Timeline

We have made a lot of progress since the beginning in 2011. With huge perseverance and determination you will see how our story has progressed to bring us to where we are today, thanks to our many supporters.

Humble beginnings – 2011

June 24, 2011

Humble beginnings  – 2011

Back in 2011, Martin Male started Chances for Children. Martin is an HIV orphan and after doing an IT diploma, he was inspired to return to the streets and help the children less fortunate than himself, by giving them a chance. He started by helping at soup kitchens in the slums and helping to run social aid programs for children that had been abandoned.  He set up the charity which was then called ‘His Mercys outreach centre’. Little by little he took in children with help from his adopted mother Jane Nassuna, starting to give these children a very humble home and 1 meal a day. All the children he took in were from the streets, hospitals or had been abandoned by other organisations that had

Connecting to Gabrielle and Russell – August 2014

August 2, 2014

Connecting to Gabrielle and Russell – August 2014

On 2nd August 2014, Martin connected with Gabrielle and Russell Crump for the first time! He had a young English couple of volunteers called James and Kat staying for a couple of weeks and they put an appeal on Facebook through James’ family. Gabrielle and Russell came forward to offer help and through James and Kat, they connected to Martin, and began to follow the organisations progress.    

A wedding gift – October 2014

October 18, 2014

In October 2014, Russell and Gabrielle got married and raised 6000€ for the organisation by asking guests to donate instead of giving gifts. This was the beginning of their fundraising journey! They used the money to buy 3 acres of land and equip it as a farm in the countryside near Kampala, able to grow crops to feed the children.    

Chances for Children was born – December 2014

December 15, 2014

Chances for Children was born – December 2014

As Gabrielle and Russell became more involved in the organisation, they decided to take over helping Martin to run and fund it.   This was a major turning point and one of no return! Up until that point Martin had relied on very sparse and irregular funding through small Facebook campaigns, mainly through people with strong religious views.   When changing the name to Chances for Children, the charity took on a new lease of life, now registered as a CBO (community based organisation). Gabrielle and Russell registered on the board in Uganda, as well as Martin and other trusted supporters and his

The children’s first Christmas and a visit to the dentist!

December 25, 2014

The children’s first Christmas and a visit to the dentist!

In December 2014, the children enjoyed their first Christmas ever. They enjoyed Christmas dinner, sweets, cake, met Father Christmas and enjoyed a fabulous day of fun and games. Each boy was given a ball and each girl a teddy bear! They then had their first dental checkup in their lives for many, which caused chaos and many hid as the next bus came to collect them! The great news was as they had never been given any sugar, most of their teeth were in fabulous condition! At this point the children lived in the village of Bussunju, around 1.5 hours from central Kampala.  

Our first fundraiser event – Valbonne January 2015

January 20, 2015

Our first fundraiser event – Valbonne January 2015

We hosted our very first event for Chances for Children in Valbonne, South of France! We started to share our enthusiasm with our friends and they all asked the same question… ‘When are you going to visit?’      

We opened our own school – 4th February 2015

February 4, 2015

We opened our own school – 4th February 2015

As we had rented a very basic building very close to the living accommodation to start our own school, we were able to put our children back into full time education with 5 small classrooms and teachers! This was a huge milestone for us and the children were super excited to be learning, for some of them this was the first time they went to school! We had a 400€ donation from some friends in Monaco which enables us to buy desks and blackboards to get started. The children followed the national curriculum and sat exams and tests at the end of every term.  

Gabrielle and Russell’s first visit to Uganda – February 2015

February 23, 2015

Gabrielle and Russell’s first visit to Uganda – February 2015

Russell and Gabrielle jumped on a plane from Nice and went to visit Martin and the children for the first time, which was a very emotional experience! Their living conditions were far more basic than expected, and they were in severe need of running water and proper sanitation. They were all sleeping on the floor like sardines on old mattresses that smelt of urine. They were using pit latrines to go to the toilet and water was brought bicycles from a nearby bore hole surrounded by cows. The children were however welcoming and extremely happy to be given the clothes that that had been donated by friends in Monaco. Gabrielle and Russell also took much needed school supplies which were used by the teachers. They made a decision there and then, the children needed to move to a house with running water, electricity and flushing toilets as soon as possible. They flew home after a week with this goal in mind as their

Moving to Kampala – May 2015

May 5, 2015

Moving to Kampala – May 2015

In May 2015 we found a new house in Wakiso district on the outskirts of Kampala and moved house! The children finally had proper facilities, with running water, electricity and flushing toilets! We had one bedroom for the boys and one for the girls with the children sleeping on the floor at this point due to lack of space. We kept 2 teachers and taught the smaller children at the centre, sending the older children to the local state school. The conditions were hugely improved and the children became much cleaner as they had access to running water. We also had less issues with sickness due to the clean water.   For more photos of the new house Click here  

Registering in Monaco – May 2015

May 25, 2015

Registering in Monaco – May 2015

May was a big month, we also finally registered the charity in Monaco as an Association, thanks to the help of our new General Secretary Laetitia Noyon Zwaans! We also opened our bank account in Monaco which was a long a drawn out process! This made us able to accept cheques and wire transfers, as supposed to the prehistoric method of taking cash from our growing supporter base!

Another visit to the children – November 2015

November 18, 2015

Another visit to the children – November 2015

In November 2015 a team of 5 friends visited the children in Uganda, spending a week with them, and helping to deal with basic issues as well as setting up relationship with local partners, including KISU (Kampala International School of Uganda) http://www.kisu.com They subsequently gave us plenty of help, down to donating all their un reclaimed lost property to us! We still have many of KISU hoodies and

Another fabulous Christmas – December 2015

December 25, 2015

Another fabulous Christmas – December 2015

The children enjoyed their first Christmas in town, with father Christmas coming to visit them again and most importantly this time we had help from Rachel at KISU, by bringing a shoebox of gifts for each child, with their own name on it! Rachel and Martin organised a Christmas party for the children in December too, and they had huge fun. For more photos of this click here

We bought our own Minibus! – March 2016

March 3, 2016

We finally bought our own minibus thanks to a generous donation from a supporter! It meant that we could then take the children to school and back without paying for expensive rented transport options. The children were very excited as you can see from the photo!

Raise the roof – Our largest fundraiser

April 23, 2016

On 23rd April 2016, we held a large fundraiser event, and raised 20,000€! We held a raffle and an auction with a gourmet BBQ in a beautiful garden, lent to us by a friend in Cap d’ Ail, South of France. The event was a fabulous success with The Soul Club playing jazz to our guests on arrival, as well as Anthony Calligagan followed by DJ Max Avril on the decks as the sun set! We would like to extent a big thankyou to Pippa at Currencies Direct as well as Boucherie Fabre, Mirabeau Wines and a whole host of other companies that made it possible. To see loads of great shots of the day Click here

We launched our Sponsorship program

September 1, 2016

After a couple of years of running the charity purely on funds raised from events, we decided to look for individual sponsors for each child! This idea met with great enthusiasm and our friends and supporter that had seen us grow came forward to offer to help! The sponsorship cost is 2,50€ per day or 1.25€ for a co sponsorship and as the child grows up the sponsor is able to have follow their progress by exchanging letters, seeing school reports and photos.

Moving again to a bigger house – September 2016

September 28, 2016

Moving again to a bigger house – September 2016

We always say that every cloud has a silver lining. In this case our neighbours were complaining about the noise our children made and we were forced to find a new home to move to. The great news was that the new place was much closer to the centre of Kampala, the rent was lower and it was much bigger! They would have space to each have their own bed! It was a lot of upheaval but the place was really worth moving to, much easier access for staff and volunteers to access too. For more photos click here  

No Finish Line – new beds and musical instruments!

November 5, 2016

No Finish Line –  new beds and musical instruments!

Our team of friends and supporters all ran and walked the No Finish Line and for every lap they also raised 1€ for the organisations chosen cause so it was win win! It is an event that takes place in Monaco every year with people talking and running around track through the streets with a tracker on, and they can do as many laps as they like! A huge thanks to the Delaney family who decided to raise all the funds needed to buy beds, mattresses, bedding and pillows for all our children, they finally stopped sleeping on the floor!  We had enough space for every child to sleep in a bed, and they were triple deckers!

Our children auditioned to become part of the dance troop

January 7, 2017

Our children auditioned to become part of the dance troop

In January, having invested in our first instruments for the music and dance troop, we chose the 15 children that would practice regularly and perform in public to raise money for the organisation. This is our first step to self sustainability, meaning the children would no longer rely 100% on donations and

We registered as a UK charity!

February 7, 2017

We registered as a UK charity!

This was a big step for us! We jumped through many hoops thanks to our very patient lawyer in the UK and have finally registered in UK. As soon as the UK bank account is open C4C UK will be able to have a one click Donate button, as well as being able to register on various crowdfunded website as well as donate as you shop sites. This is an exciting step!  

Personal trunks for all the kids!

February 24, 2017

Personal trunks for all the kids!

Due to the success of a Facebook appeal in February, we raised the funds to pay for a metal case for every child to keep their personal belongings in! This was the first time that any of these children had any space to call their own to store books, clothes, letters from their sponsors and all their other personal possessions. It was a great moment for them and they were very excited! For more photos click here 

Monaco team visits Uganda for third time

March 3, 2017

Monaco team visits Uganda for third time

Our Monaco team headed off once again to Uganda to see the children in their Kampala home. This was a great trip, meeting new staff members, Rachel from KISU, visiting the headmaster of the local school and watching many a dance rehearsal. It was an action packed week full of fun, emotions and hard work!

Martins first trip to Monaco

March 9, 2017

Martins first trip to Monaco

After having battled hard, we had managed to obtain a visa for Martin to visit Monaco, and he flew back with the Monaco team to meet the supporters. This was also Martins’ first trip outside Africa, and he had a fantastic time meeting all the wonderful people that have helped us to make such great progress. During his stay the Bradley Mitton at the Club Vivanova hosted a fantastic gala event during which 4,000€ was raised to help us purchase more musical instruments and costumes.

We obtained our first passport!

May 24, 2017

We obtained our first passport!

One of our girls Esther was the first child at Chances for Children to obtain a passport! This was a huge victory as administration in Uganda to obtain passports for orphan children is extremely time consuming and requires extreme patience and persistence. Esther will be joining another dance troop that will  that plans a fundraising tour Canada in September.

Cassidy Woods – Our very own Iron Man!

August 20, 2017

Our great friend Cassidy Woods trained super hard and raised  most of the funds for our children to go on their USA fundraising tour! He did an Iron Man! For those that do not know what an Ironman is it is an extreme Triathlon consisting of a 3.8 km swim followed by 180km bike ride and finishing with a full Marathon run at the end!! Here is the