Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lisette Zounon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Lisette, thanks for joining us today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

We are excited to celebrate our 10th years this month. We are grateful of all our supporters and donors. Our work never stops .

Black women are dying from breast cancer at a 42% higher rate than white women every, single day. We fight back against Breast Cancer EVERY DAY of the year. If you share our passion for saving lives of women in rural communities in west Africa , please consider making a special gift to support our fight this month . We are encouraging you to make a X10 donation like, $10 , $100 and $1000, click the link below:  https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/MTQ5MjEz

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am proudly multi-talented, multi-passionate women that love empowering women to unleash our natural potential to up your confidence, host of #upYourConfidence Podcast. I am a distinguished speaker that encourages women by empowering them and educate women on Breast cancer, STEM education, and leadership skills.

I am the President and CEO of a non-for-profit organization Zsquare4theCure our mission is to Empower, educate women on breast cancer awareness and provide FREE health care for women in rural communities in BENIN, TOGO, GHANA and Ivory Coast, all in west Africa. I started as an engineer, I am a software quality leader that enjoys leading software quality team, through producing high-quality applications in various industries using agile processes and tools with high performing team to delight your clients. I am a passionate quality engineering leader with over 15 years of experience helping people and companies improve the quality of their applications, with solid tools, a simple process, and a smart team. I have been responsible for leading and managing high-performing quality-testing teams throughout all phases of the software development testing cycle; ensuring that all information systems, products, and services meet or exceed organization and industry quality standards as well as end-users’ requirements.

When I was 17 year old, I overheard my mother telling my aunt that she found a lump in her right breast and that she is very worried and awaiting on the biopsy exam result. I was very worried and scared. Then 30 days later, my mom announces to us as a family that she was going to France for her treatment. 3 months later, my dad and I flew to Paris to visit and surprise my mom for the first time after she had completed her chemo and was undergoing post treatment and radiology. I recall waiting for her alone in the cafeteria of this famous hospital, a cancer center in Paris to surprise her. I was very anxious because I was not sure what to expect, how would she look like? will she has her hair, lost weight. It was the longest 45 min of my life. During that hour I was waiting, I saw so many families and patients enter and go out of that hospital and so many Africans and people from around the world. To my great surprise she was bright, happy and healthy. After that trip, I move to the USA, for my studies at the University of Texas in Arlington.

Many years later, having a successful career and leadership roles in several communities organizations and non for profit, in 2011 after the birth of my 1st child. I wanted to start giving back to my communities in a different way. So I joined Susan G Komen race for the cure. I raised funds then walked the 60 miles in 3 DAY journey. After that year of planning and fundraising, I was inspired to create my own non-profit Zsquare4theCure in 2012. I truly believe the seed have been planting in my heart on that faithful day January 11th day in 1999 Paris when I was seating and waiting on my mom at that hospital , to start Zsquare4theCure , a breast cancer awareness non-profit whose mission is to Empower, educate women in 4 West Africa rural communities (Benin, Togo Ghana and CI) on breast cancer and eradicate the taboos surrounding the disease. The reason why Zsquare4theCure focus is on fighting breast cancer is what I witnessed with my mother being diagnosed of breast cancer after she detected an abnormal lump during a self-breast examination. By the grace of God, she is now a 23 and + breast cancer survivor.

The purpose of Zsquare4theCure is to educate, empower women. We believe that by empowering and educating women in rural communities in Africa, we can help reduce the rate of women dying from breast cancer and by extension solve many other issues in Africa. As goes the popular saying when you educate a woman, you educate a village. Since 2012, I invested funds and time, raised money and successfully held several breast cancer awareness campaigns and activities in Benin, Togo, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire where 10,0000 women and young girls benefited from informative about breast cancer and Free breast examination. Our goal was to impact 20,000 women by year 2020. We are definitely slowly chipping away at this goal and are very proud of our progress especially with all the challenges and resources or lack of resources we had. As we leap into a new decade, our mission remains the same, but our 2030 vision goal have expanded to build a world class breast cancer center in West Africa that will comprised of a 1000+hospital beds to diagnose, treat and support breast cancer patients. Our goal is to complete this massive project by the end of this decade. Fundraisings are great way to fund Zsquare4theCure however we need other sources of revenues and truly impact the population in a bigger scale and reach our 2030 goal. The need to provide Zsquare4theCure with other sources of revenues led to create other for-profit businesses.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I am very grateful of my business partner and Chief Administration Officer. I am lucky that we grow up together. Laure is my childhood family friend. Our parents were business partners, and Laure came to our family when she is in high school and move in with us in our very modest appartment. We grow up in the same home as she move to our home to attend school in our city. Few years later, I move to Dallas and we connect back again when she move to Kentucky and we have been in touch since then. She is the first that I share ideas with and she always encouraging me and my dreams. So it was natural progression for us to jointly create Zsquare4thecure, as the mission of the foundation also spoke to her heart, just like it did for me. Breast cancer is a personal story for both of us, my mother is a survivor and her step mother lost her battle to breast cancer.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Growing in BENIN, West Africa and having my mom experience breast cancer at a very young age was a very traumatic experience. This was due to the fact that I did not have any knowledge about the disease, the taboos surrounding the disease and the lack of adequate treatment. Breast cancer remain a killer disease in most west African communities , so I had to really be strong and positive to believe and hope that my mother survive this awful disease. My resiliency also come from growing up in a very modest family in West Africa and seeing so many young girls that did not have the opportunity that I have been afforded to. I always think about any of the young women I went to school with in primarly school in a village in Adjoue , Benin West Africa what will they be doing and that give me the strenght to keep going. I also focus on being grateful for everything I have been able to achieve in my life and that fuel me to continue to stay focus on my goal.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.zsquare4thecure.rg
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zsquare4africa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zsquare4thecure
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zsquare/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/zsquare
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/-pRQHZRDMMQ

Image Credits
Lisette Zounon