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Principles

These 16 core principles guide our work – at home and abroad.  

Click on one to read in greater depth.  

(A) Caring

1. Moral imperative
  • 'Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity, it is an act of justice’.  
2. Vulnerability
  • Working for street-children in the poorest part of the world’s poorest country  

(B) In SL: Business – Operational principles

3. Working where others don’t
  • We set up in Makeni because no-one else was caring for street-children there  
4. Efficiency
  • Volunteer-lead, over-head free in the UK; only employing local staff  
5. Effectiveness, quality, professionalism
  • Our in-country partner HANCi has a brilliant record of caring for children  
6. Probity, transparency
  • KPMG audit HANCi, Comic Relief & UNICEF trust them. So do we.  
7. Local people, local solutions
  • We employ local people who know their communities and their needs.  
8. Prevention – as, or even more, important than cure
  • Our child rights advocacy & community capacity-building tackle root-causes  
9. Multiplying our impact
  • Our child advocacy work multiplies the long-term impact of our street work.  
10. (Social) entrepeneurism
  • Not married to any format or policy – we will flex to achieve our goal  
11. Success - outputs (results) not inputs
  • We rigorously assess our impact to evaluate our performance.  
12. Maximum return
  • Every decision - how can we make maximum difference with our resources?

(C) As a UK charity

13. Emotion AND reason
  • Emotion is a powerful spark for action; rational commitment fuels & sustains  
14. Fighting the counsel of despair
  • Against the Jeremiahs! Our projects do work. Every little does matter!  
15. Inclusiveness; participation; relationship; partnership
  • The beating heart of SCoSL – we all matter and are crucial to our success  
16. Ambition
  • The need is huge. We must grow to better meet it.