Global Child Winter 2009

GlobalChild The magazine of Plan in Australia | Winter 2009

food

SECURITY

Helping children thrive in Indonesia Emergency food relief in Zimbabwe Improving nutrition in Paraguay

LEARNING WITHOUT

FEAR

Empowering children in Bangladesh Child clubs in Senegal call for safe schools

INSIDE:

1SPONSOR COMMUNICATION | Jamie Durie in India | SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE SUPPORTS PLAN

the plan vision Plan’s vision is of a world in which all children realise their full potential in societies that respect people’s rights and dignity.

the plan story Plan is a not for profit change agent that exists solely for the sake of children.

We work at the grassroots level in 49 developing countries to empower communities to overcome poverty so that children have the opportunity to reach their full potential. We encourage children to be actively involved in improving their communities. We unite, empower and inspire people around the globe to champion every child’s right to grow up healthy, safe and educated. Together with our supporters, Plan is a catalyst for change, free from political and religious agendas, existing only for the sake of children.

A world of change Plan operates child centered community development projects in 49 developing countries around the world. These projects are funded by child sponsorship, regular giving programs and one off donations. There are 17 national offices that support and help coordinate the global effort.

Africa

Where we work

Benin Burkina Faso Cameroon Egypt Ethiopia Ghana Guinea Guinea Bissau Kenya Liberia Malawi Mali Mozambique Niger Rwanda Senegal Sierra Leone Southern Sudan Sudan Tanzania Togo Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe

Asia

Bangladesh Cambodia China East Timor India Indonesia Laos Nepal Pakistan Philippines Sri Lanka Thailand Vietnam

Central and South America Bolivia Brazil Colombia Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Haiti Honduras Nicaragua Paraguay Peru

CONTENTS

Food security for children 5 Helping children

thrive in Indonesia Saving lives through emergency food relief in Zimbabwe Improving nutrition with goat’s milk in Paraguay The cost of hunger

6 7 7

Learning without fear 9 Learn Without Fear campaign launched

9 What is violence in schools?

10 After-school tuition empowers children in Bangladesh

11 Child clubs in Senegal call for safe schools

12 BE A PART OF IT 14 NEWS Global Child Winter (May) 2009 Vol 27 No 1. Global Child is the magazine of Plan International Australia and is published biannually.

Next edition November 2009.

Plan International Australia 1/533 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC 3000.

Phone 13 PLAN (13 7526) Fax 03 9670 1130 www.plan.org.au Donations to PLAN of $2 or more are tax deductible.

Writer Heather Ellis Design and Publishing ACP Custom Publishing Design Manager Paul Davis We welcome any feedback on Global Child by email to publications@plan.org.au.

Plan in Australia wishes to thank ACP Custom Publishing for their support in the design and publishing of this magazine. The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Plan. © 2009. All material in Global Child is subject to copyright; however, articles and photographs may be reproduced with permission from Plan. Plan is a signatory to the ACFID Code of Conduct and a trusted recipient of funding from AusAID – the Australian Government Agency for International Development. Plan in Australia is governed by a Board of Directors comprising: Anne Skipper AM (Chair), Margaret Winn (Deputy Chair), Suzanne Bell, Tim Beresford, Emily Booker, Philip Endersbee, Russell Gordon, Claire Hatton, Jeremy Ingall, Thomas Kane, Wendy McCarthy AO and Neil Thompson.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

By Ian Wishart CEO, Plan in Australia

I cannot imagine my children going without food, yet when I worked in Laos, I regularly met families who spoke of the ‘hungry season’ when food to their children had to be rationed. The ‘hungry season’ would last three to four months and would come just before the next harvest. At this time, rice reserves were running low and there was no spare cash to purchase more. The number of meals would be reduced, as well as the portion sizes. Children would go without and signs of malnutrition would appear.

In Plan’s experience one of the foundation stones to building a life beyond poverty is access to enough food to adequately nourish yourself and your family. We call this food security. Food security can be achieved either by directly growing more food or by combining food production with other cash earning activities, either on the farm or off the farm.

When food security is not achieved it causes vulnerabilities that result in people sliding further into poverty. Malnutrition causes illness that weakens children and disables their ability to learn.

They drop out of school and become child laborers.

Food shortages cause families to take out loans from money lenders that they struggle to pay back.

Eventually the money lender takes control of the land as payment for the outstanding principal.

Food insecurity comes in two main forms: emergency and chronic.

In emergencies people suffer a devastating and catastrophic loss that overwhelms their community’s normal coping mechanisms. This comes about due to a disaster in the form of a war, political chaos, flood, earthquake, tsunami or fire. We have seen this ourselves – in the recent devastating bushfires in Victoria. At such times it is imperative that surrounding communities take action by urgently providing relief items of food, water, shelter and replacement clothes and blankets. In Plan’s work overseas it frequently encounters such disasters and must respond.

Right now, for example, we are distributing food to vulnerable children in Zimbabwe due to the collapse of that country’s food production system brought on by the political chaos.

Chronic food insecurity is much harder to see.

It does not grab the media headlines: ‘60 Minutes’ does not visit to film the process.

Five years ago this was the experience of families we were working with in the Philippines.

It does not grab the media headlines: ‘60 Minutes’ does not visit to film the process. ian wishart, CEO, plan in australia

They had small plots of land and there seemed no way they could grow more food to get ahead.

They were highly dependent on fertilisers to maintain yield levels and the costs of these were gradually sinking them. After extensive study, Plan figured out that one way they might be able to break the cycle was to become certified organic producers. If their farm sizes weren’t going to increase then the way out was to produce something of higher value, but with lower input costs.

Fortunately, there was a growing awareness of the benefits of organic produce in the capital Manila and people prepared to pay a higher price for a better quality grain. On top of that farmers were introduced to natural ways that they could fertilise their paddy fields. Four years later those same farmers have increased their profits and have a sustainable farming model. They are moving ahead and their families are food secure. And Plan is now working to replicate these organic farming practices in other communities.

Recently, my team also informed me of another food security-related project we will be supporting in Indonesia. It will concentrate on improving childhood nutrition. This is vital work.

Children that are malnourished do not fully develop physically and mentally and this impedes them for the rest of their life. We must intervene before damage is done.

To continue this vital work of solving food insecurity we need your ongoing support. We will be calling on donations for food security projects in our May/June appeal and I would urge you to give.

Remember that chronic food security problems will not grab the headlines but solving it is one of the most important things we can do to help families lift themselves out of poverty.

Plan in Australia is committed to reducing the impact our printed publications have on the environment. This publication is printed on Envirocare 100% Recycled paper, this uncoated paper is manufactured entirely from waste paper.

Front Cover Empowering communities with the skills and resources to grow home vegetable gardens provides children with nutritious food in Guatemala.

GLOBAL CHILD WINTER 2009

3

food & nutrition

food IN THE

DEVELOPING WORLD

4

GLOBAL CHILD WINTER 2009

food & nutrition

Empowering communities so that families, especially children, have enough food – good wholesome nutritious food – has always been a strong focus of Plan’s work. In this feature, we offer you a unique insight into the challenges faced by three developing communities and how Plan is working with them to put food on the table.

Helping children thrive in indonesia Taking the nutrition message to villages is key to improving childhood development in rural Indonesia. BY JAN PARRY, PLAN IN AUSTRALIA PROGRAM MANAGER

Tama from Togo sells beans – a small business that has helped improve her family’s food and household economic security.

Walking through a rural village in Indonesia, especially the eastern provinces – some of the poorest in the archipelago – you can’t help but notice the number of undernourished children, especially children under five years. This is a common picture in rural eastern Indonesia.

In most cases, it isn’t that these children aren’t getting enough to eat. On the contrary, they may get sufficient rice at meal times but have little else to eat. A recent Plan study of three villages in this region found that more than 60 per cent of children under five were undernourished and nearly 40 per cent were severely stunted.

While Plan in Indonesia has worked with a number of communities on sustainable agricultural projects in the region, nutrition education has not yet had sufficient attention.

Even if a family was able to secure food, their children could still be underweight the study found. In many cases inadequate knowledge and skills, specifically in selecting and preparing food, were to blame. The study not only showed that child undernutrition is still rampant in many rural communities, but also that parents often have low awareness of the fact that their children are actually undernourished. Even less do they realise the underlying causes.

To help address this, Plan has developed a community-based nutrition project, which will be implemented initially over a three year period in 20 villages in two eastern districts: GLOBAL CHILD WINTER 2009

East Nusa Tenggara and Timor Tengah Utara.

The focus will be on taking the ‘nutrition message’ to parents including pregnant and breast feeding mothers and by training community health workers. Plan will also help strengthen and support government health posts in the districts by providing extensive training and mentoring to these health workers as well.

In a bid to increase government budget allocations to address child undernutrition in the region, Plan will also undertake advocacy activities. By working in partnership with the existing government health system, Plan hopes to strengthen services that will continue to exist once Plan leaves.

As the focus is on children under five, this new project, which is funded entirely

by Australians, will be linked to Plan’s existing Early Childhood Care and Development project as well as a combination of water and sanitation and food security programs.

The Community-based nutrition project in Indonesia is funded by AusAID, the Australian Government Agency for International Development and by donations from the Australian public and Plan’s corporate supporters.

Nutrition education helps improve children’s growth and development in Indonesia.

5

food & nutrition

Plan staff ensure food aid provided by the World Food Program is distributed to food insecure families in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe.

SAVING LIVES THROUGH EMERGENCY FOOD RELIEF Plan in partnership with the World Food Program has been providing thousands of Zimbabweans, especially vulnerable children, with a supply of basic food.

ONCE THE BREAD BASKET of southern Africa, there is little to eat for many in Zimbabwe these days. Over the past two years, food production has declined drastically, which left more than five million people in need of food assistance between November 2008 and March 2009.

Hyperinflation, lack of adequate agricultural inputs including seed and fertiliser and adverse weather for crop production have meant that many families who previously could feed themselves now go hungry. Periods of drought only add to their food insecurity.

Chiredzi district in southern Zimbabwe, where Plan is helping to feed vulnerable families, is one such drought prone area. With rainfall less than 450mm per year, raising livestock instead of growing crops is often the norm. However, with a nation-wide shortage of cereals like maize, families have bartered their goats and cattle for the limited supplies available and many of the most food insecure families no longer have any livestock. A study undertaken by Plan in Chiredzi in November found that to eat, families had resorted to stealing livestock, eating wild fruits and roots or sending their children to beg food from neighbours. In the study based on interviews with 200 families, 92 per cent said during the previous four weeks there were times their household had no food at all.

Fortunately, during these difficult times, the World Food Program (WFP) has been providing

6

emergency food relief for Zimbabweans. While the WFP ships basic food stuffs (mostly maize, beans and vegetable oil) to Africa and trucks it to Zimbabwe, cooperating non government organisations like Plan distribute the food ensuring it gets to the most vulnerable: orphans, child-headed households, single mothers, the elderly, the disabled and those affected by HIV and AIDS. Between October 2008 and March 2009, Plan Zimbabwe with support from Plan in Australia, has distributed more than 10,000 metric tonnes of food to more than 160,000 people in Chiredzi. During 2009, similar amounts of food aid will also be distributed as predictions suggest a continuing need to feed vulnerable children and communities in Chiredzi.

Handling and distributing such large quantities of food is costly and labour intensive, with people employed to distribute food to communities and monitor that it reached the most food insecure. To meet these additional costs, Plan relies on the generosity of its supporters and the Australian public. Together we can lend a hand in Zimbabweans’ time of need.

Plan has been working in partnership with the World Food Program since 2002 on vulnerable group feeding programs in Zimbabwe. While the economic situation in Zimbabwe has improved, the next harvest is not expected to be adequate to meet food needs.

GLOBAL CHILD WINTER 2009

Tshameleni’s story: Tshameleni is an orphan and is the head of her household in Chiredzi, southern Zimbabwe.

“I am 12 years old. I stay with my three other siblings who are ten, seven and five. My father died long back when I was still very young and my mother passed away last year. I am the eldest.

I therefore have to take care of the other children. It is difficult to look after these children especially the youngest one who often falls sick.

“With the current food assistance, which we are getting (through Plan’s Vulnerable Group Feeding Program), I have been able to care much better for the siblings. Under such circumstances, I am happy to say the local community have always been there for us including support to till the small land which we have and provision of inputs (seeds and fertiliser).”

food & nutrition

Improving nutrition with goat’s milk For children in Paraguay, South America, goats not only help children grow ‘big and strong’ but have also become a much loved family pet.

In a little village in southern Paraguay, goats are providing improved nutrition for families, especially children. With 60 per cent of Paraguay’s six million people living in poverty, most families survive on cassava (a root vegetable), corn and beans. Meat, milk and other dairy products are expensive as are vegetables which are not traditionally grown.

However, the diet and family incomes of a community in Guaiaybi district radically changed last year after a group of 30 mothers learnt of the nutritional and financial benefits of keeping dairy goats through Plan Paraguay’s Household Food and Economic Security project, which is funded by child sponsors.

With their children and husbands and with Plan providing advice on raising dairy goats, as well as materials for pens, and most importantly goats – two per family – milk is enjoyed daily.

But improved nutrition wasn’t all that children enjoyed. The goats and later their offspring filled the need of every child the world

over – a pet to shower with love and affection.

“Our goats have names. One is called Cabrita and the other one is called Mansita,” says Fernando – one of the children whose family acquired two Anglo Nubian goats (a breed best suited to the local climate.)

But the children also recognise that goat’s milk is good for their health… and tastes delicious.

“I enjoy taking care of the kids. They are so cute. I bath and feed them and I also make them go out from the stall. I hope the dams will produce a large amount of milk after kidding,” says six-year-old Belén.

Maria, one of the mothers from the initial group of 30, says the milk is not only good for their children’s growth and development, but the excess provides extra income for school fees and other household expenses.

“I am happy with the project. It is very good.

We still hope for many good benefits from it so we can have a better life,” Maria says.

The group of 30 mothers who participated in the project have since formed a cooperative for milk sales and marketing and to advise other families on keeping dairy goats.

Plan has worked in Paraguay since 1994 and currently supports 470 rural communities.

Australians sponsor 327 children in Paraguay.

The cost of hunger Hunger and malnutrition kill nearly six million children a year.

Many die from treatable infectious diseases including diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria and measles. Most would survive if their bodies were not weak and malnourished. Presently, nearly a billion people globally are suffering chronic hunger.

The first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) calls for the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. Meeting this is also essential for meeting all other MDGs, which all 192 United Nations member countries have pledged to meet by 2015. Hunger and malnutrition are among the root causes of poverty and illiteracy, as well as disease and mortality.

As the world battles to recover from the global financial crisis, world leaders at the Group of 20 (G20) developed and developing nations summit in London in April this year, also reaffirmed their commitment to the MDGs to increase development assistance.

I am happy with the project. It is very good. We still hope for many good benefits from it so we can have says Maria a better life, Maria and her son Oscar get ready to milk the family’s dairy goats which were provided as part of a sponsor-funded project.

GLOBAL CHILD WINTER 2009

7

LEARN WITHOUT FEAR

LEARNing

WITHOUT FEAR

Almost one million children suffer violence every day in schools around the world most often in the form of corporal punishment, sexual violence or bullying.

8

GLOBAL CHILD WINTER 2009

LEARN WITHOUT FEAR

Far from being safe and nurturing, schools too often, are frightening places for children the world over.

ENDING VIOLENCE in SCHOOLS “We are beaten mercilessly in school, As a result we are unable to sit properly,” says a group of school boys in India.

These boys make up more than an estimated 350 million children globally who suffer violence in schools each year mostly in the form of corporal punishment, sexual violence or bullying.

They suffer serious injuries, sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, depression and mental health problems that can lead to suicide. Most victims are too scared, ashamed or traumatised to speak out and school authorities

are often unwilling to investigate accusations.

Through its work around the world, Plan became increasingly concerned about violence in so many schools and in 2008 created Learn Without Fear. The three-year campaign aims to end violence in schools so that children can receive a quality education in a safe and secure environment.

Plan in Australia CEO Ian Wishart says violence against children is an abuse of their rights. “It is not only cruel and unjust but is also preventable.”

During the three-year Learn Without Fear campaign, Plan will work directly with at least 5000 schools in 40 countries to tackle violence.

Key goals include: persuading governments to outlaw all forms of violence against children in school and to enforce those laws; work with school leaders and teachers to promote alternative discipline methods; and create a global momentum for change, including increased resources from international donors and governments.

The campaign, underpinned by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, is also an important step towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals as quality education is key to eliminating poverty and giving children the chance to improve their lives.

WHAT IS VIOLENCE in SCHOOLS? Corporal punishment Sexual violence

Bullying

Our school principal punishes very hard. She makes us go down on our knees over small stones or bottle screw tops for over 20 minutes and also she often pulls our ears.

We are irritated by love advances from teachers. I feel like disappearing from the world if a person who is supposed to protect me instead destroys me.

Friends like to make fun of me or look down on me… Teachers sometimes do the same thing… I was humiliated.

(girl, 15, from Uganda)

(girl, 8, from Paraguay)

In some countries, girls as young as ten are forced by their teachers to have sex to get good grades. As well as teachers taking sexual advantage of students, children also suffer sexual aggression from their peers or from others on the way to and from school. In 2002, the World Health Organisation estimated that 150 million girls and 73 million boys under the age of 18 had been raped or suffered other forms of sexual violence.

Bullying occurs in all countries including Australia. Up to two-thirds of students identify themselves as victims in any month. Victims of bullying can lose self-esteem, suffer anxiety, develop learning problems and become suicidal.

Bullying at school is a cause of violence in wider society with both bullies and their victims likely to be more violent as adults.

Around the world, 90 countries including Australia (schools in South Australia and some private schools), continue to allow teachers to legally use corporal punishment. And in those countries that do ban it, the laws are often poorly enforced. In developing countries the discipline dished out can be brutal with children being violently hit, kicked, bitten, thrown, locked or tied up and even burnt by their teachers. A child may suffer a beating for simply asking a question, making a mistake, arriving late for class, not sitting still or not paying attention. Such a beating is too often viewed as acceptable or necessary by education authorities, parents and governments who feel discipline helps children learn. But evidence shows, it causes the opposite.

Anxious and frightened children can not learn and such punishment causes lasting mental and physical suffering.

(a student from Thailand)

To view the report: ‘Learn Without Fear: The Global Campaign to End Violence in Schools’ and to watch videos about the campaign go to www.learnwithoutfear.org

GLOBAL CHILD WINTER 2009

9

LEARN WITHOUT FEAR

LEARNING CAMPS empower children Thousands of children in Bangladesh are not only ‘making the grade’, they are also helping to make their schools safe and inspiring places to learn. BY KATIE RAMSAY, PLAN IN AUSTRALIA PROGRAM MANAGER.

In Bangladesh, going to school can be a frightening experience. Corporal punishment is rife and bullying is commonplace with children from poor families targeted: the label ‘slow learner’ the cause of taunts by their classmates.

On top of this, with primary school compulsory, government schools are severely overcrowded; up to 50 students per class. Teaching is by rote learning with the focus on passing exams to advance to the next year. To pass, private tutoring is an absolute necessity but can only be afforded by the more well off students. Of the 16.5 million children enrolled each year in government primary schools around 40 per cent will drop out, usually by grade four or five when the struggle to keep up becomes too much.

Beaten by their teachers, bullied by classmates, and with poor literacy and numeracy skills and next to no selfconfidence, life in the eyes of these children holds little hope. And this is the crux of the problem because fear is a terrible obstacle to learning.

But back in 1998, a more child-friendly way of learning was trialed for children from Bangladesh’s poor rural communities. Plan introduced an interactive problem-solving approach to learning in which children attended school tuition sessions or Learning Camps before or after their normal school sessions. These camps are now the cornerstone of Plan’s Community Learning Action Project (CLAP).

Aligned with the national curriculum, each Learning Camp has about 30 students who attend daily two-hour sessions held in a classroom provided by the school. Sessions are run by a Plan-trained tutor, usually a high school graduate, who receives fees from the parents (about 70 cents per child per month). For those children from families living in the

Children in Bangladesh improve their grades through after-school tuition sessions or Learning Camps supported by Plan.

10

And this is the crux of the problem because fear is a terrible obstacle to learning.

GLOBAL CHILD WINTER 2009

LEARN WITHOUT FEAR most difficult circumstances, the local community provides their fees. Parents are also involved, taking on the day-to-day management of the camps, and as a result have helped instigate quality learning methods being adopted by some schools and teachers.

Last year, 26,332 children were enrolled in Plan-supported Learning Camps in two districts – Naushingdi and Jessore. Many of these children have gone from the bottom of the classes to the top. In 2009, we will begin to step back from supporting these camps so that the communities themselves can take over and Plan can move to other areas.

This year, in partnership with the community, we will begin setting up Learning Camps (benefiting around 15,500 children) in every community in one province in Sreepur in central Bangladesh, one of the poorest regions. Coverage right across a province will mean the effectiveness of the project will be clearly evident and this helps us strengthen our case for the government to have punishment-free schools and interactive learning methods for all children in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Community Learning Action Project (CLAP) is funded by Plan supporters, donations from the Australian public and grants from AusAID, the Australian Government Agency for International Development.

Children IMPROVE after attending Learning Camps

Academic grades BEFORE attending learning camps 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0

A

B

C

D

Academic grades AFTER attending learning camps 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0

A

B

C

D

Reference: Plan Bangladesh Technical Report 2005 – Community Learning Action Project.

Himu’s story Himu is a young girl from a rural village in Bangladesh. She was recently awarded a scholarship to attend high school – a rare feat for many of Bangladesh’s children.

While her future looks bright, it did not always hold such promise.

“I was admitted to the Gazaria government primary school but I found rote learning very difficult and my teacher very unfriendly. I asked my mother to take me away from that school,” Himu says.

Luckily, Himu’s mother understood her problem and admitted her into the Plan-supported Learning Camp that had been recently set up at the same school. “I learned there without any fear and gradually was seen to be a ‘good student’ in the school and community,” she says.

Himu’s parents, who later helped run the Learning Camp, also began discussions with Himu’s teacher to have interactive child-friendly learning (as used in the Learning Camps) used in the classroom as well.

In 2007, Himu appeared in the primary scholarship examination and was awarded a scholarship obtaining the highest marks in Gazipur district, an outstanding achievement in a country where only 20 per cent of children make it to secondary school. “The people of Rajabari Union were very happy with my excellent result and I was awarded a gold medal. They said I had brought honor to the district. I am in class seven in high school and my ambition is to delight the society by good reputation,” says Himu.

Members of a children’s club in Senegal discuss strategies to combat child rights issues such as violence in schools.

Child clubs in Senegal call for safe schools A group of 37 children in Senegal were so concerned about violence at their school that they took action to stop it. With the support of Plan, the children – members of a children’s club funded by child sponsors – conducted a study to find solutions.

With corporal punishment and sexual violence their main concerns, the children advised that teachers needed to understand the detrimental effect corporal punishment has on children and that the Convention on the Rights of the Child be part of teacher training. To tackle sexual

GLOBAL CHILD WINTER 2009

violence in schools, they suggested sex education classes be introduced and that staff and students sign a code of conduct to make them accountable for their actions. Plan Senegal has followed through on these suggestions and is now engaging with children’s clubs, school and government authorities and other NGOs. As part of child rights projects in Plan-supported communities, more than 257 children’s clubs involving thousands of children have been set up in Senegal over the past 22 years.

11

BE A PART OF IT

Sponsor communication improvements Rasmata, 11, from Burkina Faso was the first child sponsored by an Australian to have her photo and introduction page printed here in Australia.

This might seem insignificant news, but it saves Plan valuable resources and time and means children like Rasmata are sponsored much sooner.

Previously, a hard copy of the Sponsored Child Introduction (SCI) travelled across countries and seas to reach our shores... and the new sponsor. However, Plan has recently developed a secure global database to share sponsored child and community information.

Now, field volunteers collect and load a child’s information and photos into Plan’s ‘global digital hub’. This information, including changes and updates, can now be accessed in real time at national offices like Plan in Australia. During 2009, this new system will also be applied to annual Sponsored Child Updates (SCUs).

In Australia, sponsors can also view their sponsored child profile online in MyPlan. This portal provides sponsors with secure access to their accounts and a point where they can correspond with their sponsored child or learn more about their community. To join MyPlan go to www.plan.org.au.

Sponsors will also soon notice a change to their sponsored child’s reference number. To help us clearly identify a child’s program unit, an extra four numbers will be added to the front of the original number. After the new number is made available to you please use it when writing to your sponsored child and when communicating with Plan. If you have any questions about this change please contact Supporter Service on 13 PLAN (13 7526) or email info@plan.org.au.

Jet Couriers shares its success with children A growing group of children, mostly in Africa, share a special bond with delivery business Jet Couriers. As the success of Jet Couriers, originally a local Melbourne company, has taken off, so too has the development of these children and their communities. Their sponsorship means a regular flow of funding The Jet Couriers team from for projects that benefit all Williamstown sponsors two community members. Jet Couriers children in Uganda. has been sponsoring children through Plan since 2005. Presently, 22 children are sponsored: two children for every branch in Australia. Two girls in Niger (Hanifatou, 10, and Sarifatou, 13) were the most recent children to be sponsored when the latest office – the seventh in Victoria – was opened at Carrum Downs in March. Over the past four years, other offices have also been opened in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Tasmania.

Jet Couriers managing director Brett Ralph says that sponsoring a child through Plan allows staff to take an interest in the children and also gain a greater understanding of the enormous difficulties faced by their communities.

“Every year we receive many approaches from aid and charitable organisations seeking financial support, all of which do wonderful work, however we felt the programs undertaken by Plan could make a real difference to the lives of these children,” Brett says.

12

Maria Garvey and daughter Andy win a trip of a lifetime.

Long-time child sponsor wins gorilla trek with Gecko’s and Coffex One of Plan’s very first child sponsors, Maria Garvey from Canberra, has won the holiday of a lifetime to Uganda. With daughter Andy, Maria will soon be on Gecko’s eight-day Gorilla Express trip in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and then on to a Plan-supported community in Uganda’s Lowero West district, where Maria will have the opportunity to meet her sponsored child, 14-year-old Birigita. The competition came about when two Plan corporate partners, Coffex Coffee and Gecko’s Adventures, joined forces to support Global Café Direct, a fair-trade organic coffee range. Open to all Australians, the competition also helped promote Plan.

Maria, who also sponsors 13-year-old Xia in China, has sponsored eight children through Plan in the past 34 years.

Maria Garvey’s winning words for ‘What does Global Café Direct fairtrade organic coffee mean to you’:

Gorillas love Global Café. Now jungles are safe places to play. Farmers well paid for fairtrade coffee. Don’t need money from poaching bushmeat like me!

A GIFT THAT KEEPS GIVING

An increasing number of Australians are discovering the benefit of giving to charities through their own endowment funds.

An endowment fund is either set up as a private prescribed fund or as an account within an ancillary fund. Private prescribed funds, which have auditing and reporting requirements, are growing in popularity in Australia with more than $1.5 billion deposited in 769 approved funds since 2001.

Endowment funds allow a foundation’s principle donation to be invested and left to grow while a portion of the investment return is donated to organisations like Plan. The deposits and the interest earned on both funds are income tax exempt and donations are fully tax deductible.

For more information visit www.plan.org.au.

GLOBAL CHILD WINTER 2009

BE A PART OF IT

Canberra empowers Cambodian families

Plan sponsor Tiffany Taylor took the Great Ocean Walk Raw Charity Challenge in October.

More Cambodian families will have the chance to build better lives after Canberra Friends of Plan (FOP) raised $6000 through fundraising events last year. A Cambodian-themed dinner dance attended by 261 people raised $4000 and the group’s raffle and 9th Annual Art and Craft Show raised another $2000. Canberra FOP member Gösta Lyngå says the link forged with the Cambodian Association of the ACT contributed to this outstanding success. Over the past eight years, Canberra FOP have raised more than $30,000 for Plan’s priority development projects.

Challenge on for ‘Great’ walks

Canberra Friends of Plan volunteers Gösta and Pauline Lyngå with Salwah Kirk (centre), the ‘people’s choice’ craft winner at their 9th Annual Art and Craft Show.

Plan and Raw Challenges (formerly Intrepid Challenges) are offering you the chance to have the adventure of a lifetime. This year, you can walk the Great Wall of China or do the Great Ocean Walk in Victoria knowing that every step you take will help change the lives of children, their families and communities in developing countries.

You too could be heading off on an exciting adventure like Plan supporters Bill Doran and Kasey Nairn who will cycle through Mongolia in July. However, Bill and Kasey are fundraising for a project closer to home – Plan’s Water and Environmental Sanitation project in East Timor. So far they have raised more than $3500. When you take the Raw Charity Challenge for Plan you can choose either to fundraise or make a donation on top of your trip costs. If you fundraise a specified amount, Plan can subsidise part of the trip costs (land only), in return for your fundraising efforts.

Ocean swimmer, Luke Griffiths raised more than $1000 for Plan.

Sponsor swims for Plan Plan child sponsor Luke Griffiths hit the water with 4000 other swimmers for the Sydney Cole Classic – the largest ocean swim over both one and two kilometres – on 1 February.

Luke used his passion for ocean swimming to raise more than $1000 for Plan. “Being able to support Plan in this way made this experience even more rewarding and satisfying,” Luke says.

Luke is just one of the many supporters who have fundraised via www.everydayhero.com.au for Plan by participating in community swimming and running events. Keep an eye on www.plan.org.au for future events.

Sydney dances for Zimbabwe More than $3300 was raised to help feed vulnerable families in Zimbabwe when more than 250 people danced the night away at Sydney’s popular Piano Room in February. The DJ sounds of MC Double D (Daimon Downey from Sneaky Sound System) and friends made the night a huge success. The money raised is going to the Vulnerable Group Feeding Program in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe where Plan is working with the World Food Program to help save lives by distributing food to children and their families.

Celebrate your special occasion for CHILDREN If you’re the kind of person who has everything and wants for nothing, you can make your special day even more special by helping to make a difference for children. Whether it’s your birthday, engagement, wedding or birth of a new baby, you can set up a special occasion online fundraising page with Everyday Hero at www.plan.org.au/beapartofit and follow the links to ‘Other ways to Help’. Then just ask your friends, family and colleagues for donations for Plan in lieu of gifts.

You can also set up an online charity gift registry for Plan at www.karmacurrency.com.au. There are a range of Plan gifts to choose from. Set up is free and you can print or email your gift registry cards to guests. All donations support Plan’s priority projects in Africa and Asia.

To find out more about fundraising or events visit the ‘Be a Part of it’ section at www.plan.org.au or contact Nicole Rodger on 13 PLAN (13 7526).

GLOBAL CHILD WINTER 2009

13

NEWS

Plan named ‘top performer’ in global accountability report

annual Appeal raises more than $220,000

Plan was ranked second in the NGO section and third overall in a global accountability report prepared by independent think tank One World Trust. The independent report ranks 30 of the world’s influential corporations, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations on accountability and transparency. Plan in Australia CEO Ian Wishart says Plan welcomes any independent assessment of our practices.

“As an organisation that actively promotes accountability at all levels, it is vital that we are also accountable to those we support,” Ian says.

For a copy of the global accountability report visit www.oneworldtrust.org and to read about Plan’s commitment to accountability visit www.plan.org.au. one world trust

Professional surfer Serena Brooke visits Miguel (right) and his family in Peru.

Surf’s up for children Professional surfer and Plan child sponsor Serena Brooke, after competing in a world championship tour event in Peru last October, headed inland to visit 13-year-old Miguel. Serena, from Queensland, sponsors two children through Plan: Miguel and seven-year-old Tania from Bangladesh.

“While I have been to Peru several times before and witnessed the poverty firsthand, visiting Miguel and his family was such a unique experience,” says Serena, who ranks 16th in the world of women’s pro surfers.

“Despite the terrain looking something like Mars (it was very barren and dry), I saw the positive way Plan had empowered the community. The kids were very proud of their school and new toilets. And a community knitting project was helping women use their skills to contribute to the family income. I was very stumped for words when Miguel’s parents asked me about a day in my life. With the ocean as my playground, it was a stark contrast to the hardship of their desert way of life. I feel so fortunate to be in a position to help.”

Through her Serena Brooke Charity Surf Day events held in the United States, Serena also recently donated $18,890 to Plan in Australia to help feed vulnerable children and their communities in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe.

14

GLOBAL CHILD WINTER 2009

Thank you to all our supporters who gave generously to the 2008 annual appeal for the Water and Sanitation project in Kisarawe district, Tanzania – a project that has significant benefits for children’s health. Working with communities, Plan is improving access to clean water for more than 22,000 people and over 4000 school children by drilling boreholes, installing rainwater tanks, building water distribution systems and constructing an earthen dam. The project will expand this year to tackle open defecation and hygiene through an approach called Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS).

CLTS activities will reach more than 70,000 people in 55 villages.

GovernorGeneral visits Plan projects in Africa

Governor-General Quentin Bryce visited Kawangware School in Kenya in March and was impressed by Plan’s work at the school.

Plan has repaired or constructed classrooms, helped set up child peer groups, facilitated teacher training and provided clean water and proper sanitation. A daily meal provided through the World Food Program has also meant that children do not go hungry.

“I enjoyed enormously the time that I spent visiting the school. I have learnt of the challenges for boys and girls in education,” says Ms Bryce, who is also a child rights advocate, and a former Plan in Australia board member.

Children are also involved in the ongoing development of their school, which has been made possible with support from the community and child sponsors around the world.

As well as Kawangware School, which is located in an urban slum in Nairobi, Ms Bryce also visited two Plan projects in rural Kisarawe, Tanzania – a village microfinance project and a school-based water and sanitation project.

Ms Bryce was in Africa on a nine-country tour of Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and the Seychelles; she also met with the presidents of all these countries. The purpose of the tour was to emphasise Australia’s growing engagement in Africa.

NEWS

Jamie Durie with children in Rajasthan where Plan supports community-based early childhood care and development.

Inspired by India’s children India and its children left a lasting impression on Jamie Durie during a recent visit of Plan’s early childhood care and development projects in Delhi’s slums and construction sites and in desert villages in Rajasthan. Leaving behind his role as landscape designer and television personality, he travelled to India as Plan Ambassador to film a television special discovering both hardship and hope.

“I expected to be overwhelmed by the poverty and despair that so many of us have experienced on our travels. But what I found, turned out to be a very different story… and took me on one of the most positive, hopeful journeys I’ve ever been on.”

I saw firsthand what could be achieved when you empower communities, like Plan does.

JAMIE DURIE – PLAN AMBASSADOR

Jamie’s Journey with the Children of India will be screened on Saturday, 16 May 2009 on Channel 7 - 4.30pm Sydney, 4.00pm Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and 3.30pm in Perth. For a preview of the television special visit www.plan.org.au.

Slumdog Millionaire SUPPORTS Plan

Slumdog Millionaire actor Anil Kapoor (centre) visits a community in Delhi supported by Plan.

Slumdog Millionaire filmmakers, leading star Ani Kapoor and the Oscar-winning film’s cast and crew are all supporting Plan’s work in India.

Producer Christian Colson and Director Danny Boyle have donated £500,000 ($1million) to improve the lives of children in Mumbai’s slums where the hit move was filmed. The donation goes to Plan India’s five-year integrated child development program that addresses issues related to health, education, protection, water and sanitation and aims to reach 5000 children and 2000 families.

“Having benefitted so much from the hospitality of the people of Mumbai it is only right that some of the success of the movie be ploughed back into the city in areas where it is needed most and where it can make a real difference to some lives,” Boyle says.

In consultation with Plan, a trust has also been established by the filmmakers to provide for the welfare and educational needs of two of the film’s young stars: Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail.

Anil Kapoor also donated his entire fee for the movie to Plan’s Universal Birth Registration campaign in India. “Before we started shooting, I had made an arrangement with the filmmakers,” he says. Kapoor, one of the best-known actors in the Indian film world, has been involved in promoting the campaign since its launch two years ago.

Slumdog Millionaire cast and crew also joined Kapoor at a fundraising event raising an additional $56,500 for Plan India’s work in preventing the abuse and exploitation of vulnerable children.

To learn more about Plan’s child centred community development projects in India including Plan’s Universal Birth Registration campaign and to view a short video from Anil Kapoor visit www.plan.org.au/ourwork/campaigns/ubr

GLOBAL CHILD WINTER 2009

15

Learning NEW

ming farmeans

methods

malnutrition is

off the menu In many developing countries around the world, children do not get enough food for an active, healthy and productive life. This year more than ever, Plan needs your support to ensure our emergency food relief work and long-term food sustainability projects continue.

Your gift today will help Plan work with communities in countries like The Philippines to improve health, increase family incomes and reduce the incidence of malnutrition in children.

Donate today by calling 13 PLAN (13 7526) or make a secure online donation at plan.org.au Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible. For every dollar you contribute to Plan’s Priority Projects supported by the AusAID NGO Cooperation Program by June 30, AusAID gives up to $3 more. If Plan receives more than the multiplying match for the current year, the donations in excess will be applied to the subsequent years of these projects or other Plan projects around the world, which may not achieve the same multiplying effect. AusAID is the Australian Government Agency for International Development.

Change Agents…for the sake of Children