The Chaeli Campaign: Building an Inclusive South Africa for Children with Disabilities

The Chaeli Campaign began in 2004 when Chaeli Mycroft, who has cerebral palsy, and her friends raised funds door-to-door for her first wheelchair; it has since grown into a Cape Town-based social justice organisation working across the country. Its Chaeli Cottage Pre-School and Early Childhood Development Inclusion programme reach around 50 partner ECD centres in Cape Town each year, training teachers and parents alongside disabled and non-disabled children learning side by side. The Pay-It-Forward Ambassadors programme teaches children as young as 12 to design and lead their own community outreach projects, with chapters in five provinces, and its Inclusive Arts Collective has co-created plays exploring disability rights. By its 17th anniversary in 2021, the Campaign had directly benefited more than 80,000 children, parents, teachers, and professionals since founding.