Plan Philippines: what we do

Plan Philippines’ goal in the next 5 years will be for all children within our influence to enjoy their right to education. To achieve this, we focus on fulfilling 4 fundamental needs:

• improved  access and quality of children’s education
• keeping children healthy and well nourished
• protecting children and enabling them to protect themselves
• engaging children in all matters that affect them

This programme covers early childhood education, primary and secondary education (formal and non-formal), vocational training and technical education.

We target children who are not enrolled in school, children with disabilities including learning difficulties, children who have dropped out of school, working children, children caught in emergencies, and children from poor households and indigenous communities. We help children to acquire life skills.

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Plan Philippines

Plan emergency teams are on the ground helping children and families affected by Typhoon Haiyan - one of the largest storms to ever make landfall.

Please support our vital relief work - donate to the emergency appeal
Plan has been working in the Philippines since 1961, helping poor children to realise their rights to health care, education, protection and a high quality of life.

We work in 420 communities nationwide. More than 80,000 families benefit from our projects.

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Learning while playing

11-year-old Queen Gae loves listening to the stories that her mothers reads aloud at a child-friendly space (CFS) in Julita, Leyte, a province in the eastern part of the Philippines.

Queen’s mother, Elsie, is a CFS facilitator and uses interactive activities like singing, dancing and storytelling to keep children interested and to engage with one another.

 

Plan implements child-friendly spaces after a disaster to provide affected children with a safe space to play and receive emotional support and care.

 

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Discovering the power of play

It took Typhoon Haiyan just a few hours to wash away schools and books. Yet, teachers and daycare workers in Eastern Samar, Philippines, are helping children reclaim their right to education in a crafty kind of way...

“Friendly House” in Llorente, Eastern Samar, is a hive of activity. Banana leaf snakes, brightly coloured skittles made from plastic bottles and pretty paper flowers are strewn across the table as an excited group of locals put the finishing touches on their cool creations.

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Clowns Deliver Smiles and Laughter to Areas Hit by Typhoon

With the support of Plan International, Clowns Without Borders (CWB), an organization that uses humor as a means of providing psychosocial support to communities, has been providing smiles to the Eastern Visayas region of the Philippines.

The community, which was devastated by Typhoon Haiyan six months ago in November 2013, is in need of laughter.

“During the Clowns Without Borders show, the clowns help children shift their attention from worries and fears and bring them back to moments of laughter and joy,” said Roy Tjan, Plan's Child Protection in Emergencies adviser. “Important messages about protection from violence and abuse, about friendship and health and hygiene can be integrated in funny sketches that are both attractive and entertaining for children. The shows enable children to be [children] again, be playful and relax for a while. This is vital for their well-being and it greatly contributes to children´s resilience after a disaster.”
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Typhoon Haiyan - six months on, we are rebuilding the Philippines together

Regino’s story

When Typhoon Haiyan hit Regino’s village, he clung to the rooftop of his house crying for help with his parents and six other brothers and sisters. Luckily, they all survived. But his house did not.

“During that night, we left most of our things behind,” says the twelve-year-old. "We grabbed the clothes we saw, but left most behind. I also had to leave most of my toys, my school bag and books. I brought with me a t-shirt, a pair of shorts, and my yo-yo.”
In his village, 318 houses were destroyed.

Plan is helping Regino’s community get back on its feet by assisting with the reconstruction of his school and cash-for-work schemes. 

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Unconditional Cash Grants: Helping Communities in the Philippines Rebuild After Typhoon Haiyan

Individuals in the Philippines are being helped back on their feet by Plan International.

 

Six months after a deadly typhoon brought devastation and destruction to villages throughout the Philippines, community members are rebuilding – and they’re enlisting the help of Plan International.

Unconditional cash grants are one component of Plan’s broader program to provide support for immediate food security and livelihood for communities affected by Typhoon Haiyan.
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Child Protection and Development Remain Urgent Priorities Following Typhoon Haiyan

Recovery Work Continues as 2014 Cyclone Season Looms.

 

MANILA - Six months after the largest storm to ever make landfall hit the Philippines, child protection and basic development needs remain urgent priorities for millions of children and families, according to the humanitarian organization Plan International. Plan - one of the leading agencies providing relief in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan - is emphasizing that the crucial work to rebuild communities and ensuring child protection continues, particularly as the 2014 Pacific cyclone season gets underway.
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Plan International Helps Children Affected by Typhoon Haiyan Return to School

Back to School kits provided by Plan are helping children as they transition back to the classroom.

 

Since Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines in November 2013, Plan International has been working with communities to send children back to school – but given the devastation, progress hasn’t been easy.

“This is where I used to sit in class,” said 13-year-old Eula as she pointed to a spot on the exposed concrete floor where her classroom once stood. The roof and walls are nowhere to be seen, having been destroyed by the force of the typhoon.
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Thank you for all your donations, with your help we have been able to supply life-saving aid to the people of the Philippines Thanks to your generosity Plan International has been able to:

• Help over 190,000 children resume their education with back-to-school kits.
• Give nearly 23,000 families received shelter kits for rebuilding homes
• Assist 1,500,000 people who benefitted from food distribution.

From Twigs to brooms, six months after Typhoon Haiyan

There is a saying in the Philippines that one coconut tree twig will achieve nothing but together they become a strong broom.  In the six months since Typhoon Haiyan devastated the lives of more than 14 million people living in the Philippines a massive joint agency support effort continues the mammoth task to restore and rebuild the lives of the people affected by the storm.

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How Are the Children?

It was a scene reminiscent of last year’s Typhoon Washi: women and children weeping in silence and men who were in shock. On Monday, December 3rd, Typhoon Bopha battered the southern Philippines until early Tuesday morning, leaving behind a trail of devastation that particularly affected children.

“We didn’t know what a typhoon was until we were hit,” says Veruela Municipal Social Welfare and Development officer Elvira Dagaraga, shedding tears as she recalls the experience. “Never in my 30 years of living here had we experienced such a thing.”

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Can we talk about poo for a minute?

Let’s talk toilets in an emergency!

Powerful wind, intense rain, massive floods, heavy landslides, deaths...
Houses in the coastal towns of Boston, Cateel and Baganga in Davao Oriental province, the Philippines, were wiped out by Typhoon Bopha (local name: Pablo) that made landfall in the first week of December 2012.

Electric posts were uprooted – along with banana and coconut trees – and mobile phones were reduced to useless gadgets.

In just a span of a few hours, the 3 municipalities were reduced to debris and corpses were lying everywhere.

If I hadn’t personally seen the place, I would have thought it was a scene lifted from one of those end-of-the-world movies. But this is reality, and this happened in Mindanao – an island in southern Philippines that is rarely visited by typhoons.

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Additional Funding Needed in the Wake of Bopha

After Bopha made landfall over the Baganga municipality of Mindanao’s Davao Oriental region on December 4th, it tracked across the island through Compostela Valley, crossing over to Negros Oriental on the island of Negros.

In the aftermath of the typhoon, roads, bridges, telecommunications, and electrical and water systems have been negatively impacted.

As of December 23rd, 6,243,998 people in 711,682 families have been impacted by the storm. In total, 1,067 people have been confirmed killed, 2,666 have been injured, and 841 people are missing. In addition, the typhoon has destroyed over 66,469 homes and has damaged over 178,704. As a result of the devastation, 985,000 people have been displaced from their homes.

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Family Vows to Overcome Typhoon Troubles

Cousins Judith and Judiza Sevilla thought it was just going to be a quick shower; little did they know it was the beginning of Typhoon Bopha.

“We slept through it thinking that it was just another storm and it would soon be over,” said 20-year old Judith.

But after an hour, the gushing winds and continuous rain woke them up at their home in Monkayo, a bustling municipality in the north of Compostela Valley province in eastern Mindanao island, about 750 miles southeast of the capital Manila.

“The wind was very strong and the rain was very loud. I knew it was far from the usual,” said Judiza, 18.

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Rebuilding After Typhoon Bopha

“Please, if there is someone out there, please help us. We need food, clothing and shelter,” says Christolo, 41, as he gets to work rebuilding his house in Sibahay village, Boston municipality, a few days after parts of the Philippines were ravaged by Typhoon Bopha.

“Our five-year-old daughter, Maria, is getting sick because we don't have enough food. We're just eating the coconuts and bananas left by the typhoon. We are tired and no aid has arrived,” he adds, before resuming his hammering and sawing.´


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Tough Times for Young Mothers in the Wake of Bopha

After Typhoon Bopha, known locally in the Philippines as Pablo, relief supplies have been slow to get to affected communities in Mindanao and villagers in some parts have taken to blocking the roads to beg passers-by for food, clothing and shelter.

All along the coast, children beg on the side of the road with hands outstretched. "It’s a difficult time to be a mother with a young baby," says 21-year-old Adora Quirante, mother of six-month-old Aj from San Antonio in Cateel municipality.

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Children Stuggle to Deal with Typhoon Aftermath

“At night when I sleep, I suddenly wake. In my dreams, I visit the nightmare of the people I saw being hurt,” says 12-year-old Alyza Grace. 

Alyza making the attempt to come to terms with what Typhoon Bopha did to her community in Davao Oriental which is located about 590 miles southeast of Manila.

When Bopha ripped through the Philippines earlier this month with winds of up to 162 mph, it unleashed the kind of destruction not seen in those parts for 100 years. Entire communities were destroyed and more than 1,000 people have been confirmed dead.

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Children need shelter and protection after Typhoon Bopha

Plan is helping families piece their lives back together after Typhoon Bopha coursed across the Philippines. About 300,000 people in Davao Oriental on Mindanao have been affected by the typhoon, known locally as Pablo, which ripped through communities with winds of up to 160 mph.

“This typhoon has come right at the end of the Pacific Storm Season, but there are days when it is still raining. Of the houses that are still standing in affected communities, the majority don't have roofs, so homes are open to the elements and it’s harder for families to recover,” says Carin van de Hor, Country Director of Plan Philippines.

Some people are beginning to rebuild their homes, but not everyone has the money or resources to do this. Plan is distributing tarpaulins to families in need so that they can at least cover the gaping holes where their roofs used to be.

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Filippinerne ramt af tyfon

En alvorlig tyfon har ramt børn og familier i Filippinerne. Mindst 275 mennesker har mistet livet, mens 339 er kommet til skade. Indtil videre har 170.000 børn og voksne været tvunget til at forlade deres hjem.

Plan uddeler rent drikkevand, mad og medicin til de ramte familier. Samtidig assisterer vi med psykosocial støtte og undervisningsmaterialer.

Plans landedirektør i Filippinerne, Carin van der Hor, siger:

”Vores næste fokus er at beskytte børnene og deres forældre og sørge for, at de hurtigt kan vende tilbage til en normal hverdag. Vi støtter også lokalsamfundene i at forberede sig på naturkatastrofer som denne. Katastrofeberedskab kan udgøre hele forskellen, når det værste sker,” siger hun.

Derfor arbejder Plan med børn, lokalsamfund og myndigheder, så de lærer at identificere risikoen for en katastrofe og styrke deres modstandsdygtighed.

Plan swings into action as parents go in search of missing children

275 people have been killed as a result of the powerful typhoon that slammed the Philippines in the early morning of Tuesday 4 December, while 339 people have been confirmed injured. The number of people displaced currently sits at almost 170,000 people across 372 evacuation centres as officials fear more bodies may be found as rescuers reach hard-hit areas that have been isolated by landslides, floods and downed communications. Many children are also currently missing, after flash flooding hit vehicles they were attempting to evacuate in.

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