oUR Model
F4O works with Zoe Empowers with an empowerment model that is, we believe, the most effective anti-poverty program in the world. It is inexpensive and effective, with an over 90 percent success rate.
In 2007, Zoe was introduced to a radically new way of empowering orphaned kids and youth-led families to become self-sufficient. This approach was designed by Epiphanie Mujawimana with a group of Rwandan social workers responding to the 800,000 orphaned children created over 100 days during the 1994 genocide.
Epiphanie and her colleagues had grown frustrated with the endless cycles of relief and dependency upon that financial support. Instead of asking “what can we do to serve children?” Epiphanie and her team asked, “What would these young people need in order to help themselves?” And with that question in mind, they designed a three-year, community-based, indigenous-led empowerment program, where the participants take the lead in their own journey out of poverty and provide their basic needs themselves. And it worked beyond belief!
The Foundation 4 Orphans, seeing the effectiveness of Epiphanie’s program, pivoted from our aid-based program (we constructed and covered the operational costs of Homes For Children / Orphanages) to the Zoe Empowers Program in 2022. We now have 3,500 orphaned and vulnerable youth in this program, with a goal of 10,000 in the coming years.
The program trains each participant in these areas:
Food security
Disease prevention
Housing
Income generation with vocational training
Child rights
Community reintegration
Connection to God
Education.
In Summary:
The F4O – Zoe Empowers Model is 40 times more cost effective than an orphanage model. The F4O – Zoe Empowers Model is 10 times more effective than an orphanage model. The F4O – Zoe Empowers Model is better for these young people. The F4O board of directors has unanimously voted to endorse this model.
We believe you will embrace it as well!
“If you give orphaned youth fish, they become dependent. If you teach them skills, they become empowered and control their destiny.” *With thanks to Lao Tzu, who wrote “If you give a man a fish . . .”
—Wayne Lavender*
