Girls Without a Voice

Chaeli Mycroft

Imagine not being able to move your hands or legs. Being wheelchair bound for life. Never knowing how it feels to have wind blow through your hair while running along the beach. That’s how Chaeli Mycroft, born in South Africa, lives. Born with cerebral palsy, she is wheelchair bound and cannot move her legs or hands. Despite that, she doesn’t let her disability stop her. Knowing how it feels to have almost no independence, Chaeli created the Chaeli Campaign, helping over 3,000 disabled children a year. The Chaeli Campaign started because she wanted to buy herself a motorized wheelchair, giving her more independence. She raised the money she needed within seven weeks and realized she could help raise money for others. She was rewarded in 2011 with the International Children’s Peace Prize for all the good she’s done for South African children. She believes that everyone is born equal and free, with independence and rights, whether they are disabled or not. She wants to show other children that there is still hope for them, even when it feels like there is nothing to live for.


Chaeli fights for the rights of disabled children and the fact that they are born equal and free and they all have independence. Chaeli herself was born with limited movement of her arms and legs. As said before, the Chaeli Campaign started because Chaeli wanted to buy herself a motorized wheelchair, giving her more independence. Her family couldn’t afford a new wheelchair, so Chaeli, her sisters and her friends sold cards, flower pots and their own artwork to raise money for Chaeli. After raising the money she needed within seven weeks, she realized she could help other disabled children and their needs. “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.” Chaeli’s own needs ended up helping more than herself because she raised so much money, she decided to help others and donate to them. Of course, Chaeli didn’t do it all on her own. Her sisters and friends helped her along the road, sacrificing their free time to help others. Although it’s tough to have to sacrifice your own personal life, it’s all worth it because Chaeli and her friends have helped so many people recover and gain hope.


Chaeli takes her own hope and shows other disabled children that there is still hope for them as well. Born with cerebral palsy, she was less able to do everything everyone else can. But Chaeli didn’t let that get to her. Instead of pitying herself, she turned her disability into her gift. She started the Chaeli Campaign to help other disabled children and to show them they still have some hope.  “‘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.’” Her non-profit organization helps over 3000 children a year, donating money, helping them get back on their feet by giving them equipment they need or physical therapy. Despite the fact that Chaeli is disabled, she competed in the world championship for ballroom dancing for the disabled. Chaeli doesn’t let her disabilities get to her and she shows everyone else that being disabled shouldn’t discourage them.

The work that Chaeli has done helped show over 3,000 disabled children that there is still hope for them, and that no matter what, they should know they were born equal and free, with rights, despite their disabilities. Chaeli’s own weaknesses encouraged her to help others who are conflicted with similar disabilities. Chaeli given the publicity of an award has motivated and inspired others to take action, letting disabled children know how it feels to move their hands or legs, possibly getting out of their wheelchairs and even feeling wind blow through their hair as they run along a beach.

Sources Used:
"Children's Peace Prize winner Chaeli Mycroft in South ... - YouTube." 2012. 1 Nov. 2012 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24zQ13hQfKI>
"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights." 2009. 1 Nov. 2012 <http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml>
"Michaela “Chaeli” Mycroft | Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans." 2012. 1 Nov. 2012 <http://ysa2012.mg.co.za/michaela-chaeli-mycroft/>
"SA Career Focus: Chaeli Mycroft." 2011. 1 Nov. 2012 <http://www.sacareerfocus.co.za/displayArticle.php?id=215>
"Michaela Mycroft winner of International Children's Peace Prize 2011." 2011. 1 Nov. 2012 <http://chaelicampaign-co-za.si-sv3825.com/news/michaela-mycroft-winner-of-international-childrens-peace-prize-2011/>
"2011 Chaeli Mycroft - Childrenspeaceprize." 2011. 1 Nov. 2012 <http://childrenspeaceprize.org/childrens-peace-price/2011-chaeli-mycroft/>

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Vonnegut's message about the world in this story is that there is no way to make everyone equal and the world will be chaotic, no matter what. Now, we have so much freedom but there are still many countries where people don't have equal rights, especially women. In the story of Harrison Bergeron, people are given handicaps so that they're not better than anyone at anything. That takes the freedom away and makes everyone equal, but in a torturous way. "The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the  law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else." (pg 130) Everyone wears handicaps, such as weights - to make a person weaker, masks - to hide someone's good looks, and ear pieces - that make sounds every time someone thinks to much, to keep people from being smart. "It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn’t think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn’t think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. 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." (pg 130) In this story, everyone is equal, resulting in chaotic, mindless people following ONE person's rules. Although most people are equal, there is still one person in charge and she gets to rule the world and she has all the power. Despite how hard we try, we'll never have a perfect world because there will always be disagreements and oppressive leaders, etc.

Identity IS Worth Fighting For

Where I'm From
I am from lawn chairs,
and being terrified of bees in our garden.
I am from soccer practice,
and being the smallest in the class.
I am from ice skating lessons, falling on my butt.
I am from my seven pairs of Converse that I’ll never throw away.

I am from Clifford the Big Red Dog,and the Boston Red Sox.
I am from N’sync and Britney Spears,
and wanting to be Michael Jackson’s background dancer.
I am from Corn Pops,and grooming vans,
and being the youngest on the flight to Las Vegas.
I am from No means no,
and my parents calling me my Chinese name, Ka-En.
I am from the angry old neighbor next door,
and High School Musical marathons.

A tradition that’s passed down the line,
generation after generation.
Tea ceremonies to celebrate weddings, 
Chinese New Year and birthdays.
Prolonging the past,
and foreshadowing the future.


Who I Am
Braided, puffy hair, into a pony-tail.
Dark brown eyes.
Cracked lips.
A watch from my half brother in Hong Kong.
A hair tie on my other wrist.
A uniform with one button undone and both sleeves rolled up.
Some rolled up pants; they’re too long.
Scar-filled legs, full of mosquito bites.
An awkward tan line from the wrist band that I wore for 2 years on my ankle because my wrist is too small.
My signature pair of Converse, with two tongues, ruined from dancing, running and skateboarding.
Socks that keep sliding down my foot.
Ears lacking earrings because of my sensitive skin.
Nails covered with pink, black and white nail polish.
9 toe nails, covered in white nail polish, one hanging off.
Different.
Quirky.
Awkward.
That’s me.

Identity is something that's worth fighting for. Everyone is their own self and nothing can change that. You have the right to fight for who you are and you should be able to be yourself no matter what. Your identity shouldn't even have to be something that you have to fight for. People are designed to be different and people should embrace that. People may try to take your identity away from you and that's when you have to fight for you identity. There isn't a certain way you have to be. Tradition can be an obstacle there and although it's tradition, I feel it's not fair. Everyone should be able to be themselves. Also, there are stereotypes and gender "roles". People often think that women have to do certain things, like work in the kitchen and clean up, and men have to do certain things, like work and make all the money. No one should have to live up to those expectations because they're not even real expectations.

Prejudice and Bias

Throughout John Boyne's The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, there was a lot of evidence of prejudice and bias. Bruno's father was in charge of one of the concentration camps and he was clearly a big supporter of the Nazis. Bruno didn't understand much of what was going on and he just listened to his father and agreed that the Jews were horrible people. When he went exploring, he met Shmuel and talked to him through the fence. He didn't understand why the Jews were horrible people. Bruno asked his sister, Gretel, if there were such things as nice Jews. Gretel thought that was a very stupid thought and told Bruno that there was no such thing as nice Jews. She learned from her father and the tutor that they have. This suggests that prejudice is caused by what our parents think.

Prejudice is caused mainly because of what our parents think and what their opinions are. Children are very much influenced by their parents and parents teach their children so whatever the parents think, the children would most likely agree. Also, Bruno being a German family, many, not all, Germans were siding the Nazis and they encouraged what they were doing.

Prejudice is also highly affected by what people around you think, like peer pressure. If a group of people think something, another person is most likely going to agree. Another reason people would be prejudice is because they have a leader. Hitler didn't like the Jews and many people followed his lead, hence the amount of people against Jews.

Bruno and Gretel were influenced by their father and they believed that Jews were horrible people. Bruno was the only one who actually interacted with a Jew for a longer time period and he knows that Jews aren't actually bad people. This shows that the opinions of people most likely revolve around someone else's opinion.

Treaty Of Versailles: Fair or Unfair

The Treaty of Versailles was unfair towards the Germans. After the war was over, in 1918, people celebrated their victory, and they left behind the destroyed grounds. The defeated parties were punished and Germany was forced to sign a Peace Treaty, giving the restrictions that you couldn't even imagine.

In January of 1919, David Lloyd George, of Britain, Vittorio Orlando, of Italy, France's Georges Clemenceau and President Woodrow Wilson met for a Peace Conference to decide how to punish Germany for the destruction they caused. They decided on restrictions Germany must follow such as limiting their military forces to 100,000 men and there shall be no air force or submarines.

Although it is reasonable that Germany should be punished for the damage they've done, I feel it's too harsh to make them give up all the land that they had title over. In the end, Germany had to pay for all the damage they've done which added up to about $33 billion. A lot of Germany's land was taken from them and lost their mining lands, making it very difficult for them to pay for the damage they'd caused.

No Man Is An Island

The texts of John Donne's poem No Man Is An Island, Armin Greder's The Island and Jason Van Gederen's Mankind Is No Island video poem all have similar themes such as equality, prejudice, and humanity. In Greder's The Island, the man is treated like an animal. He was forced to stay in a goat pen and he was absolutely dehumanized. In the poem No Man Is An Island, describes how every man is a part of the continent and should be treated equally. The video poem mentions "who do you love". All of these different themes are somehow portrayed in these three texts.

These texts each have a way of showing equality as one of their themes. In Greder's The Island, the people of town treat him like someone different. As if he's not even human, the townspeople aren't treating him equally. In John Donne's No Man Is An Island, he speaks a lot about being a part of the continent and how mankind should never be left alone. This suggests that everyone should be treated equally and no one should be left behind. "Your truth, your thinking, your inner spirit; no different to me." These words were in the video poem by Van Gederen. This implies, yet again that all of mankind should be treated equally and that no matter how different we are, we are all the same.

Another theme that is shown in all three of these texts is prejudice. In The Island, the people in town first see the naked man and immediately think of him as a threat. They didn't even bother asking about his life story or the reason why he's come. They assumed he was danger, which led them to start rumors and lies about this innocent man. This shows that they made snap-judgements and that the townspeople were really prejudice even thought they thought they were being nice by letting him stay. In John Donne's poem, he's saying that everyone is equal and there should be no prejudice. The video poem quotes "I walk by you today, I always look away". This suggests that people are being prejudice and they don't bother finding things out about anything before judging. In the modern world today, all around us there are many people being prejudice and soon enough, no one is going to care about another person other than themselves.

The final theme that is represented in these texts is humanity. Donne's poem suggests that we should treat everyone with humanity because everyone is part of the continent. The video version of that poem shows clips of beggars on the street and no one is giving them anything. "Do we measure empathy by donations?" The Island has a lot about humanity. Firstly, the people don't seem to have any humanity judging by the way they treated the man who appeared on their island. Also, the way they dressed and looked according to Greder's illustrations, they looked like beasts almost. Not exactly as beastly as the circus men in The Great Bear but they weren't far off.

These three texts each use different techniques to portray equality, prejudice and humanity. Poems, videos and a children's story book. Although these may not seem like big messages read literally but they actually have a deeper meaning to them. The Great Bear was an allegory about rights and respect, The Island was a way of showing how cruel and prejudice people can be. John Donne's writing is a poetic way of showing how people should act and how people should treat each other. The video poem was a tear jerking way of showing how prejudice people can be and how people aren't even sure of what they love now a days. "What is it we love today? Do we love the people or place?"