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The magazine for Plan UK supporters. Find out how your support is making a difference to Plan's work in 50 of the world's poorest countries.
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world familyThe magazine for Plan UK supporters Spring 2012
the Plan:discover Plan’s heritage and our vision for the futureInside: a special supplement about Plan’s history – yours to keep!
Contact UsIf you have any comments on this edition of World Family, or suggestions for future articles, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact the Editor Giles Morris at: Plan UK, Finsgate, 5-7 Cranwood Street, London EC1V 9LH, telephone 0300 777 9777, or email [email protected]
Photos: Paolo Black for the Young Health Programme, Jane Hahn, Eman Helal, Jenny Matthews, Carey Nash, Alan Olley, Finbarr O’Reilly, Lars Scholtyssyk, AFM Shamsuzzaman, Sander Stoepker
Cover: Girls play together in Andhra Pradesh, India
World Family is printed on recycled paper.Some names have been changed for child protection and privacy reasons.
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News updateFrom challenging female foeticide in India to helping flooded families in Cambodia
Why sponsorship mattersWinning entries to our writing competition – plus a look at how sponsorship has changed over the years
Big steps forward in BoliviaSponsors and children are making a difference in South America’s poorest country
The trauma of warHow Plan is helping families who have fled fighting in Ivory Coast
From a railway line to safetyOne boy’s story from the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh
New beginnings in EgyptChildren and young people are shaping the country’s future
Behind the statisticsThe vital role monitoring and evaluation plays in our work
Part of the familyHow sponsoring a little girl in Peru had an impact on a whole family
NoticeboardWays for you to get more involved
Celebrating children’s rightsHow Day of the African Child is marked in Zambia
Take the vow More and more people are taking action for girls’ rights – including some famous faces
Listening to children’s voicesA field worker from Bangladesh describes her life-changing work
Contents
welcome
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Registered charity no. 276035
Impact
What
Where
to work with the world’s poorest children so they can move themselves from a life of poverty to a future with opportunity
To find out more, goto www.plan-uk.org
50 OF THE WORLD’S POOREST COUNTRIES
CHILD-CENTRED COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
2.4 million children’s lives improved
Message from MarieDid you know you have something in common with Eleanor Roosevelt, the Duchess of Atholl and J B Priestley? Like you, they sponsored a child with Plan
They chose to sponsor because they cared about children they had never met in countries
they had never visited. Like you, they believed that every child should have a chance in life.
That was 75 years ago, during the Spanish Civil War. It was the first modern war targeting civilians, forcing thousands of families to flee.
Born on a battlefield, Plan is still there when disaster strikes. Last year we responded to a sudden influx of refugees from Ivory Coast to Liberia, to floods in Pakistan, to the drought which left families in Ethiopia and Kenya without food for their children.
Over 75 years we have learnt that although natural disasters are inevitable, deaths from disasters are avoidable. Teaching children in flood-affected areas how to swim, how to conduct an evacuation and how to measure water levels are simple measures that save lives. We call this work disaster risk reduction. It is now part of our work with many vulnerable communities around the world.
Over the years we have kept on learning. To change a child’s life, you have to change the world around them, and this needs a long-term commitment to communities backed up by the long-term generosity of sponsors.
And real change can only be achieved by engaging everyone – from children themselves to communities, from local and national government to
the United Nations. It’s working in this way that is making our Because I am a Girl campaign such a success.
When we discussed how to mark our 75th Anniversary, we talked about what you, our supporters, would want us to do. We felt sure you’d want us to do what works best to release children from poverty in the long term. One thing we’ve learned is that investing in girls so they go to school and are able to decide if and when they want a family helps boys too. Educated girls have smaller families and those families tend to be better off.
So starting in our 75th year, we want to help empower four million girls with the skills and support they need to move themselves and their families from poverty to opportunity.
With your continued support during our 75th Anniversary year and beyond, we can do it.
Thank you!
Marie Staunton Chief Executive Plan UK
Born on a battlefield, Plan is still there when disaster strikes
welcome
Children come running down the slope of the massive reservoir. They burst out shouting and laughing with joy when they see that there is still some water in the bottom
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t is the worst flooding I have experienced in more than 20 years,” says 49-year-old
Khim Sokheng, a deputy village chief in the northern Siem Reap province. “It’s been raining so much and makes me very worried.”
Plan was first to help in this remote area of Cambodia, reaching out to over 1,800 families. “Recently, only Plan was helping here and gave out water filters,
water containers, soap and mosquito nets to my villagers,” says Khim.
Flooding in Siem Reap and other provinces bordering Tonle Sap Lake claimed at least 247 lives and displaced some 30,000 families. Having delivered emergency assistance, Plan’s priorities now are getting children back into education, restoring water and sanitation facilities and helping families rebuild their livelihoods.
Devastation in Cambodia This image of a family fleeing their home after last autumn’s flooding in Cambodia is a stark reminder of the devastation flooding can cause in developing countries
Polluted water is a sad fact
of life in much of rural Africa4
Cleaner water for Kenya
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Plan in numbersPlan’s impact worldwide is bigger than you might think. We work in 50 developing countries, with 20 donor countries from Canada to South Korea
Globally, Plan achieved a lot in the year July 2010 to June 2011: • We trained 527,300 people – including
health workers, education workers, farmers, partner organisation staff and community members
• We supported the construction and refurbishing of 1,280 health centres, 1,700 schools and 5,800 water points
• We helped 123,000 households to improve their sanitation
• We supported 77,800 savings and loans schemes, helping women to boost their incomes.
There are currently 1.5 million children enrolled in sponsorship, in a total of 17,700 communities.
the Plan:get regular updates on Plan’s work and how you can get involved, straight to your email inbox
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The water is muddy and thick as porridge, but they rush to fill their
buckets, scooping the filthy water up with tin cans or plastic mugs.
The reason for their happiness is simple. “If we could not get water here, we would have to trek all the way to Nyalani, 30 kilometres away,” explains Emily, a 14-year-old girl. In this pastoral community, girls have always had to fetch the water, however far away.
Emily is well aware how polluted the water is. “Cows, dogs, and wild animals come to drink from here. Once they have had their fill they defecate in the water,”
Her attempts to make her family’s drinking water safer are rudimentary. “When I reach home I will put a handful of ash in the water, stir it well and add a few leaves from the mnazi tree, letting it stand undisturbed until morning. Then I will come and pour off the clean water on the top into a clean pot, leaving all the filth and the sediment at the bottom.”
Plan workers are transporting clean, safe water to communities so children like Emily don’t have to risk their health in this way. And we’re working on improving the supply of clean water in the long term.
Nargis and her parents
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In an event held outside Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh on 31 October, the newborn
girl was given a birth certificate by the local administration.
She has been named Nargis, meaning ‘Narcissus’ in Hindi. Nargis was born a healthy baby and weighed nearly 3 kgs (6lbs 6oz).
“By celebrating the birth of a girl as Baby 7 Billion we are drawing attention to a serious issue,” says Bhagyashri Dengle, Executive Director of Plan India. Hundreds of thousands of female foetuses are being terminated in India every year.
Plan has launched its Let Girls Be Born campaign in six Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh, where the problem of female infanticide is at its worst.
In Uttar Pradesh, Plan partner organisation Vatsalya is working with communities and helping them understand the social consequences of a widening gender gap.
Baby 7 billion In October, Plan celebrated the birth of a girl in India as the world’s symbolic seven-billionth person
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And who better to explain the value of sponsorship than sponsors
themselves? So in the last edition of World Family, we asked you
to crystallise what sponsorship meant to you in just a sentence.
We got many interesting responses and thank you to everyone who
took part. However, there could only be one winner. We asked former
Plan trustee Anne Grant to be the final arbiter. Here are her thoughts:
“The invitation in World Family asked supporters to sum up why
sponsorship matters in just a few words and told them the three most
inspiring and insightful answers would win the prizes. Using these
criteria, I find the winner is:
“I am glad I was asked to pick three because others are almost as good. Here are my other two choices:
I sponsor a child with Plan because their life is tough and mine is easy; we are all part of the same world family – Kate Mackay of Tyne and Wear
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Yet sponsorship has altered greatly since Plan first appealed for sponsors for the orphaned children cared for in “colonies” – communal homes in the little Catalonian town of Puigcerda.
Plan no longer runs “colonies”. We learned from our work with child psychologist Anna Freud that children thrive best when they stay with their family and community where possible.
Benefiting whole communitiesThat’s not all that’s changed. In the early days, sponsors’ contributions went directly to the upkeep of those individual children, and sponsors sent gifts such as clothes,
Plan was born in 1937, out of the terror and trauma of the Spanish Civil War. Seventy-five years later, the world has changed, and so has Plan. But one thing remains constant: the importance of sponsorship
Sponsoring through the yearsSponsoring through the yearsSponsoring through the years
I sponsor a child with Plan to give a child some of the hope I was given in my own childhood – B Price of Swansea
I sponsor a child with Plan because it enriches their life and mine, bringing us both hope for a better world now – Janice Seabourne of Staines
For 75 years, child sponsorship has been at the heart of Plan’s work to improve the lives of children. But sponsoring a child is not just a way of giving money to a valuable cause. It can also create an intensely personal bond
A nursery class at one of the colonies in the UK
“These three are all powerful, simple statements of what matters. I congratulate the supporters on coming up with such inspiring thoughts and I hope they had fun too while doing so!”
Why sponsorship matters
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the Plan:tell your friendsThousands of children in the world’s poorest countries still need sponsors, so why not talk to your friends, family, colleagues and neighbours about the work that Plan does and the reasons you sponsor a child? You can use the leaflet included with this magazine.
Congratulations to Janice Seabourne who has won this stylish stationery, donated by Portico Designs
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toys and shoes. Now sponsor’s contributions are channelled to long-term work in the country where the sponsored child lives. That way, we can improve the lives of all children in a community and ensure changes are supported by everyone.
We have also learned the importance of investing in girls. Giving them more opportunities will help improve life for their children and therefore for the long-term future of their communities. This will help break the cycle of poverty handed down from one generation to the next.
Children firstHowever, some things remain very much the same as they were 75 years ago. For example, children’s councils were formed in the early days of the Spanish colonies, to make sure their needs and aspirations were heard. And in our work with communities today, we try to bring children’s voices to the forefront of discussions on what needs to change.
Children also continue to tell us how much they appreciate the personal
connection with a sponsor. Decades ago, the bond was forged primarily through letters; nowadays you can also do it online at www.plan-uk.org/postbox
Inspiring children“When I was very young I was living a hard life,” says ex-sponsored child Carlos Aparicio from Colombia, “but my sponsor was showing me a different world and helped me to dream – to dream of a better life for me, a better life for my family, a better life for my society.” Carlos went on to do an MBA and is now works as a higher education consultant.
One final similarity is the difference a sponsor’s contribution can make. One early piece of Plan fundraising from the United States appealed for twenty-five cents a day – the cost of “a dry martini” or “a shoe shine”!
Times may have changed a little, but as one sponsor put it to us recently, for the price of a bottle of wine a week, they are improving a child’s life overseas – and what else can you buy with that amount of money that will do so much good?
Why sponsorship matters
Big steps forward in Bolivia
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Celia captured against the windswept landscape of the Ancoraimes
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Big steps forward in Bolivia
’m so glad you have water and go to school. I hope you’ll write and tell me more.” These are words sent to
a sponsored child called Celia from Ancoraimes, a remote area of western Bolivia on the shores of Lake Titicaca.
Now 35, Celia has kept the letter. Clearly, her sponsor’s words mean a lot to her, as did the Plan projects her sponsor helped to fund. During her childhood, her community had a safe water supply installed. And she and her friends were able to finish school and go on to find better opportunities.
A link to the wider world“The Plan worker would bring us letters. My mum didn’t know how to read or write so she’d tell me to read them out loud. My mum thought of our sponsor as another member of our family. Whenever the letters came, I would get so excited and sit down and write a letter back.”
Celia went to university in La Paz to study agricultural engineering and became a local development facilitator for Plan. Now she has come full circle. As a Plan worker, she travels to visit the community she grew up in as part of her work. She even visits her old school, which is much improved since her day, with new buildings, new books and higher standards.
A tough start in life Plan workers like Celia visit many children who, like her, come from difficult backgrounds. With Plan’s encouragement, they are determined to improve things.“My mother abandoned me when I was just one month old, so I never knew her except from photos,” says Juan Marco. “My dad says that my sister brought me up until I was
five and then I came here to live with an aunt who looks after me now.”
Juan Marco goes to school in the morning and goes home at lunchtime. He spends the rest of the day looking after the family’s farm animals. Yet he manages to combine this work with the life of a budding young activist: Juan Marco is the child representative for La Paz at the Plan-backed Children and Adolescents’ Parliament.
A culture of democracyBolivia has a long and troubled history of political upheaval and military rule. So a big part of Plan’s work there is to instil an idea of democratic government and accountability. And children, we find, are very receptive.
“I’ve been watching how children become aware of what it means to be a leader in their schools or communities,” says Nestor Mayta, a teacher at Belen Pitula School. “In the future they can work to help our country develop.”
Juvental, who represents working children in Chuquisaca, is another Plan-backed child representative. Juvental shines shoes in the morning, then comes home, does his homework and goes to school from 4pm till 8pm.
As a deputy at the children’s parliament, he’s keen to improve the roads in Bolivia. “When people get ill in the villages they have to come to the city to get better,” he explains, “and they have to travel on roads full of holes.”
Making an impressionAdults in Bolivia are beginning to sit up and take notice of the views of child deputies like Juvental. “This year the Fifth National Congress of the Children and Adolescents’ Parliament has taken an important step forward,” says Shirley Estevez, Plan’s director of communications in Bolivia.
“Two adult deputies committed their support and participation at the municipality meeting where children from La Paz spent the day talking about their experiences. Now the foundations have been laid to have the Children and Adolescents’ Parliament officially recognised.”
Below you can watch a film made by Plan Bolivia about Celia, Juan Marco, Juvental and other children like them.s
news and features
Plan has been in Bolivia since 1969 and our work ranges widely, from improving water supply to challenging the political culture. Children – with sponsors’ support – are leading the changes
Bolivia facts: The landlocked country of Bolivia is one of South America’s poorest nations. Two-thirds of the population are from an indigenous background. Bolivia has a long history of political unrest and military rule, but the current president is the democratically elected Evo Morales. Plan has been active in Bolivia for 43 years and works in 1,100 communities.
l Capital: La Paz
l Population: 10 million
l Languages: 36 indigenous languages are recognised as official, as is Spanish
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The trauma of war
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news and features
Early in the morning in Solo refugee camp in eastern Liberia, a teenage girl stands against a rubber tree,
arms clamped around her belly. Setiche’s voice is calm but her eyes are always on the horizon.
“We heard people screaming and could smell houses burning,” she says, remembering the day rebels appeared in her village of Bilique, in the west of Ivory Coast. “I was in school. The rebels were firing guns. Our teacher told us to run.”
Setiche doesn’t know anyone in the refugee camp, a sea of white tents just put up for people who have fled Ivory Coast. The only clothes she has are those she was wearing when she fled her village. “I ran into the forest and stayed there for four days, hiding. I moved by night so the rebels wouldn’t find me.”
It took her a week to reach the relative safety of Liberia. She is desperate to leave the camp, but has no way of getting home. “I don’t know if my family is alive. I need someone to help me find them.”
Creating normalityIn Zleh, a rural hamlet about 20 miles from Solo camp, Ivorians have started to create normality in their children’s lives. Helped by Plan, basic schooling is being provided. Ivorians speak French while Liberians speak English, so Plan has trained French-speaking teachers and provided French textbooks, and the lessons take place in classrooms after the Liberian children have finished for the day.
Plan has also set up 11 nursery centres in the wider area of Nimba and Grand Gedeh, trained 115 caregivers and helped almost 3,000 children under the age of five to learn and play with some semblance of normality.
But the refugee situation is still a massive problem. It’s estimated that there are 170,000 Ivorian refugees currently in Liberia. Many of the children are traumatised – they have seen their homes
burnt and members of their families raped or killed, before making the journey through the jungle to Liberia.
Oliver, 13, was shot in the foot when rebels stormed into his house, looking for his father. “I don’t know why they wanted my father. They didn’t ask him anything. They just took out their guns and fired into his head.”
Deeply troubledThe children who have arrived unaccompanied are especially vulnerable, and some could be exploited sexually, or by being dragged into further conflict as child soldiers. “Many of these children are deeply troubled by what they have gone through,” says Mohamed Bah, Country Director of Plan Liberia. “Some have nightmares, others show signs of agitation and extreme emotion.”
Child psychologist Paul Doykevee works for Plan in the camps along the border. He believes there are many challenges for children who’ve experienced war trauma. “They are sometimes unable to concentrate. It is difficult for them. Some express themselves through violent gestures, or by becoming very frustrated. Others – who may have lost contact with family and friends – may simply become withdrawn and silent.
Different forms of therapy“It all depends on the individual child. We try to offer support in different ways – by keeping children busy in school and also setting up recreational activities for children outside of school hours to keep them as occupied as possible.
“Since some of the children have no way of describing what they have gone through, we have been getting them to draw their experiences, using art therapy. Counselling is also helping them to come to terms with events they have gone through.”
It’s important to do this work when children are relatively young, because traumatised children are particularly vulnerable to being recruited as child soldiers, perpetuating the cycle of war.
What’s happening in Ivory Coast?Once a stable and rapidly developing nation, the last decade has seen Ivory Coast descend into strife and civil war
October 2010 saw elections to end the deadlock, but the incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to concede to the internationally recognised winner, Alassane Ouattara. After intense fighting, Ouattara’s forces finally overran the south of the country, capturing Gbagbo, who has recently been transferred to The Hague to stand trial for crimes against humanity.
At the time of writing, Ivory Coast seems to be moving towards greater stability, but many refugees who have lost loved ones and livelihoods and fear reprisals are unlikely to return.
Plan was founded in 1937 in response to the terrible human cost of the Spanish Civil War. We continue to work with victims of modern civil wars, such as the recent conflict in Ivory Coast Award-winning journalist Angela Robson reports
“Many of these children are deeply troubled by what they have gone through”
This is a redacted version of an article originally published in Le Monde diplomatique. Additional reporting by Giles Morris
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From a railway line to safetyJafur, 13, ran away from his abusive
family just before his tenth birthday. But it wasn’t much of an escape
He spent the next year living on the teeming streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh and often used to sleep at the railway station, just like the child pictured below.
While on the street Jafur was approached by a volunteer who told him about the nearest Plan-funded drop-in centre.
At first Jafur was sceptical, but one day he decided to go. He was amazed to see children there playing happily so he decided to stay the night.
Slowly Jafur began to spend more and more time at the centre. Jafur is one of 2,600 children Plan is now helping through a network of 13 drop-in centres in Dhaka. The centres provide a safe place to play and stay the night, and children can also get basic health advice and take part in literacy and maths classes.
Thank you!A very sincere thank you to everyone who gave to our Forgotten Children appeal last year, raising a fantastic £140,000. If you’d like to, you can still make a donation online at www.plan-uk.org/forgottenchildren by calling 0800 526 848 or by sending a cheque marked “Forgotten Children” to FREEPOST PLAN
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From a railway line to safety
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Thousands of young people were at the forefront of street protests which eventually toppled Egypt’s dictatorial president Hosni Mubarak. Now they are the key to the country’s future
Egypt is still in a state of tremendous flux. But Plan is committed to helping children and young people shape
the country’s future wherever possible. So Plan is supporting young people
to make the most of the new situation, encouraging them to take part in media, employment training and savings and loans schemes that are changing Egypt for the better.
Hear us outFor example, since 2008 we have been supporting young people to produce Esma3oona, a youth-focussed TV programme. Esma3oona (which roughly translates ‘Hear us out’) tackles issues that matter to children, from early marriage to child labour. Young people work on the show, coming up with themes and ideas, writing scripts, filming, conducting interviews and co-presenting with an adult.
Many young people feel the revolution gave voice to concerns first aired by Esma3oona. “We were tackling issues that no one else was,” says Samiar, a keen youth broadcaster who is just 14.
“When I heard that the revolution had taken place, I thought we had been talking about issues in our lives like unemployment and the corrupt regime. But now I feel they were Egypt’s issues – not just those in our community.”
Having an impactTwenty-one-year-old Mohammed has also presented on Esma3oona. He agrees on the programme’s impact: “The programme on violence in schools led to a meeting with a headteacher of a school to try and solve the problem. It made them re-think [young people’s] value in the community.”
“I am more optimistic about the future,” says Mohammed, “but I still have concerns. With power comes responsibility, and I worry there is too much weight upon the shoulders of the youth.”
Putting poverty out of a jobIt’s certainly true that major challenges remain. Youth unemployment – which helped to spark the revolution – remains stubbornly high in the new Egypt.
Currently about 28 percent of fifteen to 24-year-olds are out of work. Many young people move to cities like Cairo and Alexandria in search of work but end up disappointed. Even those who have benefitted from schooling find the educational system has not equipped them with the job skills they need.
“The employment situation is difficult nowadays,” says Ali, 21. “Often, the opportunities are not real jobs. Many telecommunication firms will only employ people for six months at a time, for example. And finding work is difficult for my generation.”
Ali is fortunate in taking part on a Plan-backed youth employability programme. Courses are offered in nursing and healthcare, customer relations, and sales and hospitality. All have components of English and IT.
An expanding reachSo far, more than 600 young people have graduated, with 70 percent of them going on to find permanent jobs. The programme is operational at four centres in Cairo and Alexandria and we hope to expand it to 15 more.
The ethos of the programme stresses personal responsibility. Students must be punctual and committed, and there’s a “three strikes and you’re out” rule to ensure commitment and good behaviour.
Dina, 21, is studying Hospitality. “It’s difficult to find a job at the moment,” she says, but she remains hopeful.
New beginnings in Egypt
Ex-Esma3oona presenter Mohammed
A child from Nazlet El Ashtar carries a savings and loans group cashbox
“Esma3oona – TV for Egypt’s youth
Plan-backed job skills training in Cairo
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news and featuresNew beginnings in Egypt
For more information on Banking on Change, please visit www.barclays.com/bankingonchange
“My mind’s on my studies and I’m sure I’ll find a job. I’d ideally like to be a journalist eventually, but I have to be realistic right now. I’ll do my best if a good job comes up.”
Increasing opportunityIt doesn’t stop at jobs skills training. The young people of today could be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, creating Egypt’s future economic growth. Plan’s Banking on Change partnership with CARE and Barclays is setting up 1,700 savings and loans groups over three years, providing basic financial services to 30,000 people. The emphasis is on helping women and young people first and foremost.
The groups will comply with national standards and links will be established between the groups and Barclays or the Postal Savings Service. This is really important, because as small businesses grow, they often find it difficult to get the larger loans they need from banks and other providers.
Banking on Change is just one part of Plan’s work to help young people to shape the new Egypt. Whatever the challenges the future holds, a certain optimism is palpable: “For sure, I feel it is better,” says Mohammed. “There is hope for the country. It will be a better Egypt and change for the better, I’m sure.”
Plan-backed job skills training in Cairo
Dina is studying hospitality in Cairo Registered charity no. 276035
To enable young people to improve their incomes and reform their society
Impact
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Find out more at www.plan-uk.org/egypt
EGYPT
YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
A better, stronger, more equal society
to enable young people toimprove their incomes andreform their society
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Behind the statistics
education. Often, mothers and fathers feel it’s a waste of money to educate a girl who, in their opinion, will fall pregnant young and leave the household when they marry.
A solid base for progressTheresa’s story is a common one, but you may not realise that from official statistics, which show that almost three-quarters of girls who go to primary school make the transition to secondary education.
That looks positive on the surface, but it ignores the girls who drop out at some point before or after the transition, or don’t go to school at all. In some rural communities in Malawi, it is estimated that less than five percent of girls who enrol in Year 1 actually complete primary school.
This just shows how crucial it is for Plan to have good monitoring and evaluation, not just to check whether the strategy is working, but to get a better picture of the specific issues Plan is trying to address.
Nowhere is this more important than for Plan’s Building Skills for Life programme, which aims to help adolescent girls to get an education, look after themselves, earn their own living and have the information to make the right decisions in their lives.
Malawi, along with Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Mali, Rwanda, Cambodia, Pakistan and El Salvador, are involved in the biggest project within Building Skills for Life. Plan’s first step in each country has been to carry out an assessment of the current situation to
identify where to start: what is called a ‘baseline study’. This may sound dry and technical, but it’s a vital first step.
Identifying the areas of need means Plan can identify ways to improve young people’s quality of life: improvements that will last.
Involving everyonePlan tries to involve the whole community – by knocking on doors, carrying out surveys and meeting with village leaders to see how people are responding. Plan also worked with groups to create maps of their communities, which help to identify vulnerable households, or institutions like schools and child protection committees. Very often in rural communities, there’s a lack of good quality research. Monitoring and evaluation helps to increase the skills and awareness of our local staff. Promoting accountability can also engage children with what’s happening in their communities.
Over the next three years Plan will return to the same communities and carry out new research to see how the work has helped bring about change.
Girls like Theresa have the right to achieve their full potential, and these baseline studies are the first step to enabling girls to look forward to a brighter future.
Theresa sits down quietly. Her hands nervously smooth her skirt in her lap as she begins to tell her story.
She is 15 years old and the third of five siblings. She has lived all her life in a remote rural community near Kasungu, in Malawi’s Central Region. The area is poor and households usually scratch out a living from subsistence agriculture or by doing piecework on nearby tobacco farms.
Top of the class?Theresa attended the local primary school and was a keen learner, always coming in the top five children in her class. After completing primary school she hoped to continue her education, but her father chose to send her elder brother to secondary school instead. Desperate to continue attending school, she approached her mother for support, who gave her permission to enter Year 1.
“I completed one year of secondary school, but when the exams started the teachers said I had to pay my school fees before I could [sit] them.”
The school fees were about £20 per year. Her father was angry when he discovered she had attended school against his wishes and refused to pay the outstanding amount. Her father was adamant she would not continue going to secondary school despite her good performance and obvious enthusiasm for learning.
Written off“My father thinks it is a waste of money to send girls to school. He will not pay the school fees,” says Theresa. Now she remains at home helping her mother with household chores and looking after her young siblings.
Theresa is not alone. Resources in rural Malawi are terribly scarce, and parents routinely under-invest in their daughters’
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news and featuresBehind the statisticsThe right monitoring and evaluation is crucial to making long-term improvements – as Penny Ward and Kiran Flynn explain
Plan aims to help teenage girls get an education, look after themselves, earn their own living and have the information to make the right decisions in their lives
Suggestion boxes are one way to keep schools responsive to children’s needs
Women map out vulnerable households in their community, helping us to focus and monitor our work
When Judith Watkins from Sheffield first picked up a Plan leaflet, little did she think that sponsoring Marilu in Peru would make such an impact on her own family
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When I started sponsoring, my seven-year-old son could send drawings to Marilu and he looked
forward to receiving paintings from her which gave an insight into a different way of living.
A window on the worldFor the older children, Marilu provided an introduction to basic geography, as they rushed to see where on the globe Marilu actually came from. It opened their eyes to their privileged upbringing as, to their horror, they learnt that there was no toilet in Marilu’s house, and that water didn’t come out of the tap, as it did at home, but had to be delivered daily by a lorry.
We would receive regular letters and updates about Marilu’s progress and the children could go to school and boast about how well their ‘sister’ was doing, how her favourite subject was art and
how, just like the rest of our family, she hated maths.
As my children entered their teenage years, they were always eager to learn of her news. She was the reason for them choosing Spanish at school and provided a good incentive to keep learning.
Brushing up on SpanishLeaving Marilu’s letters and a bilingual dictionary on the table was a far more meaningful way of improving their Spanish than any amount of teacher-given homework. The final ‘carrot’ was, of course, the possibility of a trip to Peru to visit Marilu once their A-levels were finally in the bag.
Receiving news of Marilu and her community also helped broaden their world outlook and temper their youthful self-centredness. They learned how the projects Plan was involved in were having an effect. Family toilets in each house
gradually replaced the public ones and basic hygiene and nutritional training meant that Marilu no longer needed so many trips to the health centre.
Contrasting livesWhen Plan ran a campaign championing girls’ rights, it was the first time my daughter really became aware that the life she takes for granted in the UK is not a reality for many around the world. Learning that Marilu’s father was working in ‘recycling’ (trawling rubbish tips for saleable items)
Part of the family
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Learning that Marilu’s father was working in ‘recycling’ (trawling rubbish tips for saleable items) made my sons appreciate that the weekly paper round was not the hardest job in life
Clockwise: Peruvian children, excited to see a visitor. Judith Watkins at Machu Picchu, on her way to meet Marilu. Marilu in a picture sent to Judith by Plan.
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Registered charity no. 276035
visit your sponsored child
Impact
What
Where
To find out more contact Rachel Thomas on 0300 777 9777 or [email protected]
ACROSS THE WORLD
SPONSOR VISIT
To see for yourself the di�erence sponsorship is making
made my sons appreciate that the weekly paper round was not, in fact, the hardest job in life.
As for Marilu’s impact on my life – it was like being a godmother, cooing appreciatively over the ‘she’s grown so much’ annual photo. It was also like being an armchair traveller, learning about a fascinating new culture from the comfort of home.
Meeting in personThen, one day, nine years after Marilu came into our lives, I realised that A-level Spanish was looming, and that the time had come to meet Marilu in person. So, it was finally decided that I, along with my daughter, would head off to Peru.Meeting Marilu was one of the most nerve-wracking moments of my life. For nine years I had viewed her as a part of my family, but would my feelings be reciprocated? Would she, or I, feel let down? As the Plan car drew up besides
a simple wooden building, vaguely familiar from those childish drawings, I hoped desperately that neither side would be disappointed. Breaking the iceThen the door opened and Marilu peered shyly up at us from the protective arms of her parents. Instantly, as recognition dawned, my fears disappeared and I ran forward to greet her in my atrocious schoolgirl Spanish. My hilarious accent broke the tension and before long we were inside, feeling as if we had known the family for years (which in a way, of course, we had).
With the help of Plan’s interpreter and my daughter’s A-level Spanish, we learnt what difference our sponsorship had made to life in the community and to Marilu’s family themselves. Their gratitude was humbling and, for our part, we told them how being sponsors had made such a positive impact on our lives.
To find out more contact Jennifer Gwynn on 0300 777 9777 or email [email protected]
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A voice for youthPlan’s Youth Advisory Panel is looking for new members, explains member Simone Webber, 16
“Plan’s Youth Advisory Panel is a group of 14 young people from across the UK, representing the voice of youth in Plan’s work.
“Each year, we make youth-friendly versions of Plan’s Because I am a Girl report and support Plan campaigns. We now also have a place on the Plan UK board of trustees.
“We recruit for new members each year and we are currently looking for passionate, enthused young people aged 13 to 16! You don’t need experience, just an interest in making a difference in the world.”
Contact Magdalene Thomas on [email protected] or 0300 777 9777 if you’re interested!
Simone Webber, student and Youth Advisory Panel member
Girls’ schools campaign and fundraiseThe Girls’ Schools Association is now supporting our Because I am a Girl campaign, enabling pupils to find out more about the developing world, as well as fundraise and campaign for girls’ education
Some schools have already been fundraising for girls’ education projects. South Hampstead High School organised a fantastic sponsored walk from their school to Downing Street to deliver 600 signatures (see below). They’ve raised over £38,000.
Other schools are busy planning fashion shows, clothes swaps and Girls Nights In.
Dr Helen Wright, president of the Girls’ School Association, recently went to Bangladesh to see the work Plan is doing to help end early and forced marriage.
If you’re a pupil, teacher or parent and would like to get your school involved in fundraising and campaigning, please contact Kevin Machin on 0300 777 9777 or [email protected]
Looking for a speaker? Are you a member of a church group, school, Women’s Institute group, rotary club or similar? Would you like a volunteer Plan Speaker to give a FREE talk about our work?
Find out more from Jennifer Gwynn on 0300 777 9777 or email [email protected]
Malvern Spring show10 to 13 May Malvern Showground, Worcs
Hertford Hertfordshire County Show2 to 3 JuneThe Showground, Redbourn, Herts
Gardeners’ World Live13 to 17 JuneNEC, Birmingham
Bristol International Balloon Fiesta9 to 12 AugustAshton Court, Bristol
Malvern Show24 to 25 SeptemberMalvern Showground, Worcs
NoticeboardChild Sponsorship
Plan’s workOn the road againThe roadshow aims to introduce more people to child sponsorship and raise awareness of Plan’s work. If you’re able to come (and hopefully bring friends!), we’d love to see you there
A roadshow in action
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When I visited, over 500 students had gathered at the school in the
very remote community of Chamuka to celebrate Day of the African Child. There was a speech by the headmaster Austin, explaining the history and relevance of the day. Then there was drama. Members of the school’s children’s rights club enacted a story of the dangers faced by children who are orphaned. As well as being intensely traumatic, losing parents can leave poor African children very vulnerable.
They can end up living with relatives, bullied by members of the extended family, pulled out of school, forced into doing domestic labour and eventually running away to the streets.
Another short sketch told the story of a girl pressured into an early marriage.
Captured on filmThis short film is about Day of the African Child.
Day of the African Child is celebrated across Africa on 16 June each year. It’s a great way for children to raise important issues in a fun and compelling way. Plan UK fundraiser Justin Wylie reports from rural Zambia
Her friend intervened, telling her teachers and the authorities, and eventually helping her avoid the marriage and stay in school.
Rapping about rights Then groups of students performed raps about their rights as children: they covered the right to an education, the right not to be beaten or sexually abused by family and community members, the right not to be forced into marriage too young and against their will.
After the rap, there were debates. Small teams from different schools competed against each other debating issues around children’s rights, the causes of street children and so on. The day wound down with traditional dancing
Drama at Day of the African Child
A day for children
What is Day of the African Child?Founded in 1991, Day of the African Child commemorates a protest by thousands of black children in Soweto, South Africa in 1976. The day is a chance to campaign for children’s rights and an opportunity for joyful celebration across Africa. If you sponsor a child in Africa, look out for updates from Plan about ways you can get in touch.
and football matches between the schools, as well as other sports.
Throughout it all, the students and teachers watched, soaking up the messages and enjoying themselves. Every child was given a Day of the African Child card with words of hope and goodwill from Plan UK and our supporters.
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Ten million girls will be married either too young, or against their will this year – and some are betrothed as young as five years old. This can end their chance of going to school and shorten their lives by leaving them more vulnerable to violence, HIV and death in childbirth.
Almost 7,000 people have joined our call for an end to early and forced marriage, including high-profile figures from the media and the arts. Together we are pressing Government minister Lynn Featherstone to take stronger action to stamp out early and forced marriage for good
Take the
Registered charity no. 276035
take the vow so girls around the world can say no to early and forced marriage
Impact
What
Where
Go to www.plan-uk.org/vow
THE WORLD’S POOREST COUNTRIES
ENDING EARLY AND FORCED MARRIAGE
Millions more girls going to school instead of up the aisle
With two daughters of my own, I can’t imagine such young girls getting married before they’ve had the chance to grow up. I’ve signed up to Plan’s Take the Vow campaign because young girls should be in school, not becoming wives and mothers before they’re ready and against their will – Larry Lamb, actor
I think education is vital in life and should not depend on your gender, so the Because I am a Girl campaign’s work against early and forced marriage and ensuring girls get a good education instead, is truly fantastic. I urge everyone to take the vow – Angie Greaves, Magic FM presenter
Girls deserve the same opportunities as boys, wherever they are. It makes me so sad to hear millions of girls are being forced to marry at a young age. Child marriage is wrong. Plan’s work to end this practice is urgent and necessary. Please support the petition – Monica Ali, novelist
Education is the ticket to women’s freedom. There’s a saying which goes: educate a woman and you educate a family. I strongly believe this. A woman has the right to be as well-educated as possible and to pursue her education for as long as she wants – Dr Miriam Stoppard, broadcaster
Young girls should be walking to school, not up the aisle. With education comes opportunity and choice. Once a child starts to learn about the wider world beyond their direct experiences, it opens up the door to many different options to live one’s life – Joanne Froggatt, star of Downton Abbey
manage our work in the community and make sure sponsorship runs
smoothly”, she explains. “We have many things happening here. We work with local partner organisations on some issues and on others we work directly with the community.”
The impact of sponsorshipDespite the breadth of the work, Rahima still sees the biggest results interacting with children. “When I go to record their updates and take photos, I see the children and their community are really benefitting from Plan’s work, and ultimately, from the money given by sponsors.”
Rahima is emphatic about the value of sponsorship. “If we didn’t have sponsorship,” she says, “we couldn’t do work like promoting education and stopping problems like child marriage.
Working together“On a typical day I start work at nine o’clock,” says Rahima, who has worked for Plan for 11 years. “Some days I meet with partners to discuss new ways we can help the community together. At other times I meet with children’s groups and community
Listening to children’s voices
groups. Some days I do training with people in the local area to help them build their skills.”
“The village of Laxmipura has declared itself child marriage free,” says Rahima proudly. “That will make a big difference to the lives of girls in that area. The community work required to build up to that breakthrough was financed through sponsorship.”
Involving childrenThat work was done by parents, teachers, district commissioners and the girls themselves. It involved community theatre, petitions and public meetings, all with the aim of making sure girls go to school rather than getting married.
“I’m really proud of that,” Rahima smiles. “I’m also very proud of the outcome of our health and education projects. I think it’s wonderful that our village development committees also include children. It’s important to listen to their voices.”
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field worker profile
“What I like best about my job is being involved in sponsorship, because you see the children changing,” says Rahima Khatun, 44, Plan’s area co-ordinator in the Gazipur Union area of Bangladesh
Plan is working to keep girls in school
Bangladesh facts: l Capital: Dhaka
l Population: 164 million
l Languages: Bangla, English, some tribal languages
l One child in twenty will die before reaching their fifth birthday
l Just 53% of girls go to secondary school
l 46% of girls aged 15 – 19 are married or in a similar union
“The village of Laxmipura has declared itself child marriage free. That will make a big difference to the lives of girls in that area”
Rahima
“I
It’s always been about the childrenAnd with your help, it always will be Esme Odgers, pictured above in 1938, is one of Plan’s original founders. She was one of the first people to come to the aid of children, like we still do today. During the Spanish Civil War she braved chaos and death to help move 200 orphaned children out of Catalonia to the safety of the Pyrenees. And she pioneered the idea of letters between children and their sponsors, using a battered typewriter to help the children write to their sponsors in England – and seeing their delight when letters came back in return.
Like Esme, you have seen how sponsorship changes children’s lives. And you’ve shared in the delight of helping children, families and entire communities move themselves from a life of poverty to a life of opportunity. But there is still so much more to do. So please, in our 75th year, look to the future with us.
When you make your will, remember PlanIncluding a gift to Plan in your will adds something very special to your sponsorship and the support you’re giving children now: a promise that more children will have a chance in the future. If you wish, you can dedicate your gift to help children in any country where Plan works or to a particular issue you feel passionate about, for example girls’ education.
To find out more, just go to www.plan.org.uk/legacy or call Sophia Stylianou on 020 3217 0215 today.
Because it’s always been about the children. And always will be
Registered charity no. 27603
