Anna-mai Andrews
Anna-mai has committed the last 16 years to working with vulnerable children. She has spent 11 years in leadership positions, including 6 years as the Director of Homeless Child, a Brazilian NGO working to tackle challenges faced by street children and their families.
Since joining Chance for Childhood, Anna-mai has led the organisation through a successful rebrand and merger obtaining a 200% increase in income and winning the Collaboration Award at the BOND International Development Awards 2017.
Georgina Awoonor-Gordon
Georgina joined Chance for Childhood in January 2019, bringing over 15 years’ experience in international development within both the private and charity sectors. She comes with strong strategic leadership experience, in addition to programme design and management. She was educated in both Sierra Leone and the UK and has strong interest and experience in diaspora engagement in development.
Georgina is excited by the opportunity to strengthen and grow Chance for Childhood’s programmes, ensuring positive and sustainable impact in the lives of vulnerable children and young people in the countries we work.
Alice Barley
Alice joined Chance for Childhood in November 2019. With a particular focus on small charities, Alice has over nine years experience in fundraising across multiple different income streams and takes strong donor-centric approach.
Alice is looking forward to getting to know the amazing supporters who make our work possible and leading the Fundraising Team to grow our income so we can help even more vulnerable children.
Katie Fowler
Katie has dedicated her career to international development. Her 14 years of experience in both the private and not-for-profit sectors, along with an innate passion for achieving change, make programme effectiveness her ultimate goal.
Since joining Chance for Childhood in 2012, Katie has led the charity’s transition to an effective, multi-year grantee of institutional donors and has more recently championed the establishment of Chance for Childhood’s first regional office in Rwanda.
Abdul-Ghaffar Adam
Abdul-Ghaffar is a development consultant with 15 years’ experience in the design, management and evaluation of education, local governance and social accountability projects in Ghana. His area of expertise includes supporting institutions to build result-based Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) systems.
His key priority is to support Chance for Childhood in becoming a major stakeholder in inclusive education and contribute to the national agenda.
Toby Gould
Toby graduated with a degree in Politics from the University of York in 2018. While studying, he worked in a number of communications roles creating content for his College and working on marketing projects with the charity York Cares. He also ran an online social-affairs magazine for young people.
Having joined Chance for Childhood in October 2018, Toby is keen to expand our use of digital communications to grow our online fundraising and bring the stories of the children we reach to new audiences. Alongside, he is studying for an MSc in Public Policy.
Adrien Habiyaremye
Adrien has striven to advocate for education, rights and wellbeing of people with disabilities over 14 years. He volunteered in the sector for nine years and has spent the last five years coordinating community-based behaviour changing activities with multiple Rwandan NGOs.
Adrien joined Chance for Childhood in November 2019 with the task of conducting community mobilization activities. He is working to efficiently meet the organisation’s ambition of creating a supportive environment to vulnerable children including those with disabilities in Rwanda.
Chris Harris
Chris is a recent graduate of UEA, first studying International Development with Economics and then an MSc in Impact Evaluation. He has enjoyed working with NGOs in the UK, Ghana and Peru with a focus on strengthening monitoring & evaluation capacity.
Since joining in October 2018, Chris has supported the wider programmes team, working on research projects, donor progress reports and fund applications. He is looking forward to receiving successful grant applications and further assisting the international programmes team.
Joanne Kelly
Joanne is a part-qualified Chartered Certified Accountant, on secondment from the Civil Service Fast Stream. Alongside finance, Joanne also has a background in educational research.
Joanne is project managing the implementation of a new finance system at Chance for Childhood. This will improve the levels of management information available to enhance our reporting to both internal and external stakeholders, along with creating greater internal efficiencies through the strengthening of many of our financial controls.
Andrew Lowton
Andrew has devoted his entire working life to the not-for-profit sector, in local government and NGOs and charities in Uganda and the UK. He has worked for CARE International, Global Witness and Child Soldiers International.
Since joining Chance for Childhood in 2016, Andrew has committed himself to finding ways to improve efficiency and save on support costs to maximise the funds that are available to help the most vulnerable.
Andrew is also one of our two Child Protection Officers.
Damascene Maniradufasha
Damascene is a professional trainer with strengths in monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment. He has strong skills in teaching and learning to maximize quality of learning outcomes at all levels.
He joined Chance for Childhood in June 2014, leading training on improving inclusive services in education. He has demonstrated experience in overseeing implementation, evidence-based planning, reviewing and monitoring programme strategy in inclusive education.
Debby Metcalf
Debby has well over 10 years’ experience of charity finance since joining Street Child Africa with whom Chance for Childhood merged at the end of 2016, building on her 14 years with one of the UK’s major accountancy firms.
Debby provides technical support and advice to our finance team, ensuring the highest level of financial reporting and accountability throughout the year and particularly through preparation of Chance for Childhood’s audited accounts.
Ven Nyamondo
Ven is a finance and accounting professional with over 12 years of experience. She holds an MBA in Finance from Coventry University and has worked both in the private and charity sectors. For the last 10 years she worked at ADRA Rwanda, most recently as Director of Finance. During her tenure, she successfully established and streamlined financial operations, systems, and internal controls providing enhanced transparency.
Having joined Chance for Childhood in October 2018, she is looking forward to applying her experience to her work in Rwanda.
Stephane Nyembo
Stephane has been involved in quality education advocacy in Rwanda for a decade, working alongside various Civil Society Organisations and NGOs to promote value-based and quality education. He played a pioneering role in the establishment of the Rwanda Education NGOs Coordination Platform which brings together NGOs working towards social transformation in Rwanda.
Having joined in November 2019, Stephane is looking forward to bringing his experience and knowledge to Chance for Childhood’s projects in Rwanda.
Alessandra Podestà
Alessandra joined Chance for Childhood in August 2017 after over 5 years’ experience in international development and the NGO sector. She previously covered a variety of programme delivery and research roles focusing on child protection, education and early prevention.
Since joining the team, Alessandra has been managing Chance for Childhood programmes in Uganda and DRC. Passionate about achieving and measuring social change, at Chance for Childhood she is also focusing on strengthening the way we evaluate and communicate impact.
Emmy Rwamurangwa
Emmy has worked in development for over six years, having previously worked on development and humanitarian projects with Handicap International. He has worked with NGOs, Government departments and community groups to promote an inclusive society and has had success ensuring that schools in refugee camps in Rwanda are inclusive for refugees and their children, meaning those with disabilities benefit from the same support as their peers.
Emmy joined the team in January 2020 and is committed to providing high quality advice to enhance Chance for Childhood’s inclusive early childhood development work in Rwanda.
Helen Sutherland
Helen is a recent graduate from Royal Holloway, where she studied History with French. Since graduating she has worked at the National Farmers’ Union, working on research projects with a diverse range of themes – from Brexit, to drought, to the impact of the National Living Wage.
Having joined Chance for Childhood in November 2018, Helen is looking forward to helping the team work efficiently and communicating with both new and existing supporters.
Felicien Turatsinze
Felicien has extensive experience and understanding of inclusion and disability projects, having worked with the Government of Rwanda to mobilise resources for the National Council of Persons with Disabilities. He also has experience managing and growing Rwandan NGOs and has worked with Handicap International on inclusion-related research. He also has a Masters of Public Health and a background in physiotherapy.
Felicien joined Chance for Childhood in 2013 and has implemented various disability and inclusion projects in Rwanda.