Celebrating International Youth day: meet our Campaign Champions!

Celebrating youth and empowering them to achieve their full potential has always been at the core of our work at Send My Friend to School.

In fact, we are one of the leading organisations placing youth voice and campaigning at the forefront of our work. Tens of thousands of young people from across the country have participated in Send My Friend, ensuring Global Education remains a priority for the UK government.

Campaign Champions with Sarah Champion, Parliamentary Action Day 2022

Joining Send My Friend to School (SMF) is an incredible opportunity for students to enhance their resume and stand out in future university or job applications. Speaking to a number of young people who have been part of this journey, the transferrable skills they have gained have been a building block towards their future goals. Such skills include but are not limited to communication, youth and civic leadership, and critical thinking.

Over the years, the SMF campaign champions have brought the campaign to Parliament and to party conferences, speaking directly to MPs, Ministers and other influential people to demand quality education for all across the globe. They ensured their voices were heard at Cop26 to stop climate change undermining the right to education and strengthen education’s role in the global climate response. They lead their schools’ responses to the campaign and have been amazing advocates for our campaigns.

“[We] are part of a group of youth campaigners all over the countries who all fight for the same reason. That every child deserves a quality education….We may be fortunate to have a quality education, but not everybody is. So, we won’t stop until we achieve our goal.”

Daniel and Evie – Campaign Champions 2022

Campaign Champions at Cop 26

This year, outstanding primary and secondary students across the UK have been busy with the ‘All My Friends Need Teachers’ campaign. Investing in teachers is vital if the world is to achieve SDG4 – the global goal on education. Yet the world is short of the 69 million new teachers who are needed if every child everywhere is to receive a good quality education by 2030. All too often it’s children from marginalised backgrounds in low-income countries, including girls, children with disabilities and children displaced by conflict, who have limited or no access to well-qualified teachers and who miss out on learning.

Schools across the country have been participating in SMF using our campaign pack. After completing this short activity, which can be done in less than 30 minutes, students have been sending their work to their local MP, making their voices heard and helping make sure there’s a well-trained teacher in every classroom, in every school everywhere.

This is a unique opportunity that helps the students in the UK learn and become active citizens while supporting their fellow mates around the world. Make sure you join us here: https://act.sendmyfriend.org/campaignpack2022