ANNABELLE Chauncy survived a military evacuation in Kenya when the 2007 elections erupted in civil war, but the main memory she has of that time is of seeing children hungry to learn despite broken desks and understaffed schools.
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She returned to Africa the following year and began building a school in Uganda to teach kids and adults literacy and vocational skills.
Ms Chauncy, 28, been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia as part of the Australia Day honours list and plans to triple the operations of her School for Life Foundation by building two new schools this year.
"It's definitely never been easy but we need to break the cycle of poverty for the next generation but also the current one," Ms Chauncy said.
The Katuuso school provides access to healthy drinking water and health care for the whole community, as well as teaching adults how to read, vote and make the most of the agricultural land around their homes.
The key challenges for Ms Chauncy and her co-founder Dave Everett are balancing the need to raise funds in Australia while managing the burgeoning Ugandan team.
The pair chose to start their own charity rather than work with an existing organisation that would have brought the benefits of experience and processes.
But Ms Chauncy said she would make the same decision again.
"We were 21, very ambitious and there was definitely a certain level of naivety needed to make our plans possible, but we wanted to try it as an organisation without religious or political elements."
Navigating the Ugandan political and government systems has been the steepest learning curve for the young lawyer.
"Government systems and processes can be slow and corrupt, so it's taken a lot of negotiation and learning about how to be culturally sensitive and still get things done. I've definitely learned a lot of patience since we started," she said.
