POCATELLO — Dalisey Brooks has loved fashion ever since she was a little girl with a wardrobe consisting of a single red dress and no shoes.

Brooks, of Cape Town, South Africa, is now living her dream of designing and selling her own, custom sandals, accessories and clothing thanks to Pocatello resident Ben Davidson, who is vice president of human relations and training at Idaho Central Credit Union.

About eight months ago, Davidson launched the philanthropic organization ENTRAPOV, short for Entrepreneurs Against Poverty. Davidson aims to help aspiring entrepreneurs in impoverished countries — especially in South Africa, Central America, South America and India — by giving them small startup grants and providing them with free marketing and web development services.

Brooks is his first, and still only, client.

“We want her to have a thriving business that scales up,” Davidson said. “... We should be able to turn Dalisey loose within the next six months to fly on her own. Then we’ll take the next one on.”

Davidson learned of Brooks and her goals through the social media site Linkedin. Brooks, who was raised in Malawi, gets up at 4 a.m. each morning and logs onto her computer to remotely take classes through Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg. She’s pursuing a bachelor’s degree in business. She spends the remainder of each day making sandals and fashion accessories.

On a video posted at entrapov.com, Brooks explains her business, Chipantha, is named after her grandfather.

“He didn’t see me as a helpless little girl in a village,” Brooks says in the video. “He saw who I might become and gave me the ability to persevere.”

She touts her wares as being “uniquely handcrafted to empower and make you feel comfortable, valuable and inspired.”

Davidson said Brooks has been pretty successful so far. If she maintains her pace, her sales would be sufficient to support two full-time jobs at the South African footwear manufacturer that suppliers her business.

Davidson said Brooks has studied fashion, and her sandals feature African fabrics, straps made of colorful ropes and gorgeous African-inspired designs. Orders can be placed at chipantha.com.

To help her get started, Davidson gave Brooks $3,500 from his own savings. He envisions his organization’s future micro-grants will range from $1,000 to $5,000.

Davidson, who has a marketing and e-commerce background, also helped Brooks set up an account with the Canadian multinational e-commerce company Shopify and worked with her on paid social media ads to drive traffic to her site.

He’s now seeking businesses willing to sponsor advertisements for his chosen entrepreneurs. Participating businesses are allowed to have their own logos included along with entrepreneurs’ ads. Gary Lee Fischer, with the Utah Credit Union Employee Health Pool, was the first businessman to provide a sponsorship.

ENTRAPOV is assisted by a team of four BYU-Idaho interns, who help with web development both for the nonprofit organization and for its fledgling entrepreneurs.

Davidson is the author of the book “Get Hired Guarantee,” which is available for free at Amazon.com and gets about 10 to 20 downloads per day. His interns are all students who previously downloaded his book and bought into the concept.

“The message is doing nonprofit volunteer work is the best way to build up your resume and your skills to get hired into your dream job,” Davidson said.

Davidson hopes to work full time on his charity once he retires. He said his charity combines two of his passions.

“I love entrepreneurship and I also love travel,” he said. “The thing i love most about travel is meeting the locals and meeting the neat people who are there. This is a way to combine both and do something good for the world.”