Australian of the Day Chantelle Baxter proves One Girl can make a world of difference

BURNT-out by too much booze, shopping and partying, Chantelle Baxter has redirected her drive for wealth into an urgent effort to lift African girls out of poverty.

Chantelle Baxter is the owner and founder of Be Bangles and makes the jewellery on the floor of her lounge room at her home in Hughesdale. Picture: Lawrence Pinder

BEFORE she co-founded a charity that generates millions of dollars to educate and empower girls stricken by poverty, Chantelle Baxter had her sights set on being rich.

“After I left school I was very driven by making money and my underlying belief was that if I had a lot of money then I was going to be a happy person,” says the 31-year-old.

“My role model was Paris Hilton!”

Chantelle worked hard and bought her first property at 21. By 22 she was partners in a web design company.

“I was doing all the partying, all the shopping, all the spending money hand-over-fist and drinking way too much,” says today’s Australian of the Day. “After a while though I thought, ‘This isn’t what I thought it was going to be.’ All the money in the world couldn’t make up for having no sense of purpose.”

So in 2008 Chantelle spent a month volunteering for an aid agency in the West African republic of Sierra Leone.

“That was a smack in the face. I’d never seen poverty like that,” she recalls. “I met women facing starvation, violence, disease, rape, child marriage. It was the first inkling that were was a whole bunch of stuff going on in the world that isn’t OK with me and I’m lucky enough to be born into a country where I can actually do something about it.”

After another trip in to Africa 2010, Chantelle set up the charity One Girl that sells gifts online — such as inspirational bangles — has so far raised $2.5 million to educate women in Africa and lift them out of poverty.

“There are 60 million girls around the world that will never get the same opportunities simply because they were born a girl and seen as less,” she says. “It has become my driving motivation to try and change that.”

To make that possible Chantelle quit her web design business and sold her apartment.

“I’m renting now and I don’t regret any of the decisions I made,” she says. “What’s the worth of an apartment in South Melbourne when we’ve now supported the education of more than 10,000 women and girls in Africa?”

CommBank has partnered with News Corp Australia for the Australian of the Day initiative in 2016 that celebrates Australians who make a real contribution to their communities. Go to the australianoftheday.com.au website where you can read all about these amazing Australians and perhaps even nominate someone you know.

Originally published as Australian of the Day Chantelle Baxter proves One Girl can make a world of difference