Climbing to the top

Towering above the Andes Mountains, Mount Aconcagua sits nearly 23,000 ft. tall - the highest peak outside of the Himalayas. To us, it’s a geographic landmark. To Al Hansen, it was a challenge.

Earlier this year, Al began his journey to climb Mt. Aconcagua with a 50 pound pack filled with food, fuel, climbing gear and a tent. For 15 days, Al endured one of the most physically and mentally exhausting trips he had ever experienced, acclimatizing to the high altitude and harsh conditions.

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Learn Without Fear cartoon

What would you do if you witnessed violence?

This unique animation was developed with the help of children living in communities where Plan works. It makes the viewer think about what they would do when faced with a school violence incident.

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Adjoa: Life as a Vidomegon

A vidomegon is a child, often a girl, who is sent to live the life of a servant for a wealthier family. Very often, these children have no choice in the matter. Adjoa is a vidomegon, and this is her story...

My name’s Adjoa. When Plan’s envoy asked me to tell my story, I almost refused. I was afraid because usually, people don’t notice me. But he explained, so kindly, that my story could help many other girls without voices who had similar living conditions. That was when I agreed to talk about my life.

For a long time, I was clueless and sad. But now, I’m frightened. I’m afraid for my future and what will happen when the little being that will call me ‘mother’ arrives. I’m pregnant and this should be good news. I should be joyful with hope in my heart. Instead, I am afraid, because, after all, I’m only 14 years old. Oh, excuse me; I’m starting this story from the ending...

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6 things keeping girls out of school and what Plan is doing about it

66 million girls around the world are not in school. Of that, 39 million are between the ages of 11 and 15.

Without education, girls are more likely to marry young, have children early, and spend their life in poverty. Yet, when girls are given the opportunity to receive an education, they are more likely to improve their own lives and those of their families, helping to break the cycle of poverty.

So what’s the problem? Find out what’s keeping girls out of school and what Plan is doing to help.

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Syria Crisis Appeal

Children and families affected by the conflict in Syria are in dire need of help. There has been a dramatic deterioration in the crisis since the beginning of the year -– and the catastrophe is escalating every day.

There are an estimated three million people displaced in total and the number of refugees crossing the border from Syria into neighbouring countries has doubled -– to one million -– over the past three months.

Right now, hundreds of thousands of children need food, blankets, medicines, safe drinking water and psychological support. Just as importantly for their longer term development they also need the chance to live, play and learn safely -– and to enjoy the semblance of a normal childhood, even in a crisis like this.

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Learn Without Fear: Bullying

Bullying is common across the world. Surveys found that between one fifth (China) and two-thirds (Zambia) of children reported being verbally or physically bullied within 30 days of being questioned.

Boys are more likely than girls to be both victims and perpetrators of bullying. They are also more likely to use physical intimidation and violence, while girls tend towards verbal and social bullying.

Although the problem is widespread, only 5 of the 66 countries examined in Plan's research - Korea, Norway, Sri Lanka, the UK and the US - have laws prohibiting bullying in schools.

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Plan Provides Educational Toolkits to Pre-School Teachers in Sri Lanka

Hemawathie Manike, a pre-school teacher with 13 years of teaching experience, might be forgiven for thinking that she’s seen everything when it comes to Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD). Manike earned her diploma in ECCD at a teacher training center in Sri Lanka’s western Kurunegala district and promptly created the Dimuthu Early Childhood Development Center.

In the beginning, she worked with the most minimal facilities and had only one assistant. Now she registers between 35 and 45 children at her ECCD Center each year. She accepts that her formal training lacks the techniques that are necessary in identifying the different stages of child development, or delayed development in children.

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Child marriage is too big a problem to ignore

How long has it taken you to read these words? A few seconds, most likely. A moment in your day. Yet in that moment, another girl under the age of 18 has been married. She's had to drop out of school and focus on housework and on trying to get pregnant, long before her mind and body are ready.

This is the story of 10 million girls around the world who are married before they are 18. Regionally, South Asia has the highest percentage of child marriage in the world. In Bangladesh, India and Nepal, more than half of all women aged 20–24 are married before they are 18; many are younger than 15. Rarely do these girls give their free and full consent and yet they’re expected to grow up within the constraints of traditional gender roles, playing the part of little women with big responsibilities.

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Ensuring disasters don't hold children back

The developmental damage that young children can experience without support during emergencies may never be fully reversed. Young children are vulnerable to multiple risks in disasters – and many will suffer the consequences for the rest of their lives.

When disasters strike, children can be separated from their family, lose their support structures, and suffer abuse and neglect. They may not get sufficient  nutrition, health and learning opportunities.

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World water day: Plan is helping communities meet their needs

On World Water Day 2013, 783 million people in the world do not have access to clean water – representing roughly one in ten of the world’s population. Around 700,000 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. That's almost 2,000 children a day.

Plan is playing its part in helping families around the world to ensure this basic need is met. Last year we supported over 400,000 families to improve their sanitation facilities and provided over 3,500 new or upgraded water points or community water systems. Much of this work was carried out in Africa.

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Water, water - but it's not everywhere...

Plan's International Media Officer Jane Labous writes about the importance of World Water Day.

Last time I was in Dakar, Senegal, my apartment only had cold water. When I first arrived, I considered this a hardship, and I’d diligently warm a pan of water on the stove every morning for my shower. Transferring the pan to a bucket, I quickly learnt the local technique of scooping the hot water over myself with a stripy plastic kettle (they’re always stripy, always plastic...). Suddenly hot water was a luxury, not a given, and suddenly that handkerchief-sized splash of hot water felt as good as a power shower.

After a few weeks the water went off altogether, a regular occurrence in Dakar where random water cuts can last for days. 

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Learn Without Fear voices

"Our teachers should be there to teach us and not to touch us where we don't want or to solicit love favours from us girls. We are irritated by love advances from teachers. I feel like disappearing from the world if a person who is supposed to protect me instead destroys me."Girl, 15 years old, UgandaGirl, 15 years old, Uganda.

"Our school principal punishes us very hard. She makes us go down on our knees over small stones or bottle screw tops for over 20 minutes and also she often pulls our ears" Girl, 8 years old, Paraguay.

"When the school year started, my father refused to provide my school dues. Since I did not have textbooks, I was beaten in front of others and driven away from school for one week. I was very ashamed and thought of leaving school." Girl, 10 years old, Cameroon.

Because I am a Girl Campaign to Protect Girls’ Rights

Poverty, lack of education, child labor, early marriage, HIV/AIDs-- these are intricately interrelated spheres. Poverty is a leading cause of school dropout for girls, which often leads directly to child labor. The lack of education leaves a girl unaware of how to protect herself from HIV and vulnerable to child marriage. Furthermore, a girl who is forced into early marriage with an older, more sexually experienced male faces an increased likelihood of contracting HIV. In sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls between the ages of 15-19 are 2-6 times more likely to contract HIV than boys. Complex problems require a complex approach, and these issues must all be addressed in order to truly effect a change for the world’s girls.

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Female Commune Leader is a Sanitation Champion

Mrs. Eng is the leader of the Sokong commune which is situated along the Mekong River in Kong Meas district, Kampong Cham province.

As commune leader, Mrs. Eng promotes and supports good governance in her commune and helps with the management and use of existing resources in a sustainable way while also serving the common interests of the local community. Prior to becoming a commune leader, Mrs. Eng was an active commune council member tending to the women-focused social affairs of the commune.

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The fight against female genital mutilation in Mali

When she was a girl, Kadi dreamt of having a husband and family. She never thought her journey into married life would cause her so much suffering, and certainly never imagined it would be life threatening.

Kadi lives in the rural village of Tingolé, roughly 90km east of the Malian capital, Bamako. As a young girl, she underwent the practice of excision, or female genital mutilation (FGM), and went on to suffer the consequences.

“They destroyed my body through this abominable practice, I have been through hell”

Experiencing major problems giving birth to her children, excessive abdominal bleeding and days of paralysis, Kadi very nearly lost her life. 

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Learn Without Fear: Sexual violence

The World Health Organization estimates that 150,000,000 girls and 73,000,000 boys have been raped or suffered other forms of sexual violence. But there are no reliable estimates of how much of this abuse takes place in schools.

However, we do know that sexual violence is usually carried out by people known to the child and that school-based sexual abuse is a major problem in many countries.

Girls are at greater risk of sexual violence at school, sometimes directed at them by both male teachers and students. Studies in Africa and Latin America have found that some girls are coerced into sexual acts by teachers who threaten them with poor grades if they do not cooperate.

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Child-friendly Latrines Improve Hygiene, Health, and Safety

Out of the 20 schools that were in the Nuwaragampalatha division, 6 had did not have toilets and 7 were without any kind of water supply. Without water systems to safely dispose of solid and liquid waste, many students suffered from poor health and were forced to drop out of school.

As a solution, Plan worked with the local communities to design and implement new sanitation programs. These programs would not only lead to the construction of new bathroom facilities, but it would also cultivate hygienic and sanitary environments for both schools and the entire communities.

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Let It Bee

Beekeeping Creates Buzz for Ethiopian Honey Farmers

Four Hundred and thirty-five miles north of Addis Ababa, the route climbs into a harsh, mountainous landscape where ancient rock-hewn churches appear out of nowhere. This area is known as Lallibela.

Some of Ethiopia’s best honey producers can be found in Lallibela where high-altitude bees whip up a prized white honey that can only be made from the flowers which blossom on this region’s most vertiginous peaks. The bees and their keepers are part of an ancient honey-making tradition that dates back to medieval times.

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Infographic: The impact of girls’ education

There are 66 million girls around the world out of school and even more who struggle every day to remain where they belong – in the classroom.

In some developing countries, girls’ education is not considered a priority. But a quality education can dramatically change the lives of girls – and everyone around them.

An education will shape the values and opportunities of individual girls. But, educating girls has also been proven to help break the cycle of poverty within those girls’ families and communities.

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Learn Without Fear Facts

Research shows corporal punishment can cause children to feel suicidal.

Everyone can play their part in reducing school violence.

Everyone benefits from reducing violence in schools.


Children have the right to be safe at school.

Violence in schools happens everywhere, every day.

Violence in schools has devastating long-term consequences.

All violence in schools is preventable.

90 countries legally permit corporal punishment in schools.

No country is immune from violence in schools.

In Zambia one-third of 13-15 year-olds have been raped.

Children who suffer family violence are more likely to be bullies.

Fighting for her education

Erum, 22, understood from a young age that being a girl would not work in her favour. Living in rural Pakistan, many young girls, just like Erum, face social and cultural barriers that prevent girls from attending school. Their right to an education is overshadowed by roles women and girls are expected to play in society, like being a wife and mother.

“It’s very difficult for me because I have the motivation to do something for other people,” said Erum. “But in Pakistan, every girl faces the same situation, just because they are girls.”

The situation Erum describes is alarming: girls being assaulted en route to school; young girls being forced to marry and drop out of school; and girls being subjected to cruel names for wanting to continue their education.

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Valg i Kenya

Børn og deres familier kan ånde lettet op i Kenya, hvor der for en uge siden blev afholdt præsidentvalg. Mange havde frygtet det værste, men langt de fleste steder forløb valget i god ro og orden.

I weekenden blev resultatet endelig offentliggjort. Med 50,07 procent af stemmene vandt 51-årige Uhuru Kenyatta, som er søn af Kenyas landsfader og første præsident. Dermed sniger resultatet sig op over den magiske grænse på 50 procent, som forhindrer en ny valgrunde.

Også efter offentliggørelsen af resultatet har alt foregået fredeligt, fortæller vores Plan-kollega i Bondo i Kenya, Tom Okeyo:

”Der blev ikke rapporteret om nogen problemer i forhold til sikkerheden. Selvom resultatet blev forsinket, forblev borgerne rolige,” siger han.

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Educate and empower a girl and build a stronger community

Freida Pinto writes about her visit to Plan-supported communities in Sierra Leone.

In Sierra Leone, the treacherous web of problems women face is endless - teenage pregnancies, forced or self-imposed prostitution to make ends meet, death during pregnancy, denial of education and the shocking female genital mutilation that is unfortunately embedded in tradition.

There is no overnight solution to these problems, but here’s what I think - educate and empower a girl and she will help build a stronger community. Ask them what their dreams are and they will, in their extremely polished, polite and upper-crust English, tell you that they want to be accountants, doctors, journalists, politicians - but only after they say that they dream of a place that is rid of gender inequality.

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Violence keeping children out of school, especially girls

A major focus of Plan's Because I am a Girl initiative is overcoming the barriers keeping girls from receiving a quality education and completing school. One major barrier stands in the way: the prevalence of violence in and around schools.

Although every child has a right to go to school without fear of being hurt, teased, abused or bullied, this is sadly not a reality for millions of children here at home and around the world – especially girls.

In our latest report, A Girl's Right to Learn Without Fear, we found that between 500 and 1.5 million children around the world experience violence every year, including girls right here in Canada.

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A girl’s right to learn without fear

Worldwide, 66 million girls are missing out on an education. This report focuses on one of the major barriers girls face: gender-based violence - sexual, physical and psychological - in and around schools.

Between 500 million and 1.5 billion children experience violence every year, many within school walls.

Girls are especially vulnerable to rape, exploitation, coercion and discrimination perpetrated by students and teachers.

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Learn Without Fear: Corporal punishment

Corporal punishment in schools can take the form of hitting children with a hand or with a cane, burning or forcing them to sit for long periods in uncomfortable positions.

89 countries still permit teachers to physically punish children in their care. Even where corporal punishment is banned, laws protecting children are rarely enforced.

Boys are more often victims of school violence than girls. Children already discriminated against because of their disability, poverty, caste, class, ethnicity or sexuality are more likely to suffer corporal punishment than their peers.

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Violence against girls in and around school

“I am trying very hard to forget how it happened, but I am failing. I can’t just forget it; it’s like it’s just about to happen again, like it’s just happening. I remember every detail.” A 15 year old girl in Zambia who was raped by her teacher expresses her emotions. “I have been very much disturbed; emotionally disturbed and very much stressed.”

Every year, between 500 million and 1.5 billion children experience some sort of violence, often within school. This week Plan launches a global report on the scale of violence against girls around the world ahead of International Women’s Day on Friday 8th March.

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Safer cities: Fear holds girls back

Fear of sexual attacks and violence is creating 'no-go' areas for girls in cities, reveals new research by Plan.

As part of a unique participatory study, over 1,000 adolescent girls in India, Egypt, Peru, Uganda and Vietnam assessed their neighbourhoods and mapped out major obstacles to their safety and inclusiveness.

Watch the clip and see what life is really like for girls living in India's capital city.

My hope on International Women's Day

Megan Tucker, Plan’s Disability Advisor, gives a personal insight into what International Women’s Day means to her. 

This week my three year old daughter told me that she wanted to be both a house painter and a vet to sick puppies when she grows up. Other weeks she wants to be a ballerina or a soccer player. Living in Australia with the opportunities that this affords, in all likelihood she has the opportunity to be any of these and more.

Today is International Women's Day. Today many mothers like me around the world are contemplating what the future holds for their daughters. What will our daughters be when they grow up? For many mothers and daughters in developing countries realising their aspirations will mean facing many challenges.

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Kvindernes Internationale Kampdag

I dag er det Kvindernes Internationale Kampdag. Og der er masser at kæmpe for, især i verdens fattigste lande. 66 millioner piger går ikke i skole, 150 millioner piger har været udsat for voldtægt, og 10 millioner piger under 18 år tvinges hvert år til at gifte sig.

Specielt i byerne er piger og kvinder udsatte. Selvom piger i byerne har større chance for at få en uddannelse og ofte giftes senere, er frygten stor i de urbane områder. 

Seksuelle overgreb, vold og sexchikane er blot nogle af de trusler, pigerne møder på deres færden gennem byen. Uoplyste gader, blinde hjørner, strejfende hunde og bunker af affald udgør alt sammen en risiko for pigernes sikkerhed.

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