By Contributing Writer Lynn Hankins

For years I had been intrigued and inspired by what I had heard about Zoe Empowers. So when my husband and I signed up to go to Kenya with 13 other individuals, I anticipated that I would enjoy seeing the program in action. I was confident it would be a rich and meaningful experience, as mission trips always are. I even believed — and hoped — that it would be worth the long, arduous journey required to get there. But I had no idea that I would witness a program as impactful and effective in changing lives as it was.

While empowerment was an end goal of other mission trips I had been on, Zoe Empowers was different. It was a well-defined, broad-based program that actually focused on empowerment. Zoe offered its participants what I considered to be a formula for hope.

Zoe Empowers is a three-year program designed to help orphans develop the skills necessary to become self-sufficient by giving them support, training, and resources. Participants learn job skills, financial management, health and hygiene habits, cooking techniques (including food safety), and self-advocacy — including their civil and legal rights. Through their assigned Empowerment Groups, participants support one another as they progress and learn to manage their needs, goals, and resources.

Our team visited Zoe participants at every stage in the program. I was not prepared to see and experience such unbridled joy and radical hospitality. I certainly did not expect every single one of them to begin sharing their stories of unimaginable loss and hardship with the joyful, bold proclamation "Praise God!" These were 17- to 19-year-old orphans caring for their younger siblings and, in some cases, other children. They were saving money to put a shelter over their heads and buy a mattress once they had shelter. Their determination, resilience, strength, and faith were palpable. They were not looking to others for assistance. They were doing what was necessary to become self-sufficient. They were experiencing the gravity and life-changing impact of empowerment.

Zoe is a Greek word that means "life" — and in the biblical sense, a "God-kind of life." I witnessed this God-kind of life that Zoe Empowers brings to orphans in Kenya by empowering them, giving them a path to self-sufficiency, and truly a formula for hope.

Since 2007, Zoe Empowers has served 231,415 orphans and vulnerable youth in 12 different countries around the world. The organization is based in Raleigh, NC. For more information, visit zoeempowers.org.

Lynn Hankins is a Stroll Firethorne contributing writer. This piece is featured in the May 2026 issue of Stroll Firethorne under the Making a Difference column.