A future they build with their own hands.
Our flagship program pairs young graduates and widows into real, revenue-generating ventures — equipping them not just to earn, but to lead. Rooted in the love of God, called to the dignity of work.
What Collaborative Ventures does
This is where the journey reaches its destination: orphaned youth and widowed mothers complete intensive, hands-on trade training and then launch real businesses they own and operate together. Not internships. Not pilots. Working ventures with real customers and real revenue.
Our flagship is a t-shirt printing cooperative built by ten teenage graduates after a 2–5 week practical training. U.S. partners funded the equipment; the local Ethiopian government granted the commercial storefront — a vote of confidence few organizations ever earn. The team designs, prints, fulfills, and re-invests. They are no longer “the kids we serve.” They are entrepreneurs.
For a donor, this is the page where your gift stops being charity and becomes seed capital — the same kind of investment any new business needs to get off the ground, given to young people the world had written off.
The printing cooperative at workReal outcomes, on the ground
Collaborative Ventures rests on a conviction at the center of LCE’s calling: that dignity is not given — it’s discovered through work. Young people who have spent their whole lives being helped become, for the first time, people who help. They mentor the next group. They hire each other. They tithe the businesses they build. The arc bends not just toward independence but toward generosity.
Your gift to this program is not relief. It is investment in a calling — and in the changemakers Ethiopia needs.
What your gift unlocks
Practical business skills
Intensive trade training plus the entrepreneurial fundamentals — pricing, operations, bookkeeping, customer service — that turn an idea into a working business.
Equipment & seed capital
Real tools, real space, real working capital. We don’t simulate businesses. We start them, and your gift is what makes the first sale possible.
Mentorship & community
Graduates become mentors. Widows become teammates. The work happens in community, and the community is what carries it forward.
Ten graduates, one storefront, a future they own
Ten teenagers who’d spent their childhoods in LCE’s care completed a 2–5 week design and printing program. What they did next, they did together. With equipment donated by U.S. partners and a storefront granted by the local Ethiopian government, they launched a real t-shirt printing business — designing, printing, fulfilling.
Today the cooperative produces high-quality goods for paying customers. The revenue funds the next round of training. The graduates mentor younger students at LCE. And ten young adults who were once dependents of the program are now its proof of concept.
A flagship of Collaborative Ventures · Addis Ababa
The cooperative teamFund a venture
Your gift to Collaborative Ventures funds equipment, training, and the seed capital that turns graduates into entrepreneurs.
Make a Gift
Drag to choose your gift. A monthly gift is the most powerful way to help.
Select Collaborative Venture Program as your designation in the next step.
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Equip a changemaker
Every business launched is one more proof that the children and widows the world overlooks are changemakers in waiting.