Floods Leave a Trail of Destruction in Homabay

An estimated 1,500 people and 2,000 students are in need of emergency support after raging floods hit south west Kenya.

Two months ago, residents of Homabay County could never have predicted that the rainy season, which allows them to plant crops and feed their animals, would cause so much destruction.

However, as the rains intensified, they swelled streams and rivers, creating pounding flood waters that swept away people, animals, crops, and buildings.

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Nokia partnership gives parenting advice on the go

A new service in Kenya provides advice and information to parents using innovative mobile technology.

The Nokia Life service gives mobile users the chance to sign up for regular messages on a huge range of subjects including business skills, health and education. The parenting information has been developed by Plan and supports mothers and fathers with their children’s physical, emotional and social development.

The messages are offered through local mobile platforms in both English and Swahili, with rich media content that doesn’t require the user to sign up to an expensive data plan. The service is available free of charge for an initial 30-day period, with the option to continue to subscribe at a low monthly rate.

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Teenager Helps Girls Get on the Road to Education

A 13-year-old Burkinabé teenager from Ouagadougou is helping her rural peers get to school by bicycle, making a radical difference to their journeys to school.

An eighth-grader at the International School of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso’s capital, Malika has raised the money for the bicycles after hearing about Plan International’s 'Because I am a Girl' (BIAAG) campaign.

Having seen the International Day of the Girl Child celebrations on October 11th of 2012 and having heard about a Plan initiative to provide girls with bicycles, Malika was inspired to help her peers.

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Case study: Health huts save lives

Hundreds of Plan-supported health huts across rural Senegal are having a dramatic impact on the lives of more than 1,000,000 people – fighting diseases and boosting child nutrition and health.

By providing essential services, the huts have helped cut rates of diarrhoea in children aged under 5  from 33% to almost 1%. They have also ensured that over 90% of children are now receiving immunisation, compared to only 53% 5 years ago.

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The teaching gap: Every child needs a teacher

An education without a teacher is like playing on a team without a coach. Teachers provide children with the skills they need to reach their full potential and to shape a brighter future for themselves and their families.

Every child needs a teacher. A quality education means that children are learning in a healthy, safe environment, one that is gender-sensitive and provides children with sufficient resources to facilitate their learning experience. This includes access to quality teachers.

That's why this year, our partners at the Global Campaign for Education are focusing their annualGlobal Action Week on the teaching gap - to help ensure every child realizes their right to education.

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Plan Donates Bicycles to Community Health Workers in Togo

Health care can be very expensive for families in West Africa. Preventable diseases such as malaria often affect young children putting them at a greater risk of contracting the disease. In Togo, over 48 percent of hospital admissions and 53 percent of home health visits are malaria related.

With Plan’s support, a group of volunteer community health care workers in the Plateaux region, a region most affected by malaria, have come together to provide health care in their communities.

Volunteers have made regular house-to-house checkups to ensure that families are healthy. However, without transportation, the health workers travel on foot making it difficult to reach everyone in the community.

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We Can’t Give Up on Financial Efforts to Save the Lives of 3 Million Children in Africa by 2015

On the occasion of World Malaria Day, 25th April, Plan reiterates the need to continue financial efforts in Africa which provide all at-risk populations, especially children under five and pregnant women, access to prevention and treatment to more effectively control the disease.

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More investment is needed to fight malaria

“The fight against malaria is a real challenge, but we are producing good results. Mothers are now accustomed to go with their babies to meet the health visitor at the twice-weekly session in the village. They also listen to my advice to refer severe cases of malaria to the health centre.” Kanca Keita works with Plan in Komocara, Cameroon, to ensure people have mosquito nets, know how to use them and can spot the signs of malaria to allow speedy treatment.

Malaria has declined over the last 10 years with more than one million lives saved thanks to the impact of prevention work and the development of rapid diagnostic tests and effective treatments for pregnant women and children under five. But with 216 million malaria cases in 2010 and 655,000 deaths, malaria remains one of the deadliest diseases in the world as we mark this year's World Malaria Day on 25th April. We’re calling for commitment to further funding.

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Unique Technology Brings Cheer to Water Starved Villagers

In 2006, the scarcity of water in Musingini village meant that many villagers would have to make the 3-mile walk to the nearest body of water, the Mathauta river.

Once at the river, their journey was far from over. The Mathauta River is dry most of the of the time which meant that villagers would now have to dig in order to reach a water source. "The villagers would scoop sand out of the river bed until they reached a source of water. The water would not be clean, but we had no option but use it,” says James Mutui, a local resident.

Because water was a scarce commodity, taking a full bath was uncommon. "People used to clean themselves up using just a cup of water and a piece of cloth and then they would go to work,” Mutui adds.

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Case study: Making motherhood safer in Malawi

”Today I have a baby,” says 24-year-old Stella, proudly. It’s happy news, but Stella has suffered many losses on her journey to motherhood.

Stella has given birth to 4 babies but, tragically, 3 were stillborn. During her fourth pregnancy she was supported by Plan’s safe motherhood volunteers. She gave birth at the Plan-supported Chitedze Health Centre, which serves the communities of Kango and Sankhani in central Malawi.

It was the first time she had used the health centre. In the past, Stella had relied on the traditional birth attendants, who are still favoured by many people in rural Malawi, despite the fact that they often lack skills and knowledge of modern medicine.

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Girls call goes to global education summit

Join us as we take action for girls at the ‘Learning for All’ ministerial summit in Washington DC, USA, this week.

Unless the world acts in the next 1,000 days – the deadline of the Millennium Development Goals – tens of millions of children will remain on the margins of government priorities around the world, and girls will suffer most.

The United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, has called the summit to bring together the UN Secretary General, President of the World Bank, heads of UN agencies and key countries with the aim of accelerating progress in delivering quality education for all children.

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Plan reaching out to quake-affected children in China

Plan has started its emergency response in China's earthquake-affected Sichuan province.

Scores have died and the death-toll is likely to rise as a 6.6-magnitude earthquake caused widespread destruction in Sichuan’s Lushan County on Saturday. The Chinese government has declared the highest level of state emergency.

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Skolegang til verdens børn

Verdens ledere mødes i disse dage for at sætte fokus på børns ret til uddannelse. Det globale topmøde foregår i Verdensbankens hovedkvarter i Washington DC.

Blandt deltagerne er FNs generalsekretær Ban Ki Moon, Verdensbankens præsident, Jim Yong Kim, Danmarks udviklingsminister, Christian Friis Bach, og ledere fra forskellige udviklingslande.

Alle er de samlet for at rette verdens opmærksomhed mod de millioner af børn verden over, der ikke går i skole. 

Håbet er, at lederne bliver enige om en handlingsplan, der kan føre til større fremskridt i forhold til FNs 2015 mål om, at alle børn sikres en grundskoleuddannelse.

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Jordskælv nær Pakistan

Et voldsomt jordskælv, der målte hele 7,8 på Richterskalaen, ramte tirsdag det sydøstlige Iran tæt på grænsen til Pakistan, som er af Plans programlande.

Adskillige børn og voksne frygtes omkommet. Indtil videre meldes der om 25 dræbte i Mashkel området i Baluchistan provinsen i det sydvestlige Pakistan, mens 150 mennesker er sårede. Jordskælvet har desuden ødelagt mere end 3.000 huse og dræbt over 1.100 kvæg.

Redningsaktioner er lige nu i gang, og det undersøges, hvad der ellers er behov for af hjælp. Ingen fadderbørn er berørte, da Plan ikke arbejder i Baluchistan provinsen.

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Case study: Saving babies' lives

See how Plan is helping to cut death rates for newborn babies by 50% in some districts of Nepal.

Two thirds of deaths of Nepalese children aged under 5 are during the newborn period. In 2001, Plan started setting up pregnant women's groups to help women prepare for a safe birth and to care for their babies. Today there are more than 500 groups across the country producing dramatic results.

One 17-year-old group member said: "I've learned lots of things from these meetings, like I should take iron tablets, I must have warm and soft clothes ready for the baby, and when it's born to hold it close to me and to keep it warm. I wouldn't know anything if it wasn't for the Pregnant Women's Group."

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It’s Tough Without Any Friends

I argued with my mother again today. We haven’t been able to see eye-to-eye recently. She is cross, perhaps understandably so. She is desperately trying to convince me or even to force me to go back to school. I haven’t been attending school recently. I left school fuming 10 days ago and I haven’t been back since. She is trying to play down the episode which made me leave school nearly two weeks ago. That Monday, I was not allowed to enter the school yard and to attend school because I was not wearing the school uniform. The school uniform is compulsory here. In Kidal, I would never have been excluded from school because of a uniform issue–we were a wealthy family. My parents had good jobs. They had the means to support us. Here however, it is a struggle. It is a constant struggle for everything.


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Waiting Eagerly to Return Home

I made it to school today. I am so pleased. Up to the last minute, my mother didn't know if she would be able to pay the $1 dollar donkey cart fare for a ride to school. I was pacing everywhere. I was frantic. I told her that I had an important exam and that I have been working hard for it and that there was no reason why I should end up with a 0/20 because I missed school again. She was anxious. I could see it on her face. I know when she is anxious because she is usually quiet, but she looked upset. I could see it in her eyes. After I 'bullied' her, she went and borrowed money from one of our neighbors. And so I was able to go to school in time for my exam. I don't know how long this will last.

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Dire Humanitarian Needs in Timbuktu

People in Timbuktu, in the volatile northern region of Mali, need substantial humanitarian assistance according to reports from children’s organization Plan International.

The most pressing needs are education, child protection, food assistance, health care, water, hygiene and sanitation, it says. Infrastructure has been damaged and many people continue to live in fear despite the successes by the military campaign to free the north from the control of armed insurgents.

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Maternal and reproductive health

Maternal health is another key area of our work, particularly pre- and postnatal care and birth attendance.

For example, in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Plan has organised camps to train traditional birth attendants, which has resulted in a marked decrease in infant and maternal mortality rates.

We also implement reproductive health programmes in most of the countries that we work in, with the main focus on HIV.

Ensuring girls' right to education in Cameroon

My name’s Hawou Adamou. I’m the president of the Hausa Women’s Association for Development (AFHADEV). After 38 years, I am going to share my story. It’s not extraordinary, thousands of other girls and women in Cameroon live similar lives in silence. I speak for them too.

I have lived my whole life in Briqueterie, an extremely poor district in the heart of Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon. 90% of the people living her are Hausas (Muslims) from the northern most part of the country. Tradition is an important part of lives here.

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Healthy Living for Mothers and Children in Sri Lanka

Healthy living for mothers and children in Sri Lanka Kudagama, in Sri Lanka's Anaradhapura District, is a village of straw-roofed huts and bare-brick homes. The villagers who live here are from one of Sri Lanka's lower castes and they have faced poverty and discrimination for generations, with harmful consequences for their health. 

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International Day for Street Children: Home Street Home

The International Day for Street Children is celebrated every year on 12 April. The day provides a platform for the millions of street children around the world - and their champions - to speak out so that their rights cannot be ignored.

It was launched in 2011 by the Consortium for Street Children (CSC), the leading international network dedicated to realising the rights of street children worldwide. This year, the CSC, of which Plan is a member, is calling on the UN to officially recognise the day.

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Health: Preventable childhood illnesses

Our community-level health programmes include immunisation, child nutrition and hygiene promotion. We work to prevent and combat preventable childhood illnesses such as malaria, diarrhoea and malnutrition.

Maternal health is another key area of our work, particularly pre- and postnatal care and birth attendance.

Mother at 14...in a Refugee Camp

It is 9 o’clock in the morning. A tall, lean figure is making her way through the dusty wind in the Mental B refugee camp, in northern Burkina Faso. It’s 15-year-old Fadimata. She seems weary, tired, and stressed.

Fadimata was only 14 years old when she got married. The conflict in Timbuktu broke out just two months into her marriage, forcing her and husband Abdul to flee to neighboring Burkina Faso. For a year now, they have been living in exile in a Plan-funded refugee camp. It is in this strange place that Fadimata had her first experiences of married life and of motherhood.


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Rosemary McCarney on the end of global poverty: Let’s not forget who we’re leaving behind

In recent weeks, we have heard statements from leaders on the international stage that we are on the path to eradicating absolute poverty by 2030. But as we celebrate the last 20 years of progress, we need to also look behind the numbers at who has benefitted and who has been left behind, so we can correct this during the next 20 years. Measures of poverty have become more complex and these numbers can mask what is actually happening on the ground.

If we only look at the national indicators like gross national product or global numbers on poverty, we get a skewed view of what is really happening in a country.

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Looking to the future in Nepal

Before Plan started working in Makwanpur, Nepal, girls used to marry at 13, suffer poor hygiene and stay at home while the boys went to school - but not any more.

Watch the clip and join Kanchhi Gole, a community leader, as she reflects on how life has changed for girls and everyone in her area over the years.

"In the past, these children never used to take a bath or comb their hair. Now, I enjoy seeing them dancing, singing and having fun," says Kanchhi.

Health: what we do

Children have the right to a healthy start in life. From fighting diseases to boosting nutrition, Plan's health programmes help to save thousands of children's lives each year.

In 2012, Plan trained 239,785 professional and volunteer health workers on early education and care skills, benefiting 19,974 communities.

World Health Day: promoting health education

Plan is working with AstraZeneca and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHBSPH) to highlight the health issues facing young people around the world today.

Data emerging from Young Health Programme (YHP) - a joint initiative from Plan, AstraZeneca and JHBSPH - draws attention to the key factors that influence adolescent health in urban areas, and the barriers disadvantaged young people face in seeking and accessing help.

As part of the YHP, Plan is working in Brazil, India and Zambia to improve the health and wellbeing of young adults.

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Millennium Development Goals: 1,000 days to keep a promise

Today marks the 1,000 day milestone on the world’s journey to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the 2015 target date. The MDGs are the most successful anti-poverty movement in history, improving the lives of millions worldwide.

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In pictures: Making toys for recovery

See some of the toys made through Plan-supported workshops across the world that are helping young children affected by disasters to recover and grow.

The first 8 years of a child's life are critical for their development - but in emergencies, young children can often be the last in line to get the care and support they need.

Plan's workshops teach children, parents and day care workers to create toys made from locally sourced materials that can help young children to learn, play and divert their minds from crisis.

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An Empty Stomach Makes the School Day a Challenge

"I always sleep in class and teachers punish me because I often come to school hungry,” says Abit, a 6th grade student at Old Boli Primary School in Chiredzi, a village in southeast Zimbabwe.

Abit wants to be a doctor – but says she is ‘training’ herself not be hungry during the day, so that she can study.

“Although there’s no food to eat before I go to school, I want to pursue my education so that I can become a doctor. I’m training myself not to feel hungry until after the school day has ended,” she says. Abit, an orphan, lives with her 18-year-old sister, Naomi.

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Health

Plan's work to promote child rights and lift millions of children out of poverty is based around 8 core areas: education, health, water and sanitation, protection, economic security, emergencies, child participation and sexual health, including HIV. With that comes the three main campaigns Because I am a Girl, Count Every Child and Learn Without Fear.

Over the next year one of these areas or campaigns will be the focus for one month each.

The focus of April is Health.

Mali conflict: Mohammed, the guitarist

Watch the clip to meet Mohammed, 'the guitarist' - a young boy who was forced to leave his home and guitar behind due to the conflict in Mali.

Now sheltering in a refugee camp with thousands of other displaced childen and adults in Mentao, he finds joy in playing the guitar at the Plan-supported children's centre set up there.

"I like it when people clap their hands and dance when we play the guitar," he says.

Mali one year on: Through teenagers' eyes

From fleeing violence to escaping forced marriage, Plan-supported teenagers blog about their experiences one year on since fighting broke out in north Mali.

They are among 447,000 people - more than half of them children - who have been forced from their homes and now lay scattered across 6 countries.

Plan is providing thousands of displaced children with education, protection and life-saving support.

Read some of their stories below and support Plan's emergency Mali conflict appeal

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