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Our Work

Support a child, and you can transform a community.

Working alongside local communities around the world, we provide the support needed to survive emergencies and forge a way forward through long-term development programs. We work to see girls valued and empowered, so that future generations inherit a brighter, more equitable future.

Learn more about how we work towards a better tomorrow.

Photo: Tume, 10, is happy to be back in school again. © Plan International

In Malawi, Plan International works alongside children, young people and their communities to address the structural and root causes of poverty. Our programmes support children in 27 out of the 28 districts in Malawi and have positive effects on their communities, especially where our activities have been scaled up. We support children to complete a quality and inclusive primary and secondary education and work to improve access to learning, especially for vulnerable and excluded groups of children, with a focus on promoting girls’ education and protecting children and young people from all forms of violence and abuse.

Child protection

Maize crops growing in Zambia’s Central Province

Climate action

In a dark blue skirt and light blue shirt, Thong Lao sings a song with her 30 young students aged between three and five. While singing, she makes gestures to go along with the lyrics, and the children follow her lead. At the end of the song, they all laugh happily together and it’s clear that this preschool teacher loves her job and the youngsters in her care. After teaching from her home for five years, Plan International and our local partners supported the construction of a new community preschool building and equipped it with furniture, learning, and teaching materials for the children. Through a collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, further training was provided training to Thong Lao. "I am happy as we have a new school full of materials," she says. With support from Plan International, awareness raising was conducted in the village to encourage parents to send their children to the new preschool. "When I see so many children in my class, it motivates me to find better ways to teach them," says Thong Lao, adding that she also wants to show parents that their trust in her is not misplaced.

Early Childhood Development

17-year-old Saratou dropped out of school early as her parents could no longer afford to pay her school fees and cover the cost of her school supplies and uniform. “My parents took me out of school in the 6th grade. It wasn't easy for me, because when I left school I was not doing anything at home.” With funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Plan International is working in Niger to ensure that girls can make their own choices about their futures. Across 50 villages in Maradi region, we are providing skills training opportunities to out-of-school girls who are at high risk of early marriage. Girls are learning new skills in sewing, animal rearing, cosmetics, groundnut oil processing and catering including Saratou. “My training lasted for two years. At the end of the training I received a sewing machine donated by Plan International. This motivated me to set up my own sewing workshop in my bedroom, so that I could start my new business."

Economic Empowerment

Woman carries home sack of sorghum on her head from food distribution point

Emergencies

Displaced girls from the conflict-affected areas of Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) are vulnerable to child marriage; which can severely affect their physical, mental, and psychosocial health; as well as make them prone to stigma, isolation, school dropouts, and extreme poverty. Adolescent girls in displacement and conflict settings deserve to have their hopes, dreams, and voices to be uplifted. This requires communities, government agencies, and international and development organisations to work together to dismantle the systems that harm and infringe upon their rights, such as child marriage. A recent research report undertaken by Plan International 'Our Voices, Our Future: Preventing and Responding to Child Marriage in BARMM' recommends that our child marriage programming must be community-led and complemented by tailored interventions that fill programming and service gaps for adolescents, their families, and communities.

Ending child marriage

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Ending Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

Gender Compass segments showing hopeful (24%) trailblazer (19%) Conflicted (12%), Indifferent (6%) Rejector (17%) and Moderate (23%)

Gender Compass

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Gender-based violence

Florence, 17, is a youth club member at her school in Bugesera district

Girls education

National Online Safety Youth Forum in Honiara

Online safety

A girl in the street

Safe cities

Melissa, 18, with her baby son

Sexual reproductive health and rights

The three year Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights project (2021-2023) works across four municipalities in Bardiya district. Funded by Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and in partnership with Geruwa Rural Awareness Association, the project aims to improve adolescent access to crucial SRHR information. Focusing on strengthening school-based SRH services through infrastructure support, including the construction of gender-friendly toilets and WASH facilities, the project has constructed menstrual health management restrooms and adolescent friendly information corners in 36 schools in the district. 1,538 adolescents have also been provided with peer education training on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

How we’re working for a more equal world

We support girls and young women to be agents of change. We’re also supporting their peers, communities and governments to tackle the root causes of gender injustice to reshape unequal gender and power relations:

  • through our global reach
  • through the experience of our local teams and the young people we work with
  • through our partnerships
  • through our influence and advocacy
  • through our global community of supporters who continue to step up for girls and young women.

We are a secular organisation with no religious or political affiliations. Poverty doesn’t discriminate, so neither do we.

All of our programs work to break down gender norms and stereotypes.

What does this mean? It means we work to bring about change in the way communities view women and girls; in how men and women relate to one another; in how communities understand gender. Change that encourages people to challenge the gender stereotypes and inequalities that prevent them from realising their full potential.

Gender inequality may disproportionately affect women and girls, but it also directly impacts men and boys too.

And our commitment to girls is never to the exclusion of boys or men.

We work to break down power imbalances and transform the systems, norms and beliefs that maintain inequality. This includes working with positive male role models and supporting boys and men in shaping positive masculine behaviour.

Our work is challenging norms so that everyone can be free to pursue their dreams and reach their full potential, regardless of their gender.

Photo: Teacher helps boy read from history and geography textbook at school in Kon Tum Province. © Plan International 

Benefits of sponsoring a child

Our Child Sponsorship Promise highlights some of the incredible benefits of sponsoring a child through Plan International.

  1. Our sponsorship approach enables us to build long term relationships with communities. This allows us to have meaningful dialogue with and between families, communities, authorities and governments. This is essential to creating sustainable solutions that ensure children’s rights and equality for girls.
  2. Sponsored children are increasingly empowered to participate in and influence the decisions that matter to them, their families and communities at community, national and global levels.
  3. Sponsorship is an opportunity to form a personal connection with a child and their family that contributes to a global community united for the rights of all children, and for girls to challenge inequalities.
  4. Sponsorship allows us to link up with other funding so we can reach more children and increase our impact both within, and beyond, sponsored children’s communities.
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