Chaeli Mycroft: Fighting For Acceptance, Spreading Hope

Think about what you love to do. Now imagine that you couldn’t move your arms and legs, mentally handicapped and unable to leave a wheelchair. Can you still do those things now? Or would the disabilities stop you? Michaela “Chaeli” Mycroft was born with cerebral palsy, making her wheelchair bound for life. Instead of letting life get to her, she decided to go out and make a difference. Chaeli was nine when she first started raising money for her own motorized wheelchair and carried on her fundraising with aspirations to help others like her . Now 17, and the winner of the 2011 children's peace prize, Chaeli has achieved in a couple of years which some spend a lifetime doing. Being handicapped her whole life, living in a wheelchair and diagnosed with cerebral palsy , Chaeli understands the challenges that the disabled have to face. She decided to make a change and help other children with disabilities by opening up opportunities, fighting for acceptance and spreading hope.

Growing up disabled, Chaeli understood that even the slightest bit of assistance could open up possibilities for a person. Chaeli is working to raise money to provide equipment and physical therapy for disabled children living in South Africa. Chaeli’s motorized wheelchair changed her life. She could do more and felt independent. She wanted others to feel the same way: “At the age of 9, Chaeli and her friends and sister started a project to raise money for an motorized wheelchair for Chaeli. In just seven weeks they raised more than enough money, so Chaeli decided to help more disabled children.” 1  By getting others involved she has been able to broaden her campaign to help a large amount of children: “This project has become the Chaeli Campaign, a professional organization that annually helps more than 3000 children with disabilities in South Africa with equipment, physical therapy and which defends the rights and acceptance of disabled children. Chaeli inspires other children to start projects and for that she has developed an ambassadors program.” 1  These children would not get the assistance Chaeli is proving them otherwise as their families can’t afford it. Chaeli's assistance has helped and is helping open opportunities for thousands of disabled children in South Africa.

Throughout her campaign, Chaeli ultimately wants to spread hope to the thousands of disabled children she supports. All her efforts are to help disabled children feel empowered and successful. She wants them to go after their dreams and remain hopeful. Chaeli once said in a speech “Hope is what keeps us going” 5 Her experiences have proven this to her. It’s what keeps us striving for the lives we deserve. I have hope for myself, but I also have hope for all other children with disabilities.” 5 Chaeli knows that her efforts will help. She knows her commitment has helped bring newfound hope to the thousands of disabled children she has helped, and the thousands more to come.

Chaeli wants all children like her to feel needed and accepted within their families and society. Chaeli was lucky in the sense that her friends and family always tried as hard as possible to include her in everything they did. Because of this, Chaeli is the inspirational, fun loving person she is today. She wants disabled children all over to have the same upbringing. ‘“They have raised me to accept my disability. If they stopped believing then I would’ve too and then I would have lost it. My friends are equally as important to me. They treat me like an able person. They even changed games that they usually played so that I could play with them and it’s fun when we are all in it together. In a way my friends treating me like a normal person led to other people treating me normally. They helped a lot” 7  She also wants the disabled to be accepted within society, not treated as outcasts. Within the communities she helps, she tries to promote acceptance and involvement. “I hope that my actions as an ability activist will leave the world more accepting and more accommodating for all people and not just people with disabilities, because we are all different and we all have the need to be accepted regardless of having a disability or not.”6  Chaeli’s determination has helped promote and engage acceptance for the thousands of disabled children in South Africa.

Chaeli’s campaign started small but has grown into an organization of hope, acceptance and opportunity. Chaeli’s work has helped thousands of Disabled children in South Africa find their place in the world. People like Chaeli are the people who change our world. They are impetuses of change for the rest of society.

Chaeli’s campaign “Hope in Motion” helps thousands of disabled children living South Africa get the support they need. The donations have helped set up schools for the disabled and purchase aids and equipment. With the physical support, the campaign has brought hope and the willpower they never had before. Chaeli has helped thousands of children like herself realize their own dreams and given them the hope and ability to follow their hearts. She is an inspiration for us all.           

Sources Used:
1: "2011 Chaeli Mycroft." 2011. 17 Oct. 2012 <http://childrenspeaceprize.org/childrens-peace-price/2011-chaeli-mycroft/>
2: "SA Career Focus: Chaeli Mycroft." 2011. 17 Oct. 2012 <http://www.sacareerfocus.co.za/displayArticle.php?id=215>
3: "SA Career Focus: Chaeli Mycroft." 2011. 17 Oct. 2012 <http://www.sacareerfocus.co.za/displayArticle.php?id=215>
5: "2011 Chaeli Mycroft." 2011. 17 Oct. 2012 <http://childrenspeaceprize.org/childrens-peace-price/2011-chaeli-mycroft/>
6:"2011 Chaeli Mycroft." 2011. 17 Oct. 2012 <http://childrenspeaceprize.org/childrens-peace-price/2011-chaeli-mycroft/>
7: 2011 Chaeli Mycroft." 2011. 17 Oct. 2012 <http://childrenspeaceprize.org/childrens-peace-price/2011-chaeli-mycroft/>
8: "Chaeli Mycroft: HOPE IN MOTION - capechameleon.co.za." 2012. 17 Oct. 2012 <http://www.capechameleon.co.za/printed-version/issue-12/spotlight3/>

Harrison Bergeron - Vonnegut's Message

        In Vonnegut's short story, Harrison Bergeron, Vonnegut tries to get his readers to appreciate and value what makes them different. Vonnegut twists our perception of "equality is the way to a utopia" and tries to make us see that in a different light. Whilst being equal has its advantages, everyone would be the same. People wouldn't have their own weaknesses or strengths, nobody would have their own individual talents. The dystopia Vonnegut has created clearly demonstrates his perception on the topic of individuality and the keeping of one's character. In the story, the ballerinas are ridded of their physical talent by the government adorning them with handicaps. "He tried to think a little about the ballerinas. They weren’t really very good-no better than anybody else would have been, anyway.They were burdened with sash-weights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in." (Page 131) The ballerina's here are being oppressed from showing off their own talents. The equality is oppressing them and their identity. Harrison Bergeron's abilities, appearance and knowledge had attempted to be taken away from him by the government. "The rest of Harrison’s appearance was Halloween and hardware. Nobody had ever born heavier handicaps. He had outgrown hindrances faster than the men could think them up. Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides. Scrap metal was hung all over him. Ordinarily, there was a certain symmetry, a military neatness to the handicaps issued to strong people, but Harrison looked like a walking junkyard. In the race of life, Harrison carried three hundred pounds. And to offset his good looks, the men required that he Wear at all times a red rubber ball for a nose, keep his eyebrows shaved off, and cover his even white teeth with black caps at snaggle-tooth random." (Page 134) Harrison is not allowed to keep his looks, mind and strength for fear that he may be better than everyone else, which would upset the equality. All that makes Harrison, Harrison, has been taken away from him by the government. George's intelligence had also been ripped away from him. George wore a mental ear handicap that played a loud, excruciating sound in his head every twenty seconds. This was to mess with and interrupt his train of thought. The government wants everyone to be as smart as each other, not have some be smarter than the others. "Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking
unfair advantage of their brains." (Page 130) Hazel isn't required to wear one as she is of average intelligence, the same level they are dragging everyone else down to. Hazel isn't the brightest person yet the government seems to see this as being ideal. Vonnegut's dystopia is a place of equality and oppression. There is no such thing as a utopia as all things have repercussions. In Vonnegut's dystopia, complete equality is put in place at the expense of individuality and uniqueness. Vonnegut shows his readers that equality is an acceptable way of life to an extent. People should learn to cherish their differences  The degree of equality in the Vonnegut's dystopia is out of hand, making it a dystopia.