SURVIVAL: Globally, about 30,000 children under the age of five die every day, mostly from lack of food and health care. Plan is working to help children survive through early childhood care and development programs.

Here is an example of a Plan-funded emergency food aid program in Zimbabwe, Africa.

Precious, is a four-year-old girl who lives with her family in Chipinge, south eastern Zimbabwe - one of the areas worst affected by drought. For the past three years Zimbabwe has been gripped by food shortages due to the impact of erratic rainfall, land reform and HIV/AIDS. When countries like Zimbabwe, once known as the 'breadbasket' of Southern Africa, face economic catastrophe, children like Precious often suffer the most.

But Plan with its child-centred focus, ensures children are not overlooked in the crisis. Plan is helping feed more than 200,000 children, their families and communities by distributing emergency food through the World Food Program.

Plan ensures that the most vulnerable children, those under five, primary school children and the seriously ill and elderly, receive food. As well as distributing food to families, Plan also provides seeds and tools to help families grow vegetable gardens and crops of maize for when the rains do come.

When children are left orphaned by HIV/AIDS, they may not always have relatives who can care for them. Through circumstances beyond their control, these children, who can be as young as 10 years old, must care for up to five younger brothers and sisters. While Plan ensures these children receive food, it also helps them grow their own vegetable gardens. Vegetables like tomatoes, cabbages and onions are a healthy source of fresh nutrients and any surplus can be sold in their local market to buy other items such as soap, clothes and shoes.

Plan's survival projects such as those described above are funded by grants, donations and partly from child sponsorships.