Rest in Peace Chantelle. The Girl Who Started It All…

19 Apr 2022

Trigger Warning The following article and related social media posts mention suicide. If this raises any issues for you, please seek support, call the Lifeline Support Line on 13 11 14 or visit www.lifeline.org.au

The One Girl family - Board, team members, volunteers, Ambassadors, supporters and community - have all been saddened by the devastating news that One Girl’s co-founder and former Executive Director, Chantelle Baxter, has died by suicide over the past weekend.

Without Chantelle, One Girl would not exist today. 

Chantelle worked tirelessly from 2009 to 2017 to take One Girl from an idea to the organisation as we know it - making a real impact in the lives of young women and girls in Sierra Leone and Uganda. Do It In A Dress, One Girl’s major fundraising campaign for 10 years, was Chantelle’s brainchild and championed by her to become the popular international fundraising campaign it grew to become. We are thankful for her vision and determination. 

“As a team we feel that the best way for us to keep her legacy alive is to reach more girls and young women with the transformative power of education,” said One Girl CEO, Dr Chrisanta Muli.

In an overwhelming show of gratitude and support on social media, Chantelle is being remembered as “a guide”, “a beautiful human” and “a warrior in all ways” by the many lives she touched. We join them in celebrating her immense contributions to supporting young women and girls through One Girl and her current social enterprise Be.Bangles. 

We respect and uphold the privacy and dignity of Chantelle’s family and friends during this difficult time. We offer our heartfelt condolences, solidarity and unwavering support to them and everyone who has been shaken by the loss of a feminist role model and change maker in Chantelle.

If this news raises any issues for you or anyone you know, please seek support - call the Lifeline Support Line on 13 11 14 or visit www.lifeline.org.au.