Plan Zimbabwe: what we do

Plan Zimbabwe works to promote child rights and lift children out of poverty.

During the development of Plan Zimbabwe's Country Strategic Plan, child consultations were held and children put forward what they saw as impediments to their well being. These included HIV and AIDS; low household incomes; food insecurity; child abuse; low participation of children in development activities; and the deteriorating political and socio-economic environment.

Our response to these issues is reflected in our 5 holistic programmatic interventions.

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India's tobacco girls: "It must stop with me"

Extreme poverty, lack of education and scant livelihood opportunities have for generations forced hundreds of families in the town of Kadiri in India's Andhra Pradesh to rely on beedi rolling as their only means of survival. Slum clusters in Kadiri have become open-air factories of domestic tobacco industry where women and girls as young as five roll tonnes of tobacco into cigarettes with bare hands and sharp knives daily. They live in crammed, unhygienic conditions, work in oppressive heat, inhale harmful tobacco vapours, and absorb large amounts of nicotine through skin contact. Here is one tobacco girl's story: 

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Tackling poverty together

Plan Australia is taking part in a five-year $90 million program to reduce poverty in Africa. The program, running 2011-2016, is a partnership between the Australian Government and ten Australian non-government organisations and their African partners. Throughout 11 African countries, the Australia Africa Community Engagement Scheme (AACES) is working in the areas of food security, maternal and child health, and water and sanitation programs. The work is focusing particularly on women, children and people living with disability.

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Pakistani Girls Take a Stand Against Violence, Poverty, and Child Marriage

In Pakistan, an education is the difference between a life of poverty and a life of empowerment. But what is seen as a basic constitutional right isn’t that easy to access–especially if you’re a girl.

From poverty to persecution, there are numerous barriers that stand in the way of a girl’s education. Last October, things took a near fatal turn when 15-year-old activist Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban because she stood up for her right to go to school.

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Poverty Can Steal a Child's Dream

Rania had always dreamed of becoming an engineer and she studied hard to make her dreams come true.

However, when Rania’s father suffered a stroke, his condition limited the number of hours that he could work. As a result, the family’s income decreased, priorities shifted, and educating the children was no longer of importance.

“This made it hard for me at school. Every time I was asked to buy certain number of textbooks, my father could only afford to buy half the number required. I faced many embarrassing situations at school, especially when the headmaster came to the class and called my name. He strongly rebuked me for not paying the school fees by the due date, asking me not to come to school till they were paid,” Rania said.

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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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Because I am a Girl Campaign to Protect Girls’ Rights

Poverty, lack of education, child labor, early marriage, HIV/AIDs-- these are intricately interrelated spheres. Poverty is a leading cause of school dropout for girls, which often leads directly to child labor. The lack of education leaves a girl unaware of how to protect herself from HIV and vulnerable to child marriage. Furthermore, a girl who is forced into early marriage with an older, more sexually experienced male faces an increased likelihood of contracting HIV. In sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls between the ages of 15-19 are 2-6 times more likely to contract HIV than boys. Complex problems require a complex approach, and these issues must all be addressed in order to truly effect a change for the world’s girls.

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Case study microfinance: Lifting thousands out of poverty

Plan-supported microfinance schemes are giving some of the poorest people around the world the chance to access savings and credit services, invest in their businesses and break out of the cycle of poverty. 

The schemes particularly target poor women living in rural areas, who typically would not be able to borrow money from commercial banks - so are forced to borrow from loan sharks who charge exhorbitant rates of interest. 

"I felt humiliated because I couldn't look after my children," says young mother Milene. "Now that I'm in the microfinance group I am sending my children to school. I've just bought a piece of land and I think I'll be able to buy a house thanks to the microfinance group." 

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Before she's ready for motherhood

Ayatollah is only 15 years old as she talks about her marriage to an old man that she has always had known as her neighbor. This is her story.

"I loved going to school and playing with my friends, but when my father said that girls do not need to go to school, I found myself herding cattle from sunrise to sunset as well as performing other household chores," says Ayatollah.

"One day, when I was playing outside, my father accompanied by an old man who is a contractor and our next door neighbor, came over to me and warned me to stop playing like a child as I had reached an age suitable for marriage."

"Two days later and to my disbelief, my mother told me that my father had married me off to the same old man in order to save the family from poverty," she recalls.

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