About Us

Mission Statement

The Student Campaign for Child Survival is dedicated to raising awareness and promoting better policies regarding child survival as part of a broader global justice agenda. Through leadership training, grassroots organizing, transformative education and direct action, SCCS seeks to mobilize a diverse movement of US students, in partnership with students internationally, to advocate for a more engaged role by government, corporations and civil society in promoting child survival programs.

Vision Statement

We envision a world where all children are given a healthy start to life. This is a world where all children are given access to medical services, provided with basic education and guaranteed their fundamental human rights. It is a world where a basic respect for our children ensures that they will not be deprived of their innocence as a result of war, internal conflict, disease, discrimination, debt, trade policies, lack of resources or politics that perpetuate injustice. Direct attention to children’s issues would be a priority but so too would be connecting child survival to other global justice issues such as empowering women, improving access to basic sanitation services and creating political stability. Achieving this vision will require a renewed focus on our common humanity. It will mean struggling against political and societal norms that perpetuate apathy, indifference and a sense of powerlessness. Geography and economics cannot be used as excuses; we must acknowledge our responsibilities to our increasingly global community. We cannot allow thousands of children to die each and every day when we have the knowledge and resources to prevent those deaths.

Our Platform

In the fall of 2002, students at our Kickoff Conference created and ratified our platform. The platform contains 6 major points:

To achieve a dramatic increase in US funding for a comprehensive strategy to improve global child survival

To change public consciousness in the US surrounding issues of global child survival in order to affect policy change

To improve child survival issues directly linked to children’s health

To promote child survival as part of a broader global justice agenda

To eliminate the gap between knowledge of effective programs and their actual implementation

To provide direct support to children in need both domestically and internationally

Major Objectives

To mobilize, educate and train a contingent of student leaders from around the country to work together in promoting child survival

To affect policy change by convincing elected officials to improve policies and contribute greater resources to child survival programs

To make a direct impact on the lives of children through our Global-Local Initiative

To raise public awareness about child survival, including mobilizing community leaders, organizations or individuals to be advocates for change

To link the child survival issue to the larger Global Justice agenda so that all our activities will also demonstrate the need for greater attention to other global justice issues and the need for a more enlightened, engaged American foreign policy

Our Structure

SCCS is a national grassroots student organization. At the heart of SCCS are the students who work through their local SCCS chapters to support child survival.

SCCS has a national coordinating committee made up of students from around the country that coordinate the campaign’s actions. Our coordinating committee organizes the advocacy, media, and grassroots components of the campaign. You can get full details on the positions of the coordinating committee here. (link to “CC Positions” page) In addition, SCCS also has one permanent staff member, Sarah Beardmore, who is our National Coordinator. SCCS also relies on the support and resources of our parent organization, Global Justice.

Global Justice

Global Justice seeks to mobilize a movement of students to promote global justice and responsibility through transformative education, leadership development, informed advocacy and better public policies. In the process, Global Justice will launch a series of campaigns that will address specific policy issues in the context of the global justice framework.

Global Justice founded its first campaign, the Student Global AIDS Campaign, in March of 2000. The Student Campaign for Child Survival was founded as Global Justice's second campaign in the fall of 2002. Global Justice is managed by an Executive Director, Dedrick Mohammad. Global Justice's offices are located in the Dupont Circle area of Washington, D.C. For more information on Global Justice visit www.globaljusticenow.org.