Poverty is miraculous, ghastly, but miraculous, and perhaps the most extraordinary accomplishment today. Judging by what we have seen with our own eyes, poor countries are the world’s true “economic miracles.” Prosperity is a natural outcome of relative economic freedom - liberal markets etc. How can one explain poverty in a country full of manifestly energetic, resourceful and enterprising people who as you know manage to somehow survive one day to another from thin air?

For many years, organizations - international and local have struggled to address problems of social, economic and physical distress among the poor in developing and even developed countries. CHANCE INTERNATIONAL has this same vision - to improve the socio-economic status of marginalized groups in developing countries. Such groups include: the youth, women and children. We do this by:

Searching for the most optimum way in which to enable a disadvantaged community to systematically own, manage and use available resources for community-building and survival purposes.

Developmental instrumentalities: These are means by which an individual and groups increase their own power to bring about desired results. Consulting all stakeholders while making decisions helps in understanding what it is that everyone expects and encourages self-determination of goals. Meetings with the local communities for instance help to achieve this goal.

Facilitating instrumentalities: Others can assist in empowerment by establishing relationships, providing access to resources, furnishing opportunities, strengthening capacities to enable individuals and groups to obtain and exercise greater power to control their own lives. We do this through funding, assigning volunteers with the necessary knowledge to increase capacity in a certain project, and providing equipment necessary to accomplish certain goals.

Sanctioning instrumentalities: These are institutionally sanctioned instruments through rights, laws, regulations, policies, procedures, programs, structures, and authorizations. Policies of both the donors and the local government have a great effect on the success or failure of a project. We attempt to influence policy and policy-makers at the donor and local government level.