Dylan Alcott AO and the Dylan Alcott Foundation have officially partnered with World Vision to shine a light on disability in the world’s most vulnerable communities.
The former professional tennis and basketball player, who was named Australian of the Year in 2022, founded his eponymous foundation in 2017.
The Dylan Alcott Foundation’s core mission is to “help young Australians with disabilities gain self-esteem and respect through sport and study.”
But Dylan is taking that mission global with World Vision.
The 33-year-old recently travelled to Zambia with World Vision to see firsthand how children living with disability there face discrimination and struggle to access mobility aids and basic support.
He also filmed a short documentary, Road to Kasama, while in Zambia, which aims to highlight how much work needs to be done over there.
The Weekly recently sat down with Dylan to discuss his new partnership with World Vision and his Zambia trip.
Read The Weekly’s full interview with Dylan below…
The Weekly: Why did you partner with World Vision for this? What work were they doing that you wanted to be a part of?
Dylan: I’ve had a disability my whole life, and I really used to struggle with having a disability when I was young. I’m very lucky that I learned to love myself and be proud of my disability, and my purpose is to change perceptions so people with disability all around the world can get out and live the lives they deserve to live.
But, to be able to do that, you’ve got to go all the way around the world. Ever since I, probably teenage years, I kind of got online and did some research around the world on how other people with disability live, to try and find my community and educate myself, and obviously I read some pretty gut-wrenching stories about people in other parts of the world who are doing it pretty tough, and a part of that is in Africa, and I’ve always had a bit of a burning desire to go there and listen and learn from the people over there and share their stories with the world.
And, World Vision obviously has a presence in Zambia, and the partnership seemed to make sense between them and my foundation. And so, I hit them [World Vision] up and came up with the idea, and was very grateful that I got the opportunity to go.
In Zambia, you saw firsthand how children with disabilities are treated. Can you share what they face in your own words?
Firstly, the extreme poverty. It was like nothing I’d ever really seen before, and I just felt so lucky and grateful that people invited us; that tribal chiefs and traditional owners invited us, and that I was able to go witness first-hand and say g’day and have conversations and kind of discover and listen and learn.
And with that extreme poverty comes a lack of accessibility like nothing I’d ever seen before; whether it was a lack of wheelchairs or mobility aids or toileting or running water or whatever it was.
It was really tough for me to get around. And I’m in a pretty whiz-bag wheelchair.
But while I was there, I wanted to live how everybody there lives. I didn’t really want any special treatment, so I was trying to get around on my own and it was really tough.
Secondly, culturally, disability is something that is very taboo, and it’s not spoken about. If you have a disability, it’s kind of spiritually seen as a bad thing, and that is really tough too.
So there’s the severe lack of accessibility one thing, but then a severe lack of inclusion as well, which leads to families getting shunned and things like that when you have a disabled kid or kids not being able to go to school because they’re disabled, or whatever it is.
What steps do you believe need to be taken to address these gaps in accessibility and culture?
The biggest thing about this trip was I didn’t go there and say what needed to be done because I didn’t know. What I needed, what we wanted to do, was ask people with disabilities what needed to be done.
The biggest thing that can change straightaway is their lived experience being listened to. We went to these communities and towns and people’s houses and things, and it might have been one of the first times that anybody ever asked them about their disability and what they needed.
And a pretty easy win is listening to them and asking them what they need to feel included. And you know, it’s tough, because a lot of these things are tied in with religion and culture and things like that. But if you take away their disability, they’re just people too, who want the same opportunity as anybody else, who wants to get listened to, who wants to go to school, who wants to get a job, who wants to contribute to their community.
You don’t really need a wheelchair to do that first and foremost. So I think getting their voices heard and listened to is really important.
But then also it comes down to funding. We met a young kid called Victor who had a disability. He’s been lying in the same spot for 26 years without a wheelchair.
Pretty easy to get him a wheelchair, and as a result, we got him a wheelchair straight away.
But all he wants to do is go watch his favourite football team, which is what I love doing, but the only way he could get there was if someone put him in a wheelbarrow. Otherwise, he didn’t get to go. I thought we can do better than that as a community.
So it’s obviously about funding and getting people mobility aids and healthcare, that’s one part of it, but the cultural inclusion is another part.
And accessibility costs money, but inclusion you can have for free. As long as you challenge your biases, you challenge whatever those cultural beliefs are, and you start being more inclusive.
That was what every single person told us, pretty much, that my kid or I just want to be like everybody else who goes to school, who goes to church.
How we do that is the next step. Hopefully, this documentary, people get to watch it, and they can see that, but, yeah, we’ll do whatever we can to support but it all stems from people on the ground because it’s not about us telling them how to live. It’s about them telling people how they want to live individually. If we can help elevate those voices, that’s what we’re there to do.
What was the most eye-opening or emotional moment for you during the trip?
Pretty hard to pinpoint one to be honest, but that Victor moment was probably the most gut-wrenching, but also the most beautiful, because he was just so pumped and stoked that someone had just come to chat with him and ask him some questions.
And he was smiling, and he put on his best shirt, and we just sat there for 30 minutes on the ground, just shooting the shit together.
Also, I went to the local supermarket. And they’d obviously never seen someone in a wheelchair before. I went just to go shopping, and they tried to close the whole store because they thought I needed to shop by myself. I was like, ‘No, no, no; I’m just buying some corn chips.’
But culturally, you can see some of the barriers that people face when they see a wheelchair. They think that they have to close the whole store. It’s like, no, no. We just want to be people like everybody else. We want to shop. We just want to do whatever.
And that’s what it’s all about, breaking down some of those barriers and showing everyone we’re just people; we might just do things differently.
What shocked me most was the mutual kind of respect that we got from the people we spoke to. I’d just get on the ground and say g’day and ask them how they’re doing, and they’d just speak for 20 minutes because a lot of people never ask them.
We got to go to a mother’s group — on Mother’s Day, actually — and met with like 30 mums who have kids with disabilities.
And we just asked some questions but all ended up hugging each other and it was cool to see because when you have a disabled kid, there’s no manual that you get given of how to do this.
Like, my parents got no manual … But they all kept saying, ‘Thanks for coming.’ And I was like, ‘No, don’t thank me. Thank you for having me.’ So it was pretty cool to be there and I’m very grateful for the experience.
Hopefully, we shine a light on what’s needed, not just funding and buying, you know, accessibility products, but also, like cultural shifts that need to happen so people with disability can be more included.
You’ve achieved so much across sports, media, and advocacy — how do you maintain balance while pushing boundaries in so many different areas?
Oh, it’s important to look after yourself. That’s a good one. I probably was working a bit hard when I was Australian of the Year and stuff and forgot to look after myself…
But I think when you end up finding what your purpose is, it’s pretty easy to make decisions and to be honest, I don’t wake up every day and say, ‘How am I going to be an advocate today?’ I just wake up every day and try to be myself.
My priority in life is to enjoy my life, be happy and be a good person; I live the best life ever. I’m very lucky, and I love trying new things and pushing boundaries and having a crack, and I’ve really enjoyed this opportunity, making this doco.
I’ve also been doing some acting these days, which I’m loving; all kinds of cool things.
So yeah, I do make sure I look after myself now. But as I said, I’m a sucker for an opportunity and enjoying my life, so I just try and get out there and do new things all the time. And I’m so lucky that people support me in all these different endeavours that I do.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in Zambia that you wish you knew when you were younger?
I kind of knew this already when I was younger. But it just reiterated to me the importance of listening to people. Listening and sharing other people’s lived experiences.
And I said it before but people ask me, ‘What needs to be done?’ What needs to be done is, don’t ask me, listen to the people that we spoke to and actually do what you say you’re going to do to support.
I think talk is cheap and action speaks louder than words. You can talk about it all you want, but you’ve got to go there, experience it, and do something about it.
And you know, every single person that we spoke to, we asked them what they needed, whether it was healthcare products or diapers for kids or wheelchairs or whatever.
We got everyone what they needed, but that’s just one thing, and that will run out one day. It’s about hopefully impacting culture so they can be more included, so they get more listened to, so they get more invested in, whether it’s invested in by like a big organisation, like World Vision, or even invested in by their community, by them getting invited into town. Them getting talked to, the schools inviting them in, whatever it is.
People always say to me, they think I know everything about disability. I don’t. I just know what I know about my lived experience, so it’s about elevating the voices of other people so they can get their lived experiences heard.
And I always knew that, but I’m glad that I got trusted, invited into the community to continue my journey of learning more myself and supporting in any way that I can.
You’ve become an inspiration to so many people, but who has been your greatest inspiration throughout your life?
I’m so lucky that I was born into an awesome family that really cared and loved me but also didn’t wrap me in cotton wool because of my disability; because I was different.
You know, they made sure that I had a voice and could get my own independence and things like that. So, my parents and my brother Zac. I know it’s a bit of a cop-out answer when everyone always says their family, but for me it is true.
I mean, you know, even in Australia, so many young kids with disability have parents who love them and protect them but speak on their behalf because they’re worried about them getting hurt or discriminated against; yes, that’s a very relevant thing to worry about.
But equally, you’ve got to make sure people get their own voice and their own independence. And I’m so lucky that my family did that, and that’s why I’m the person that I am today. They really pushed me to be myself. And as a result, I was able to achieve everything I’ve achieved.
World Vision currently serve nearly 15,000 children with disabilities worldwide. To support children with a disability in the most vulnerable communities, you can sponsor a child with a disability or purchase a disability gift through World Vision’s website.
Also via their website, you can watch the Dylan Alcott x World Vision documentary, Road to Kasama.
