Protection: what we do

Protecting children and young people from abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence is central to everything we do.

In 2012, Plan provided child protection training for 149,686 community members and 35,625 staff of partner organisations across the world.

Many children experience abuse every day from people they know and trust and it threatens their survival, development and participation in society.

Plan was actively involved in the 2006 United Nations Study on Violence Against Children, which estimates that worldwide:

• 40,000,000 children are abused each year
• 150,000,000 girls and 73,000,000 boys experience sexual violence
• 1,800,000 children are involved in commercial sexual exploitation and child abuse images
• 1,200,000 children are victims of trafficking.

Plan does more than introduce short-term fixes for these problems. We raise awareness of children’s right to protection and work closely with families and communities.

We also deliver targeted programmes to address specific protection issues - such as child trafficking, corporal punishment in schools, female genital cutting and child marriage.

At local, national and international level we work to influence policies and make sure there is an adequate legal framework to protect children.