About ChanCes Charity Uganda

ChanCes Charity is committed to giving children chances through sponsoring their education & building classrooms.

Ask anyone in the habit of helping people on a small or large scale what the key to positive change is, and the response is always the same – Education. Whether you’re helping your child tie their shoes for the first time, helping your boss acquire a new merger or trying to change the cycle of poverty in a third world country, education is the underpinning commonality.

This was made abundantly clear on our first trip to Uganda. You are literally unable to turn a corner without seeing at least one child of school age on the streets being blatantly deprived for a chance at a brighter future. The most heartbreaking part is that they are fully aware of this too. However, with youthful enthusiasm they are desperate for education and those who receive it are desperate to continue with it as long as humanly possible.

Merely walking into a classroom highlights this. Imagine approaching a primary school and not hearing a word. Not a single word. You approach an incredibly rundown building, if they’re lucky it’s a permanent structure, and you see a haze of children. Rubbing your eyes and thinking it’s a mirage due to the equatorial heat you come to realise that you are, in fact, looking at up to 90 children silently working in a classroom we would consider fit for 25 kids. They realise they have a visitor and you are greeted with nothing but smiles. The teacher, that’s right, just one, for these 90 children welcomes you with such gratitude, and that alone can make you tear up with overwhelming emotion. Don’t even get me started when the kids start proudly singing for you! It’s at that moment, right there, when you’re resisting the urge to cry that you realise two things.

The first, your life is about to change. You cannot ‘unsee’ what you have seen so far in Uganda and the hope of these children and the love exuding from them will never leave you. You are now committed to making a difference. The second is relatively simple, education is key.
Anyone who has travelled to Uganda with Jo and ChanCes can attest to this experience or at least a very similar one.

Yet on any given day, countless numbers do not get this opportunity.

We have set about to provide help for as many of these beautiful faces we meet to give them a chance- some hope of change.

How do we find them – well it isn’t difficult. Just go to Uganda and you are overwhelmed by the need. We choose the ones we will help after doing as much research as is possible, to make sure they have no other way of getting an education.

The more kids we help, the more we understand the school system. What are reasonable fees, what requirements do they need for boarding, where do the children go during the holidays, etc.

Slowly but surely, we are working things out. Sometimes we learn the hard way, but despite inevitable setbacks, we are undaunted. If you can take the time to look at the Case Studies, you will see why giving up is just not an option.

What continually amazes us is how so little of our Australian dollar is needed to make such a big change to the kids and families we help. We are a 100% not for profit organisation.. This means we volunteer our time. It also means any travel done to Uganda is paid for by each individual’s personal finances. All money allocated to helping disadvantaged persons (less tax), does just that. All of it.

The secret, as we see it, is that you must go there – and often – to get the traction, understanding and respect you need to make a change. But more importantly, we must where possible, empower the community to actively participate in solving their own problems. As we see it, we want Ugandans to solve Ugandans problems – we are just the intermediary.