Our Work

• Child Centred Community Development
• Areas of Work
• Program Countries
• Child Sponsorship
• Priority Projects
• Campaigns
• Teachers and Schools

Global Connections - Youth-led Global Learning Program

When young people in both developing countries and in developed countries communicate, they can inspire each other to act as global citizens and to reach their own potentials. Such opportunities are being provided through Plan's Global Connections priority project.

Why youth-led global learning is a priority

Youth-led learning is when young people can share experiences, stories, ideas and their concerns with each other. In so doing, they may gain an understanding of the issues faced by young people in another country inspiring them to develop joint solutions to create positive change within their communities.

What is being done

Plan's Global Connections priority project connects secondary school students in Australia with poor and marginalised young people in Indonesia and eventually in rural Bangladesh. Plan-trained facilitators, who are either university students or youth leaders from local groups, facilitate opportunities for youth to gain leadership, communication and planning skills. Using different communication mediums, young people can increase their understanding of many personal issues such as drug use, young offending, domestic violence and gender inequality and how these personal issues can relate to global issues such as poverty and conflict. These insights have enabled young people to see the 'personal dimension' of how others can be 'like me'. Through Global Connections, Plan actively engages and listens to young people, learning more about their ideas, visions and needs and then integrating these into our Child-Centred Community Development work.

Groups participating in Global Connections from July to December 2009

• Australia – three groups of year nine students from Balwyn High School and student facilitators from RMIT, La Trobe, Swinburne and Melbourne universities.
  
  
• Indonesia – two groups of girls and boys from Lapas Juvenile Detention Centres in Jakarta and a group from the PAMORS youth group in Surabaya.
  
  
• Bangladesh – a pilot of the Global Connections priority project will commence in FY2010.

What has been achieved so far

Plan began the Global Connections priority project in 2005. So far it has brought together more than 300 children from six Australian schools and more than 350 children from five groups in Indonesia. The project has also involved about 30 volunteer university students from Australia and about 40 volunteer facilitators from Indonesia.

The outcomes for youth have included increased self esteem; vocational and personal skill building; and an increased awareness of global citizenship and avenues for taking action. Young people in Indonesia have used participation certificates awarded through the project to gain employment. Global Connections has received media attention both in Australia and Indonesia and is being celebrated as a unique way for young people to learn from each other, crossing geographical and cultural divides.

What needs to be done this year

In FY2010, Plan in Australia will continue to run activities in Australia and Indonesia that include:

• Training more than 45 volunteer facilitators in working with young people as well as monitoring and evaluation techniques.
• Training more than 45 volunteer facilitators and about 250 participants in filming, editing, journalistic writing and other associated media skills.
• Coordinating public exhibitions of each group’s work so they can share their successes with their communities.
• Purchasing subtitling software so that visual communications such as DVDs can be translated.

About Plan

Plan is one of the oldest and largest children's development organisations in the world. We work with communities in 50 developing countries and raise funds to support our work in 21 countries like Australia. By actively involving children, and working at a grassroots level with no religious or political agenda, we unite and inspire people around the globe to transform the world for children.