Soon our Rwanda partnership families will be entering into their second year – which means it is time for us to send in our financial commitment to Zoe Empowers. 
 
Here is a glimpse of what your 2024 donation did for these 27 households of 93 children in 6 short months:
 
Therese is 18 years old and has 5 siblings she is caring for from ages 1-16. After her initial business training she started buying and selling cabbages and with profit she added peanut sauce. This snowballed over the past several months and now she has added dried fish and onions to her product line. Therese told us that before she joined Zoe Empowers she struggled to find food everyday. She worked as a day laborer for others for little pay. She says she has some food now (excess from market) and can use profits to supplement. She can also meet some other household needs now. She has already joined a savings group within the Steadfast Empowerment Group. She has used profits to diversify and add a goat and 4 chickens. This has been achieved in just 5 months. Next, she plans to use profits to hire a bicycle taxi or the local bus to sell in a bigger market for more profits.
 
Jean Baptiste is 19 years old with 2 siblings. He started a business of roasting and salting nuts with financial training and an initial grant from Zoe Empowers. Before Jean Baptiste joined the Zoe Empowers program, he was a street kid where he hung out and begged for food. He told us that after joining this program, he changed his mindset to one of discipline and work. He does business each day, walking around and selling nuts by the cup. He buys a bucket for 9000 Rwandan and sells it over 1-2 days for 14000 Rwandan so he makes a profit of about 5000 Rwandan every 1-2 days, which is about $4US. From the profits of this business, he already has a hen for laying eggs and 2 hens for reproducing chicks to sell in the market. Those 2 hens have so far produced 8 chicks and he also has a goat. Before Zoe Empowers, his siblings could not attend school regularly due to the lack of supplies and uniforms. He struggled to pay for health insurance. Now he has already paid this year’s health insurance fee for him and his two siblings. 

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Jean Damascene is 18 years old now (17 at inception) and has 3 siblings ages 4-21. Zoe Empowers helped him with training and then with the tools he lacked to start his business. He buys old, broken phones for spare parts. He is doing well and says he could never have done it without Zoe Empowers and the 3 churches (Keystone, Temple Terrace and Kindred UMC) who partnered with them. He is a member of 2 savings groups (one with his empowerment group and one with people in his village). He also invests in livestock and has 8 hens, 5 of which are egg layers. He can care for his family. His new dream is to sell new phones. He already rents land and grows onions, carrots and cabbages. He pays for a laborer but he oversees it, does the plantings and works in the fields when he is not running his phone repair business. He said he will also expand his vegetable project! He is so proud and he thanks the three churches so much. He wants you to know he is thinking of ways to help others in his village

There are some many more stories like this! Thanks those who helped make this happen last year. Without your support, our Zoe kids would never have gotten this far!
 
This year, you will receive a special gift for your donation to this worthy project. Some of the children have made Christmas ornaments and handmade Christmas cards that you can give to all your friends and family this year! 
 
With a donation of $10 or more, you will receive a gift of a beautiful handmade Christmas card. With a donation of $25 or more, you will receive a gift of a card and your choice of ornament. 

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We also have a few handmade baskets that will be available for silent auction through December 15 at noon. Winners will be announced at the potluck after our Annual Christmas Cantata.
 
Your donation means the world to a child who is the head of a household and has many mouths to feed. Your donation helps get hungry families off the streets and empowers them to become viable, contributing members of society. It encourages them to learn new skills, and to use those skills for the betterment of their community. It is purely a win-win situation – you are serving the Lord and His children as you are called to do, and they get a leg-up rather than a handout. And you get a fun gift as well! I thank you in advance for your participation in this fundraising event.