Birth registration: a passport to opportunity

Imagine you are an unregistered child. If you are lucky, you have been immunised, receive health care and go to school.

But, as you grow older, not having a birth certificate will make things increasingly difficult:

• You won’t be able to sit for national exams because you don’t have an official school enrolment number.
• You won’t be able to get a social security number to confirm that you are eligible to work.
• You won’t be able to get a passport so that you can travel.

This is the reality for millions of people around the world. Estimates suggest that over 51million babies are not registered at birth. In South Asia, the region with the most unregistered children, 64%of births are not recorded. In sub-Saharan Africa, the figure is 63%. Even in industrialised countries, two per cent of newborns are not registered.

Girl power TV ad makes Glastonbury

Watch this TV commercial on the power of girls, produced free for Plan UK, which is being screened at the Glastonbury festival in England this weekend.

The advertisement demonstrates the impact education has on girls and the world around them.

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India floods emergency appeal launched

Plan has launched an emergency appeal for US$1,000,000 to support thousands of families affected by the devastating floods in India’s Uttarakhand state.

According to reports, the death toll is expected to exceed 5,000, with 680 people confirmed dead, while 90,000 have been rescued.

Plan is already providing emergency relief to affected children and adults – including food, first aid kits, blankets and other items.

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Child Development at the Heart of the Community

There’s been radical change for A-Muoi and his wife, Nhung, in their home in Cu Tài village in A-Bung commune, central Vietnam. A parent-led playgroup is having a major impact on parenting habits, influencing everything from family roles and nutrition, to hygiene and communications.

“I’m busy all day in the rice field, but now, when I have time, I make toys for my children. I feel so relaxed and happy,” says A-Muoi, a 41-year-old father of two.


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Feeding young bodies and minds

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.

But now the area has been chosen by Plan as part of a new programme to improve the well-being of mothers and children. When the project started, nearly half of all the younger children in the village were malnourished. Today, that figure is around 35% and falling.

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Celebrities support universal birth registration

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and international film star, Anil Kapoor wish plan a happy birthday (2012) and call on the world to put birth registration at the top of the agenda.

See it here!

Boys Lead the Crusade Against Gender-Based Violence in Rwanda

“A group of us boys sweep the school compound for 10 minutes every day. People laugh and ridicule us because it is not common for a boy or a man to be seen sweeping as traditionally this role is a preserve of women. But for us we are not swayed – we’re doing it for a cause. We want to send a clear message about gender based violence,” says 15-year-old Emmanuel Wamungu from Ruhuha Complex School in Rwanda. 

Emmanuel is one of many boys and men in Rwanda who are leading a crusade to fight the gender-based violence that has been caused by traditionally held patriarchal beliefs.

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3 end of year gifts your teacher will love!

Another school year has come and gone – lessons learned, tests taken and friendships made. But no one understands this more than your child’s teacher. From September to June, they’ve been there to support the development of all of their students.

Now it’s your chance to give back. But your teacher doesn’t need another coffee mug or a spare stationery set. The best gift for a teacher is one that supports the opportunity for children around the world to get the quality education they deserve.

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Flood response in India and Nepal

Plan teams are moving quickly to help communities hit by disastrous monsoon flooding in Nepal and the north of India.

Continuous heavy rainfall in the region over the past few days has triggered flash floods and landslides.

Current estimates put the number of people affected in the Uttarkhand province of India at over 130,000. In Nepal, it is thought that 2,500 families have been forced to leave their homes and many thousands more are affected by flood damage and blocked roads.

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Put birth registration at the top of your agenda

Shaheeda and Shojun from Dhaka, Bangladesh, are among the 40 million people who have benefited from Plan's global birth registration campaign since it launched in 2005.

Over 51 million births go unregistered every year, leaving children invisible - without a legal identity or nationality. This makes them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, and denies them access to services such as education.

For Shaheeda, her birth certificate proved she was too young to be married at the age of 15, while Shojun, aged 12, was released from an adult prison where the inmates faught and intimidated him.

See video here!

Sunflower crops give farmers new hope in Pakistan

Over the past three years, the people ofPakistan have been living a reoccurring nightmare in the form of severe floods that have affected more than 33 million people.

The flooding has caused 2,865 deaths, damaged 3.6 million homes, and destroyed 5.5 million hectares of land.

Why is this happening in Pakistan? 

Pakistan straddles two major tectonic plates and has a considerable coastline, which ultimately means earthquakes and floods are not uncommon events for over 190 million people occupying this fragile land.

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Oversvømmelser i Indien

Mindst 44 børn og voksne er blevet dræbt – og lige så mange såret – efter regionen Uttarakhand i det nordlige Indien er blevet ramt af voldsomme oversvømmelser. 350 bygninger er kollapsede, og 450 veje er blokerede. Der mangler lige nu mad og vand, og tusindvis af familier er blevet hjemløse.

Plan arbejder i området, hvor der bor 3.500 fadderbarn. Sammen med vores lokale partnere hjælper vi de berørte familier. Vi følger situationen tæt og kontakter dig, hvis vi får besked om, at dit fadderbarn i Uttarakhand er berørt.

Going to school on an empty stomach

Thirteen-year-old Abit from Zimbabwe is determined to finish her education and become a doctor, but the daily struggle to afford enough to eat is holding her back.

Since her parents died, 13-year-old Abit has lived with her sister Naomi, 18, who works at a local bar. Naomi’s earnings of five dollars per month are barely enough to support herself, let alone her younger sister.

“I always sleep in class and teachers punish me because I often come to school with an empty tummy,” says Abit, who goes to school in Chiredzi, a village in south east Zimbabwe.

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About birth registration

Birth registration is the process of recording a child's birth in a civil register. This is done by the relevant government authority and gives the child legal recognition. The child’s birth will need to be registered if they are to obtain a birth certificate and any other legal documents and rights.

Sometimes a birth certificate is issued to the child at the same time as they are registered; sometimes a separate application must be made. A birth certificate is crucial as it provides permanent, official and visible evidence of a state's legal recognition of the child’s existence as a member of society. Without a birth certificate, it is difficult for children to prove their legal identity.

Life under water: When monsoon season strikes in Bangladesh

Water is essential for survival, yet in Bangladesh, water also has the power to destroy anything in its path.

For months at a time, monsoon season brings heavy rainfall to the country. In fact, approximately 80% of Bangladesh’s yearly rainfall will occur from June to October, and by the end of monsoon season, almost one third of the country is underwater.

Sitting at the foothills of the Himalayas, river erosion and monsoons occur frequently for the remote community of Hatibandha, Bangladesh. When this happens, the community can only be accessed by boat, houses are damaged, and crops and livestock are lost.

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Fighting for a generation without female genital mutilation

To mark the Day of the African Child on 16 June, which this year focuses on eliminating harmful practices, Plan’s Madina Bocoum Daff blogs about the fight to end female genital mutilation (FGM) in Mali.

"Woman has to suffer, woman has to endure". We grew up listening to these words of my mother almost every day.

It was this way of thinking that my sisters and I, as so many other generations of women before us, had to grow up with.

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Plan Wins Roll Back Malaria Award for Its Work in West Africa

Last month, Plan received the Roll Back Malaria Award from West Africa’s Roll Back Malaria Network (WARN). This award recognizes Plan’s long-term commitment to fighting malaria in each of our 12 regional program countries in West Africa and acknowledges our contribution and leadership in WARN’s civil society group.

Plan is one of 500 members of the Rollback Malaria partnership which currently includes research and academic institutions, representatives from countries with malaria epidemics, other development organizations, and the private sector. In addition to winning the award, Plan is now the only non-governmental organization to be a member of WARN’s Steering Committee.

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Count Every Child: Facts and Figures

Since the launch of our universal birth registration campaign in February 2005, a great deal has been achieved:

• 100 per cent of countries in which Plan runs programmes are involved in the campaign
• 18 Plan offices have achieved changes to policy or legislation
• 8 offices are working towards policy change
• registration costs have been waived or reduced in 21 countries for period of time or permanently

Over 51 million births each year are not registered. 

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Plan youth ambassador highlights Young Health Programme

This week world experts on adolescent health are meeting at the 10th International Association for Adolescent Health conference (IAAH) in Istanbul. Plan and the other Young Health Programme (YHP) partners AstraZeneca, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and ‘mindyourmind’ are there - ensuring young people have their say. 

Headlining the symposium, YHP ambassadors – 19 year old Suraj from India and 21 year old Alicia Raimundo from Canada – are sharing their perspectives on specific health issues affecting their peers. They’ll explain the role that young people themselves can play in establishing policies and developing services aimed at supporting adolescents.

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Child marriage report calls for global action

Urgent action must be taken to end child marriage, which is violating the human rights of millions of girls across the world, says a new Plan report launched today.

The report shows that child marriage is not just a development issue, but that there is a “growing international consensus” on the severe impact it has on children’s human rights - and it shows no signs of stopping.

The United Nations predicts that at current rates over 140 million girls will become child brides before 2020.

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Plans ambassadør udsat for vold ved demonstration i Nepal

Plan-ambassadør og tidligere slavepige i Nepal 22-årige Urmila ligger på hospitalet, efter at hun mandag blev udsat for vold ved en ellers fredelig demonstration. Urmila og andre tidligere slavepiger protesterede mod de overgreb, som slavepiger i Nepal udsættes for.

Selvom det i Nepal er forbudt at hyre piger som huslaver, kamalarier, er praksissen stadig udbredt i det vestlige Nepal. Pigerne udfører hårdt fysisk arbejde fra morgen til aften, tjener ingen penge og kommer ikke i skole. Ofte er de udsat for vold, ydmygelser og overgreb.

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Count Every Child voices

"I don't have a birth certificate because my father used it, like any piece of paper, to roll a cigarette." Cameroonian child.

"Only when I wanted to put my son in government school when he was 16 years old I realised that he needed a birth certificate. We were shunted around and also had to pay Rs.5001 to get the affidavit from the magistrate."
- Durga Bharati, India

"Many organisations visit to help us, but they ask for assessments about how big our population is and its different age groups, and we can’t answer because the Supreme Electoral Council’s census is insufficient. We know that we have a high number of unregistered people."

- Elsa Cristina Palm, Registrar of Puerto Morazan, Nicaragua

"I have the right to be registered immediately after birth." - 5-year-old boy

A True Story of Disaster Preparedness

It has been a couple of weeks since Tropical Storm Mahasen made landfall over Potkakhali, a village in the Barguna district of southern Bangladesh. Compared with the death and destruction caused by Cyclone Sidr in 2007, which killed more than 3,500 people, the fury of this cyclone has been less devastating. In fact, one villager has even used the word “kind” when referring to Mahasen.

Mahasen has left a trail of destruction. Heavy rainfall and 145mph winds are responsible for the damage and destruction to schools and more than 45,000 homes. In addition, over 316,295 acres of agricultural land are now submerged under water. Despite all of the destruction, there were only 45 storm-related deaths.

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Bliv medlem af Plan Danmarks ungdomsbestyrelse

Vil du være en del af Plan Danmarks frivillige ungdomsbestyrelse og gøre en forskel, der kan mærkes? Vi søger nu nye medlemmer til Plan Future.

Siden 2006 har Plan Future oplyst danske børn og unge om forholdene i verdens fattigste lande. De har holdt foredrag på skoler rundt om i landet og indsamlet mere end 125.000 kroner til at genopbygge en skole i Kenya, som de har besøgt flere gange.

Som medlem af Plan Future får du mulighed for at rejse ud og besøge Plans projekter og være med til at formidle arbejdet i udviklingslandene til danske unge.

Du skal være mellem 15 og 30 år for at blive medlem og have mulighed for at deltage i et månedligt møde og i sociale arrangementer.

Send en kort ansøgning til future@plandanmark.dk, hvis du vil være med.

Vi glæder os til at høre fra dig.

Plan’s Youth in Governance Program in Sierra Leone

In 2008, Mary approached Plan with a project concept regarding good governance and youth.

As CEO and founder of the Women’s Centre for Good Governance and Human Rights, Mary had a vision that women and youth would begin to have a voice in their communities and in national politics.

When we asked Mary why she decided to dedicate her life to fighting for human rights, she shared a story of hardship.

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Count Every Child: Plan's work with children

Plan's approach to development encourages children's meaningful participation in promoting birth registration. This has a positive impact on four realms: the personal, the familial, the communal and the institutional.

In the personal realm, children's participation in promoting birth registration builds their capacity to have an influence on their own welfare and development and to overcome divisions by unifying stakeholders. In the familial realm, older children can help persuade parents to register new babies and other siblings, while in the communal realm, children's activities also influence the behaviour of their communities.

Timor-Leste’s Teen Mothers Desperate to Return to School

When my family found out that I was pregnant, my uncle, a teacher at my school, asked my parents to take me out of school. If I continued my studies then I would have embarrassed my school,” says 18-year-old Juliana, who became pregnant at the age of 15.

Unmarried, Juliana lives with her parents in a remote part of Aileu district, just south of Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste. Her daugher is now 2 years old, and Juliana is expecting a second child. Her biggest regret? Not finishing school.

“I don’t have the opportunity anymore to develop myself like other young people. I just stay at home and give my time to my children," she says.

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Bringing Savings to Sierra Leone: Danica's Story

Danica is a bright 13-year-old with six brothers and sisters who lives in the far-flung community of Songo in Sierra Leone. Danica was just a baby when the brutal civil war that devastated her country came to a close, and she has grown up in its wake.

War is destructive on multiple levels. Even once the initial wreckage has been cleared, there still remains pervasive damage to society and infrastructure. During the war, Sierra Leone’s currency hit record rates of inflation. Saving money became not only irrelevant, but actually irresponsible. The savings culture was completely destroyed, as well as any ability to invest in the future.

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The heavy toll of early motherhood

Rani was married at age 11 - her ID card was doctored to say she was 18. She and her husband started trying for a baby but it took seven years for her to fall pregnant. She suffered complications during labour and needed several blood transfusions. Four months later, she has still not fully recovered.

“I felt very stressed. I have been trying for a baby for seven years. So this time when I was expecting, I felt worried for the baby. I had so many expectations to meet but I am only 18,” says Rani.

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Count Every Child

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 June is Count Every Child.

Playgroups Help Kick-Start Children's Learning

“When I started primary school, I was already familiar with letters and numbers, so it was easy for me to follow and participate in the class,” says 9-year-old Lucia, a primary school student in Aileu district, Timor-Leste, who is reaping the benefits of her early years at playgroup.

Attending pre-school is vital for children, to prepare them mentally and socially before they make the transition to primary school. In Timor-Leste, only 5-10 percent of children attend pre-school, which can have serious implications for a child’s development.

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