Plan alumni share the secret of their success

More than 6,000 former sponsored children from Zimbabwe have formed a network to share their skills and experience with the next generation.

“Through Plan’s educational and sponsorship programme, we managed to get the best investment in life – education,” says Edwin Sithole, now a trained journalist and co-ordinator of the Plan Alumni Network. “We discovered our passion, pursued our dreams and achieved a lot, hence our desire to give back to the community.”

The group came together as a result of Plan Zimbabwe’s silver jubilee celebration in September 2011. The 6,000 members are all former sponsored children with a wide range of expertise and professional and technical qualifications which they aim to pass on to children, especially those from disadvantaged communities.

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Cycling to Success

In the tiny commmunity of Bricama, 8 miles from the regional capital of Bafata, Guinea-Bissau, 13-year-old Odete Sana wheels her bike out of the thatch hut where she lives and takes it for a short spin.

Typically, she stores it at her father's house on the other side of the highway. She prefers that it be stored at her father's house because it is stronger and if there should there be a fire, she's afraid her bicycle might get burned.

Thanks to the vintage, baby-blue bicycle she was awarded by Plan for outstanding achievement at school, Odete is now part of a tiny, yet growing, minority of girls in the region who can now continue their education into senior high school after completing primary school.

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