CHOZEN FOUNDATION

How We Work

We identify where long-term partnership is missing, work alongside local communities, and build the systems that make independence possible.

Our Vision

Communities that thrive on their own, for generations to come.

We believe every community we work with in Zimbabwe already carries the strength to thrive. What is often missing is the chance to build the systems that unlock it. Our vision is a future where the children’s homes, safe houses, and communities we partner with no longer need us: where they grow their own food, protect and empower their own women and girls, and educate their own children, sustained by their own hands, for generations to come.

That is what a self-sustainable community means to us. Not a place we rescue, but a place we help build until it can stand on its own.

How We Get There

We Identify. We Partner. We Build Independence.

01

We Identify

We find a children’s home, safe house, or orphanage in Zimbabwe facing real, everyday struggles: places where the need is clear and a long-term partner is missing.

02

We Partner

We walk alongside that home for the long term, working shoulder-to-shoulder with its staff, caregivers, and community across three focus areas that matter most: food security, the empowerment of women and girls, and education. Progress in one strengthens the others.

03

We Build Independence

We train local hands, build local systems, and hand over ownership so the change we help start does not depend on us to continue. Then we take what we have learned to the next home, building self-sustaining communities across Zimbabwe one partnership at a time.

Our Three Focus Areas

Three connected priorities. One path to independence.

Food Security

A child who is hungry cannot learn, grow, or dream. Through initiatives like our Hutano Project, we build, plant, and operate farming projects alongside children’s homes and communities, training families to grow their own food so feeding themselves is never in question again.

Empowerment of Women and Girls

A community cannot thrive while its women and girls are left behind. We support Charltan Safe House, walking alongside its staff to protect teenage mothers and young women from discrimination, gender-based violence, and STIs, equipping them with the skills and confidence to build their own futures on their own terms.

Our Next Dream: A New Home for Charltan

Our dream is to build Charltan a self-sustaining safe house with its own land, income, and trained staff to carry it forward.

Education

Education breaks the cycle of poverty before it can start. Through projects like our Open Tribe School Development Project, we build access to schooling, learning materials, and safe spaces to learn so every child has what they need to shape their own future, not just survive it.

Stories of Hope

This is what independence looks like, in their own words.

Real change is best told by the people living it. Here is what our partnership with Open Tribe Foundation Trust looks like through the eyes of two of its students.

“Before Chozen Foundation stepped in, our school was a completely different place. We did not have any textbooks. The classrooms were empty, with broken desks and no fence around the school. It was tough, but we never gave up.”Chozen brought new textbooks, desks and chairs, and a security fence for the school.“They did not just stop at materials; they gave us hope. They showed us that someone believed in us and wanted us to succeed. I feel more confident in my ability to learn. When I grow up, I want to be a doctor, and I know that with hard work and the support of my school and Chozen Foundation, I can achieve my dreams.”
Trish - Open Tribe Foundation Trust
Aged , 11

One Community. Then the Next.

Every partnership we build is proof that self-sustaining communities are possible now. As each home grows strong enough to stand on its own, we take what we have learned and begin again with the next children’s home, safe house, and community that needs a partner, not a handout.