All in One Boat
Dear SCMs, Senior Friends and WSCF Supporters
For over a century, WSCF has served as an invaluable training ground of leaders for the Church, the ecumenical movement, and the social justice movement at large, both locally and globally, for the present as well as the future. But the diminishing of financial resources that are available to the non-profit sector as a whole, particularly for operational costs, is posing a formidable existential threat to WSCF and the historical role it has played as a prophetic witness for the renewal of the Church and the transformation of the world.
Guided by the framework of the WSCF Strategic Fundraising Plan, the WSCF Executive Committee is developing the All in One Boat (AIOB) campaign. The campaign is aimed beyond the immediate need for funds and towards the long-term development goal of bringing the Federation to a state of financial stability, viability and sustainability. We write to obtain your feedback and support for the campaign as it is developed and launched over the coming months.
The theme and the logo depicting the ecumenical boat on 'rough waters' convey the current state of the WSCF and the shared responsibility of SCMers and Senior Friends to keep it afloat.
In particular, AIOB aims to contribute to the following objectives:
- Empower WSCF to sustain itself internally by putting in place a mechanism that harnesses the fundraising potential of its global network of SCMs and Senior Friends.
- Bridge the gap between the national movements and WSCF Global by engaging SCMs in social fundraising for WSCF.
- Demonstrate WSCF's ability to mobilise internal resources for its operational needs.
- Develop a sustainable internal income stream for WSCF's core fund.
- Expand WSCF's internal donor base (SCMs and Senior Friends) and deepen their engagement in the Federation's development goals.
The key activity of the AIOB will be an annual month-long pledge campaign targeted to obtain commitments from Senior Friends to become recurring donors and SCMs to become recurring fundraisers for WSCF over a multi-year period. You will receive further details on the AIOB.
Securing multi-year donation pledges from Senior Friends and mobilising SCMs to fundraise for WSCF are the two key strategies of AIOB as both help build relationships and an engaged community within the Federation, which are necessary if WSCF aims to sustain itself internally.
By asking SCMs to organise fundraisers instead of donating directly, supporting WSCF becomes for SCMs an active collective engagement in the life of the Federation. It challenges SCMs to start a conversation at the national level on why they must share in the responsibility of sustaining WSCF, in the process building the relationship between SCMs and WSCF Global.
Pledges will be made during the campaign, but realising the pledges take place within the period committed. Funds raised from AIOB will go to the WSCF core fund and allocated for specific purposes depending on need, which may be continuing or time-bound, and will be the basis of setting monetary targets for each run of the campaign.
The WSCF website will play a key role in the implementation of this campaign.
Thanks and kind regards
World Student Christian Federation
Ecumenical Centre
5 route des Morillons, P.O. Box 2100
1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
+41 22 791 62 21 (office)
www.wscf.ch
| ACCOUNT : | LO790.08.11 | |
| BANK : | Banque Cantonale de Genève | |
| SWIFT CODE : | BCGECHGGXXX |
Appeal to Senior Friends
To our fellow Senior Friends,
One hundred and twenty three years on and the World Student Christian Federation is still going strong. That's how it is for those of us who have been engaged with the working of the Federation during the last decade.
Salters Sterling, President
WSCF Centennial FundIn those 123 years much is changed. The world is an entirely different place two world wars and multitudes of violent eruptions later. The world of Empire and Colony has almost disappeared. New Nations and new nationalisms have emerged. Transport and Communications have changed utterly. Wealth has been transformed as it has moved from the power of men and women, through machines to global knowledge economies and these new energies are transforming the environment of Planet Earth. The Evangelism of the 1890s and 1900s has left a legacy for the Body of Christ as a world religion and in parallel a renewing Islam post the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The world of the Hindu and Buddhist Beliefs has likewise expanded as migration within and without the former empires have taken adherents to the ends of the earth.
Let’s Build Peace
An urgent call for peace in the Middle East.
The WSCF Peacebuilding Program supports peace-building in the Middle East—training students and young people to lead initiatives that tackle the root causes of war and conflict.
In this video prepared by the WSCF Inter-Regional Office in cooperation with WSCF Middle East and WSCF Latin America and Caribbean, young people from the Federation speaks of their yearning for justice and peace in the region historically plagued by war and violence.
Watch the full 21-minute video here:
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WSCF appoints Christopher Chimangeni from Malawi as Executive for Africa and Program Director for Bible and Theology
Christopher ChimangeniThe World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) welcomes Christopher Chimangeni from Lilongwe as Executive for Africa and Director for Bible and Theology Program. He joins the WSCF global staff team working from Malawi where he will be hosted by the CYMA or Christian Youth of Malawi Association, WSCF member movement in Malawi. Christopher has been an active member of the movement and worked as the coordinator of the CYMA for 3 years until 2017. Prior to this appointment, Christopher has worked as Capacity Building Coordinator for the Don Bosco Youth Center and Program Manager of the Association of the Christian Educators in Malawi where he devoted his talents and skills to youth and young people.
People in Kerala are in need of your help and solidarity
Student Christian Movement of India seeks your prayers and support for immediate relief and long-term rebuilding. Please support our SCM in their efforts to help the people in the communities in Kerala. The details of how you can help are in the information below.
SCM of India Appeal for Support
Due to heavy floods and unexpected rains, the Kerala state in India is going through a devastating situation where hundreds of people and animals lost their lives and millions of people are homeless. They are all staying in shelter camps supported by the Government agencies and civic bodies.
SCMI seeks your prayers and support for immediate relief and a long term rebuildingwork. Your small support will be much helpful to restore life in Kerala.
WSCF denounces persecution of Christian communities in Nigeria
The World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) and the Student Christian Movement of Nigeria raise its collective voice to denounce and condemn the actions of some officials in the Nigeria Government in the ongoing persecution of thousands of people within several Christian communities in Nigeria.
They are openly pursuing an anti-Christian agenda that has resulted in countless murders of Christians all over the nation and the destruction of vulnerable Christian communities.
The Student Christian Movement (SCM) of Nigeria has significant work among students, youth and senior friends in the affected areas – Kaduna, Borno, Benue, Plateau, Kogi, Edo and Ebonyi states. Disrupted educational careers, loss of viable means of livelihood built over many years (farms, businesses etc.), loss of one or both parents (especially the male), have become the order of the day.
The SCM as a student body raises its voice to support the ability of displaced persons to settle down in identified peaceful areas. Humanitarian intervention and International Advocacy are new areas of our local movement and are in need of urgent support.
Statement on the delicate situation in Colombia involving the life of hundreds of social leaders
WSCF LAC is accompanying this statement and working closely with the advocacy process. (Spanish version below)
Public Statement
World Christian Student Federation - Latin America and the Caribbean
SCM Colombia Barranquilla
SCM Colombia Bogotá
He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. – Isaiah 2:4
The Colombian Student Christian Movement (SCM), which is part of the WSCF – World Christian Student Federation, is an organization that seeks to promote among the student community a commitment that is critical, sensitive and transformative of the reality through contextual theological reflection, solidarity action and participation in social, cultural processes and ecumenical celebrations.
From this vocational call to prophecy, we want to condemn in one voice the serious situation of violence, which returns to the country after signing the peace agreement and which is getting worse in recent days because of the threats and killings of social and political leaders in different regions of Colombia.
Since the Peace Agreement was signed, 283 leaders have been killed. Only in January of this year, 27 were killed: three women, 24 men, 4 from indigenous communities, 15 farmers, 3 afro descendants. 5 in the Pacific region, 7 in the central region of the country, 7 in the Atlantic coast and 8 in the Colombian east. Only in the last week, 11 have been killed.
WSCF ExCo meets in Jakarta amidst tension after Surabaya bombings
Affirms the role of Indonesia SCM in peace building and dialogue, plans for 37th GA in 2020 Germany
2018 June 12-18, Jakarta, Indonesia
WSCF ExCo members with GMKI local host during the Solidarity Night
The WSCF Executive Committee held its in-face meeting at the Samadi Pastoral Centre in Jakarta, Indonesia from June 12 to 18, 2018. Hosted by the Indonesia Student Christian Movement or the Gerakan Mahasiswa Kristen Indonesia (GMKI), the meeting was attended by 28 participants composed of the WSCF global officers, executive staff members, regional representatives, and members of the WSCF Centennial Fund Board.
