Chaeli Mycroft was born with Cerebral Palsy, a group of disorders that can involve brain and nervous system functions, such as movement, learning, hearing, seeing, and thinking which disabled her legs and arms from movement and bounding her to a wheelchair for life. Chaeli raised money for her motorized wheelchair to give her more freedom and then decided to help other disabled children to receive the same opportunity because she saw that she could make a difference. Chaeli Mycroft was awarded the International Peace Prize because she fought to help those children be accepted by others, be treated the same as others and have just as much hope and belief in themselves as other abled people do.
Chaeli is fighting for disabled children and trying to help people realize that disabled people are still people and should be accepted and treated the same. She started a professional organization called the Chaeli Campaign that fights for the rights and acceptance of over 3,000 disabled children in South Africa. This project has become 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.. Chaeli is disabled herself and she knows what it feels like which is why she wanted to help as many people as possible. At the age of 9, Chaeli and her friends and sister started a project to raise money for a motorized wheelchair for Chaeli. In just seven weeks they raised more than enough money, so Chaeli decided to help more disabled children.
Chaeli also fought to inspire hope and belief in the disabled children of South Africa. Through the Chaeli Campaign, Chaeli Mycroft inspired other disabled children in South Africa to start projects to raise money which would make living with their disability easier. Chaeli was born with Cerebral Palsy, through which the function of her arms and legs is limited. But where others see limitations, she sees possibilities; with her positive attitude, she is an inspiration to many. Chaeli found a way to have hope for herself and that helps her get through life with her disability, she wanted help other disabled children and encourage them to have hope for themselves. Hope is what keeps us going, Chaeli said in her speech. “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. 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.”
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