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.

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Case study: Escaping life on the streets

There are 680,000 street children in Bangladesh and nearly half of them are aged under 10. Many of these children struggle to find food, suffer from abuse and have no access to education or health facilities.

Since 2002, Plan's drop-in centres have been helping children to escape life on the street by providing a secure and healthy living environment where they can stay. In addition to general support, the centres run classes in subjects such as literacy, music, art and drama, while older children receive vocational skills training.

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Help for children affected by building collapse in Bangladesh

Plan and Save the Children have set up helpdesks for children with parents caught up in a building collapse in Bangladesh. Hundreds are still missing after the Rana Plaza, which housed clothing factories near Dhaka, crashed to the ground last week, killing more than 300 people.

Around 3,500 people were thought to be in the garment factories when the building collapsed. More than 2,000 people have been rescued, while around 1,200 are listed as injured.

Trained staff will man five special information points around the clock. “We are doing everything we can to get young people the information they need and to reconnect them with surviving parents and family members,” says MingMing Evora, Country Director for Plan in Bangladesh.

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