Plan Nepal: what we do

Plan’s strategy in Nepal covers 5 core areas, all of which are rooted in child rights:

• health, water, sanitation and hygiene
• basic education
• household economic security
• child protection
• child-centered disaster risk management

Plan Nepal works to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality rates through Pregnant Women's Groups by establishing, equipping and staffing birthing centres and training health workers.
We  work  to establish birthing centres in rural health posts and hospitals. Plan also focuses on supporting the construction of community-managed piped water supply systems, enhancing community capacity, managing services and promoting the treatment of drinking water.
We facilitate sanitation campaigns led by children and the community to keep the environment healthy and clean.

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Plan Sudan: what we do

Plan’s programmes have been designed to address the main issues affecting children in Sudan:

• children’s health
• water, sanitation and hygiene
• learning for life
• sustainable economic security.

We work with children and communities to identify the most pressing health needs, and support them on the management of health interventions – such as immunisation, malaria control and nutrition.

Plan provides basic medical equipment and health training to primary healthcare providers, mothers and community members. From HIV awareness days to malaria action week, we help promote behavioural change through health-focused social events.

We also promote birth registration so that children receive an official identity and access their right to social services, including healthcare.

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Plan Malawi: what we do

Plan’s work in Malawi covers 5 key areas, all of which are rooted in the rights of the child.  The approach is based on the Human Rights Based Approach to Development (HRBAD) from which Plan’s Child Centred Community Development (CCCD) approach derives its core principles.

The 5 main areas are:

• Sexual Reproduction and Child Health
• Water, Sanitation & Hygiene
• Quality Basic Education
• Child Protection and Participation
• Youth Participation and Empowerment

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Plan Guinea-Bissau: what we do

Plan’s work in Guinea-Bissau covers 4 core areas, all of which are rooted in the rights of the child:

• quality basic education
• mother and child health care
• potable water and sanitation
• children’s role in civil society.

Plan Guinea-Bissau works to increase access to quality basic education for all children, and decrease drop-out and repetition rates.

The returns on investment in basic education are very high and there are knock-on benefits: better health and nutrition, reductions in the spread of HIV and other diseases and also new employment opportunities.

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Plan International Reacts to Water Scarcity for South Sudan Refugees

Mary, a young refugee from South Sudan, needs to wait for hours every day for water.

 

At a refugee camp in northern Uganda, Mary sleeps with her four brothers under a tree. Tired and thirsty, she wakes up in the middle of the night to wait in line for water.

“This place has no water, and on a few occasions, a truck will bring some water and fill up the tank, but it’s a struggle to get it,” she said

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The Water Girl

Shallow swamps, steep ravines, and death-defying cliffs... When there’s no access to clean water at home, families in Timor-Leste have to go to great lengths for a safe supply – and the responsibility often falls to young girls, like 9-year-old Ludivina. Now, thanks to a simple water pump from Plan International, the young girl has the opportunity to transform her life...

It’s time for Ludivina’s morning walk – a ritual which takes place every day before she goes to school. As the sun rises, the 9-year-old steps out of her wooden house, water bottles in hand, and leads her two younger siblings behind their house.

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Schoolgirls are flushed with pride on World Water Day

Girls in a rural area of Pakistan are celebrating this World Water Day with new toilet and hand washing facilities which are making their primary school happier and healthier. When community worker, Rai Nasir, heard the local primary school for girls in Vehari, Pakistan, did not have a proper toilet or a clean water supply, he knew he had to do something about it. “Women and children are the most neglected segment of my society. I am always keen to do something positive for the children in my community, so when some of the parents told me about the need for a water pump in the girls’ primary school, I took it upon myself to sort the matter out,” says Rai. Rai contacted the school’s head teacher, Azra Parveen. The two of them decided to join forces to campaign for funding for better hygiene facilities at the school.

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Why water matters

Krissy Nicholson knows a thing or two about water. To celebrate World Water Day, we ask Plan’s Water and Sanitation Program Manager why water really matters.

I have worked as an aid worker for more than ten years. I often hear the phrase ‘water is life’. But what does it really mean? I still struggle to fathom the reality of this statement. 
At the moment, hundreds of millions of people live without safe water. As a result, lives are lost and people suffer including the 2,000 young children who die every single day. This is just unacceptable! In addition, girls and women walk for hours just to collect a bucket of water, often keeping them out of school. And if they are able to go to school, there is often a lack of safe water facilities at the school so children can’t stay healthy and hydrated, and there is no water to wash their hands after using the bathroom which furthers the risk of disease. Girls face an extra challenge when they get their periods because there’s no place for them to wash, which in turn increases dropout rates and continues the cycle of poverty.

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A journey to bring clean water to a community in Sudan

You never miss the water till the well runs dry. But what if the water was never really there in the first place?

In the community of Eldamokia, in central Sudan, clean water was hard to come by. In fact, a survey was conducted to try and find a suitable area to build a new well. Results showed there was no place with a sufficient water supply in Eldamokia. The closest water source was located 3 km away in a different community.

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Plan's approach to water and environmental sanitation

Safe water and environmental sanitation (WES) services such as solid and liquid waste facilities, vector and pest control as well as food hygiene, are vital for ensuring the healthy development and dignity of children. The lack of such facilities is responsible for over 2,000,000 child deaths each year.

This working paper aims to position Plan’s approach to WES within the context of the broader international development goals and within Plan’s own commitment to Child Centred Community Development (CCCD). It looks at the main challenges linked to WES and details the ways in which Plan staff can put our approach into practice.

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Water Projects Turn Semi-Arid Region into a Green-Belt

Once billed a semi-arid region, Machakos County in Kenya–home to nearly 1 million people–is fast becoming a green-belt, thanks to Plan’s supported projects which are helping to improve food and water availability in the region.

Since 2010, communities in Machakos have been implementing dam construction, borehole drilling and solar powered water projects, which have not only lessened the effects of drought but ushered the community into a cash economy.

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Ensuring a clean water supply after floods

People in Uttarakhand, India, are coping with the aftermath of devastating floods – the worst in the region in the last 20 years. As the flood waters which caused death and destruction recede, water will continue to create life-threatening problems. “Immediate priorities during and after a flood will be minimising risks of outbreaks of waterborne diseases, which will be very high due to anything and everything being washed everywhere – notably into water supplies,” says James Robertson, Plan UK’s water and sanitation expert.

Tragically in Uttarakhand, where hundreds of people were killed in the flooding, (thousands are missing) water supplies are seriously contaminated, “These are the only sources of water the people here have. The water needs to be disinfected or else disease will spread further,” adds Murali Kunduru, Plan’s emergency response manager in India.

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Plan Brings Clean Water to Malawian Residents

Every day in the Kamtsizi and Mazaza villages, of Njewa, Malawi, families turn on taps at shared water points and out flows clean, fresh water for drinking, cooking, washing, and bathing. This may seem unremarkable, but not too long ago, this wasn’t the case.

For years, residents of these two villages had been using contaminated water from unprotected sources such as streams and dambos, the Malawian name for wetlands. This water would be used for cooking and drinking.

“We suffered from recurrent bouts of diarrhea due to lack of safe water and proper sanitation services, coupled with poor hygiene practices,” says Henderson Mbendera, secretary for the Kamtsizi-Mazaza Village Health Committee.

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Unique Technology Brings Cheer to Water Starved Villagers

In 2006, the scarcity of water in Musingini village meant that many villagers would have to make the 3-mile walk to the nearest body of water, the Mathauta river.

Once at the river, their journey was far from over. The Mathauta River is dry most of the of the time which meant that villagers would now have to dig in order to reach a water source. "The villagers would scoop sand out of the river bed until they reached a source of water. The water would not be clean, but we had no option but use it,” says James Mutui, a local resident.

Because water was a scarce commodity, taking a full bath was uncommon. "People used to clean themselves up using just a cup of water and a piece of cloth and then they would go to work,” Mutui adds.

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World water day: Plan is helping communities meet their needs

On World Water Day 2013, 783 million people in the world do not have access to clean water – representing roughly one in ten of the world’s population. Around 700,000 children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. That's almost 2,000 children a day.

Plan is playing its part in helping families around the world to ensure this basic need is met. Last year we supported over 400,000 families to improve their sanitation facilities and provided over 3,500 new or upgraded water points or community water systems. Much of this work was carried out in Africa.

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Water, water - but it's not everywhere...

Plan's International Media Officer Jane Labous writes about the importance of World Water Day.

Last time I was in Dakar, Senegal, my apartment only had cold water. When I first arrived, I considered this a hardship, and I’d diligently warm a pan of water on the stove every morning for my shower. Transferring the pan to a bucket, I quickly learnt the local technique of scooping the hot water over myself with a stripy plastic kettle (they’re always stripy, always plastic...). Suddenly hot water was a luxury, not a given, and suddenly that handkerchief-sized splash of hot water felt as good as a power shower.

After a few weeks the water went off altogether, a regular occurrence in Dakar where random water cuts can last for days. 

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