Our Story

Student Activist Support Centre (SASC), strives to empower student activists in ensuring their own security, rather than fostering a reliance on external actors and emergency interventions. SASC has evolved and grown significantly over the years, starting from just a few inspired activists with a vision, to now a global organisation of nearly 100 staff.

SASC was formally established in 2024 through a congress resolution by the Southern Africa Students Union (SASU), which  decided to form a new organisation that focused on the preventive and collective approaches to student activist protection.

Working in partnership with local civil society groups, we have supported students, student unions, networks and communities facing threats, judicial harassment, stigmatisation or other forms of repression in order to best mitigate risks. SASC’s participatory model of intervention is continually evolving in accordance with the changing socio-political contexts in which human rights defenders are situated.   Now, we are going through a decentralisation process to create country hubs that are able to make context-oriented strategic decisions for their teams.

Overall, within the last year, SASC contributed to the implementation of tools and strategies for the protection of Student Activists, by:

  • piloting new methodologies, including by drafting the first manual on the protection of student activists;
  • supporting student activists in developing their own security and protection strategies from and for their territories;
  • exploring innovative approaches for the self-protection of student unions and organisation ;
  • monitoring and advocating for public policies initiatives for the protection of student activists in Southern Africa; and
  • contributing to the recognition of student as human rights defenders,  actors of positive social change.
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