were sick with several illnesses and had not been able to see a doctor in years. Fortune also had a chronic wound that could not heal due to malnutrition and lack of medical attention.

ZOE provided Fortune with training and a pig. Soon she was able to raise piglets and sell them for profit. With her income, she enrolled her family in Rwanda’s mutual health plan and they received the medical attention they needed.

Fortune and her family’s health continued to improve as they progressed in ZOE’s program. She learned a wealth of life skills, including the importance of boiling water before drinking it, keeping her home clean and free from insects and animals, and the proper way to wash hands, dishes, and clothes. After demonstrating to the ZOE staff that she was using the skills she learned at home, she was rewarded with a mosquito net and trained on its proper use to prevent malaria.

Fortune learned about communicable diseases and was encouraged to join an anti-AIDS club with other children from her community. These clubs write and perform skits, songs and dances all aimed at dispelling myths and teaching their community about the prevention of HIV/AIDS.

Your support of ZOE Ministry not only improves the health of the orphans in our program, but also helps to educate the wider African community – and saves lives in the process.

– Mandie Sellars
Director of Communications and Annual Fund

Sarah at her sewing machine and reading her Bible.

Less than nine months ago, Sarah, 19 years old, was in a desperate situation. She was working day and night in other people’s homes as house help: cleaning, cooking and tending their farms. Her father died when she was 14, and her mother was HIV positive and very sick. Sarah was left to provide for her younger siblings, Peter, 16, Emily, 8, and Brigit, just four years old. All her hard work was not enough to provide for her family. They were often hungry, and unable to pay the necessary fees for the children to attend school.

Through ZOE’s support, Sarah has come a long way in a very short time. In less than one year, Sarah and her family have cultivated their land so they can grow their own food. She spent time learning to be a tailor.  She was even trained by another ZOE orphan, further along in the program, who had a successful tailoring business. After completing her training, Sarah received a start-up kit from ZOE in November to start her own business.  Business has been good and her brother and sisters are now able to attend school, and are performing well. Though her mother has not responded well to the medicine Sarah has been able to provide, Sarah’s hopes and dreams for the future of her family remain strong.

Sarah’s faith continues to grow and shapes her daily life. Gifted with a beautiful voice, she loves to sing each Sunday when her family goes to church. She carries her Bible to work each day.  When I met her she shared her favorite passage with me, Isaiah 54:4-5, which Sarah uses as her guiding principle: “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; do not be discouraged, for you will not suffer disgrace; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the disgrace of your widowhood you will remember no more.  For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of host is his name; the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.”

Working in a rented space as her business grows, Sarah is well on her way to achieving her dreams of owning a large dress-making store and beauty shop. As she earns more income, and makes use of the low-interest loans ZOE provides to expand her business, her future becomes brighter as more opportunities for her family are opened.

Your gifts help vulnerable children like Sarah overcome desperate situations. As her voice rings out in songs of praise to the Lord, Sarah embodies ZOE’s dream for these children to grow into the people God wants them to be.

— Mandie Sellars
Director of Communications, ZOE Ministry

At age 17, Seraphine found herself in this very situation after losing both parents to HIV/AIDS when she was just 12.  Her only remaining family were her three nieces, Josiane, 14, Marie, 12, and Rachel, 10. Hungry and homeless, they were forced to separate, relying on strangers for handouts and shelter. Occasionally, Seraphine would find work in neighbors’ fields, only to be mistreated because she was too young and weak for manual labor.

When Seraphine joined ZOE’s Orphan Empowerment Program, she and her nieces had been separated for three years, and suffered from mental and physical illness from years of abuse. ZOE brought her together with fellow orphans in her community in a Working Group of 60-80 children. Soon, Seraphine found herself in the midst of a blossoming new family while working to reunite with what remained of her old one.

With ZOE’s support, she found her niece Marie, and together they participated in a trauma recovery program, learning to cope with their difficult past. With a micro-grant, Seraphine started a small business selling food items. She used her profits to buy a piece of land, and on it, built a home with help from her Working Group.

After a number of initially tearful visits, ZOE staff finally saw her smile.  Seraphine, now reunited with two of her nieces, was in her new home, sharing the first meal cooked from their garden. She spoke joyously about soon being able to welcome her third niece home.

Building a supportive community for otherwise isolated orphans is an essential component of ZOE’s Orphan Empowerment Program. Each Working Group provides not only friendship and acceptance for its members, but also shared knowledge, mutual help, and improved status in the community. Your gifts help ZOE provide orphans with a healthy, mutually-beneficial network of support as they journey towards a brighter future.

Edgar, far right, stands in front of his repaired kitchen with members of his Working Group in Zimbabwe.

When ZOE Ministry began in 2004 our work was launched as a relief effort in Zimbabwe. This year we are thrilled to have transitioned our work in Zimbabwe to empowerment. I visited our new project there in September and came away very encouraged. With over 1,300 orphans enrolled in the project, we look forward to having a significant impact in this pilot effort near Rusape.

One of the orphans I met is 16-year-old Edgar. He has been orphaned for so long that he said he can’t even remember when his parents died. For a time, he lived with his aunt. Poverty, however, forces people to make hard choices, and he was forced out of her home a year and a half ago.

He returned to the home his parents had lived in. He had no food, little clothing, and not even a blanket to sleep under. To survive he worked in neighbors fields for food and was underpaid and exploited. Not long after moving “home,” his house collapsed and Edgar had to take refuge in the small building used as the family kitchen. Without an adequate roof, rain freely poured in making life very difficult during the rainy season. Life had left Edgar without hope.

Things began to change in March of this year when ZOE Ministry’s Orphan Empowerment Program opened in his area. Now a part of a Working Group of orphans, he has found a family atmosphere that he had lacked for so long. The orphans in his group, concerned about his struggles, have assisted in building Edgar a new home.  They collected grasses and had a community member repair the roof to the kitchen where Edgar sleeps as he awaits the completion of his new home.

Edgar now also has dreams. Studying carpentry in a vocational training school opened by ZOE, Edgar dreams of owning a workshop and employing others.

Edgar and the other 53 children in his group are sponsored by a coalition of churches in Southern Alamance County, NC. To learn more about our “Hope Companions” sponsorship project please visit http://www.zoeministry.org/get-involved/hope-companions/.

As always, thank you for your faithful support of ZOE Ministry. Truly, you are helping to make dreams come true for some of the most vulnerable children on the face of the earth.

— Greg Jenks, Executive Director, ZOE Ministry

Animals are Key to Empowering Orphans

There are many elements to ZOE’s Orphan Empowerment Program, but one of its key pillars is providing animals, such as goats or cows, to orphans. ZOE’s Christmas Animals alternative giving is a wonderful way for you to support this important part of ZOE’s program. Animals help ZOE’s orphans become self-sufficient in three important ways:

1. Animals provide fertilizer for crops. When children join ZOE’s program, they are often malnourished. ZOE immediately teaches them how to grow food on whatever land they have access to, and provides the necessary seeds and tools. For the land to yield, it must be fertilized. The waste from animals, such as goats, makes excellent fertilizer, allowing these children to begin to grow their own food, often with additional crops to sell for income.

2. Animals reproduce and offspring can be sold for income. Animal husbandry is a profitable business for many of ZOE’s orphans. These children often share offspring with one another until everyone in the Working Group has animals of their own. Animals are one of the many supports that continue to multiply long after orphans graduate from ZOE’s program.

3. Animals provide an excellent source of nutrition. For an orphan who has suffered from malnutrition and watched brothers and sisters go hungry, to have a constant source of rich food, such as eggs and milk, can seem like a dream.

Christine Makena lost her father when she was just 14 years old, and later her mother became very ill from HIV/AIDS. Christine is now 20 years old and is the primary caregiver for her sister Joy, 17, brother Josphat, 12, and sister Lucia, 10. Christine dropped out of school to find work, but despite her efforts, her low pay forced her to watch her family go without food, adequate clothing and medical care.

When Christine and joined ZOE’s Orphan Empowerment Program, she and her siblings started two businesses: selling bananas and raising rabbits. Raising rabbits is a popular activity because even the young children in the family can help since rabbits are gentle and easy to care for.  With her training from ZOE the rabbits multiplied like, well, rabbits, reproducing three times each year with litters of six rabbits each. With the proceeds from these two businesses alone, Christine is able to provide, food, clothing and medical care for her family. These rabbits are a dream come true for Christine and her siblings.

Re-Think Christmas with ZOE Christmas Animals
A great alternative to traditional gifts, you can buy Christmas Animals (including rabbits) for your family and friends. For each purchase, you receive an ornament-style gift card about that animal to give as a gift. Promotional kits are available for alternative gift markets and giving trees.  Learn more at http://www.zoeministry.org/church-resource/christmas-animals/

My recent visit to Kenya reminded me once again of the power of a dream. Alfred is one of the most amazing boys I’ve ever met.  Now 15 years old, he was orphaned at age 10.  As a young boy he was left with two younger siblings,  ages eight and five, to care for.  He also inherited the burden of caring for an elderly grandmother.

Hungry and suffering,  Alfred struggled to scratch out enough food from the family land in order to survive.  Faced with the stigma associated with the death of his parents, Alfred was lonely, isolated from his community.

A year and a half ago, Alfred became a part of ZOE Ministry’s program.  Through training and an initial donation of seeds, he revitalized his family’s farm.  One goat became four, and soon the goats were joined by a flock of chickens.  With a $40 business grant he received from ZOE, he was able to start up a convenience store.   Finally, he trained in tailoring and has established that as an additional business.

As amazing as his accomplishments are, his compassion is even greater. Three months ago, Alfred also began caring for a three-month-old baby who had been abandoned.  Alfred credits his faith for his commitment to accept the responsibilities that have been thrust upon him.  Having been re-integrated into his community, Alfred is now a role model for others.

As the new year begins, I encourage you to not only embrace the dreams with which you have started this year for yourself, but also to provide for the dreams of orphans in Africa to become realities.  Your generosity really does change lives.  Just ask Alfred.

–The Rev. Greg Jenks, Founder and Executive Director, ZOE Ministry

After her mother passed away in 2004, fifteen year old Vestine became mother and father to her twelve year old brother Eric, seven year old sister Claudine, and five year old brother Jean Claude.

There was little hope for Vestine and her siblings.

With no safe shelter or income, hunger propelled them to beg for food. When Vestine was offered a chance to join ZOE Ministry’s empowerment program, she immediately began working hard and started a business of processing sorghum flour and selling it at the weekly market.

Through ZOE’s training and micro-finance resources, Vestine was able to secure a home for her family. Her next dream is to have a cow—to provide not only nourishment but also steady income for her family through the selling of milk and offspring.

Although Vestine now earns enough to feed her family, pay for school fees and buy decent clothing, she was a long way from being able to buy a cow. At approximately 120,000 Rwandan francs, it was simply out of reach. But through ZOE’s training, she learned about business and investments and hatched a plan to turn a chicken into a cow.

Vestine saved money from her flour processing business and invested in a chicken. Chickens are valuable because you can sell the eggs, and their waste helps fertilize the family garden. Vestine saved her egg money and reinvested it, ending up with three chickens.

Vestine continued to invest in animals by buying first one small goat and then growing her herd to three goats, which produce milk and offspring that can be sold.
With the proceeds from her eggs, milk and offspring sales, Vestine bought a piglet, which she then grew into a large pig now worth 35,000 francs. She can sell the goats for 15,000 francs each—so she now has 80,000 francs toward her 120,000 goal (the cost of a cow).

A ZOE team visited with Vestine in July of this year, and she told us with a gleam in her eyes, “I only have 40,000 francs to go. If you come back in December, you will find my cow!” Then she prayed with the team, and everyone thanked God for what God is doing in Vestine’s life and the lives of her family.