Asia

The Cause:

Health and Girls' Rights

The Cause:

Education

The Facts:

• Among boys and girls of primary school age in Haiti, only around 50% are actually attending school (48% of boys, 52% of girls).
• Attendance numbers drops drastically for secondary school, hovering around 20% (18% of boys, 21% of girls). (Source: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_statistics.html#77)

The Project:

Plan promotes reading and writing skills for primary school children in Haiti by providing portable libraries and teacher training.

The Details:

Reading and writing are essential skills that should be part of every child's tool kit as they enter into adulthood. But in Haiti, ensuring that each child graduates from primary school is still a challenge. In fact, only about half of all children do!

The cause:

Girls' Rights and Child Participation

The project:

Girls need a voice! Plan supports girls

The cause:

Child Protection and Girls' Rights

The facts:

• Most victims of commercial sexual abuse are females aged 13 to 18.
• 99% of sexually abused children are girls.
• Girls who are sexually abused are at risk of HIV/AIDS, STDs and teenage pregnancy.

The project:

Plan launched a project to prevent children and women from being trafficked, and to support recovery of survivors of trafficking and their reintegration into families and communities.

The details:

Preventing trafficking of children and women, as well as helping those who have been trafficked to re-claim their lives, starts with teaching communities about the problem. Using popular media, including theatre, posters, comics and radio infomercials, Plan is raising awareness about children's rights and the dangers of human trafficking in 174 communities.

The cause:

Girls' Rights and Education

The facts:

• 67% of girls and 76% of boys regularly attend primarily school.
• Only 33% of girls attend secondary school compared to 39% of boys.
• Only 60% of girls ages 15 to 24 know how to read and write, compared to 80% of boys in the same age group.
• 16% of girls in Pakistan between ages 15 and 19 are married.

The project:

To improve school attendance and provide alternative education where needed, Plan supported a project to improve education in Pakistan.

The details:

The main goal of this project is getting girls who have dropped out, or who have never had the chance to attend school, into the classroom. Parents concerned about the safety of their children are often reluctant to send girls to school if the girls must travel far from home to attend. When there is no school available in the community, the only option is to send girls to a different town or keep them home.

The big picture:

Although Myanmar is well known for its wealth of resources and rich culture, political unrest has slowed its development.

Controlled by a military regime for 50 years, the people of Myanmar have dealt with numerous human rights violations affecting the wellbeing of the population. Media censorship, poor healthcare and armed violence have all contributed to the difficult living conditions.

The Myanmar people remain hopeful with the swearing in of a new civilian government in 2011. With a new government, Myanmar is working to fix the issues that have impacted their past.

Flag image: 

Location

The cause:

Child Protection

The facts:

• 70% of children in China experience minor or serious abuse in their families.
• Worldwide, 40 million children are abused each year.
• 3% to 29% of all boys, and 7% to 36% of all girls have been sexually abused.
• Abuse is experienced by children at home, at school, at work and in the community.

The project:

Children have the right to live their lives free from violence. Rights

In order to improve access and quality of education, this project aims to improve formal and informal education for women in the community. The project has implemented School Improvement Programmes (SIPs), which provide or improve basic facilities and resources (ex. textbooks) in government schools. The informal education aspect of the project focuses on alternative options for girls and women unable to attend government schooling. Adult literacy programs were created for illiterate women, with a focus on elderly women, in the community. Pre-school programmes are provided for children ages 3-5 in the community, as well as literacy centres and education programs for children, especially young girls, who are not enrolled in government schools.

Personal stories: Zahida is a twenty-eight year old mother who is a member of a Plan Partner community in Patalian, Pakistan. She has two brothers and four sisters. Because her family did not have much money when she was growing up, it was not possible for Zahida and her siblings to continue studying past Grade 5. She stayed at home doing embroidery and gardening during her adolescent years and lapsed into illiteracy.

The goal of this project is to contribute to lowering the number of trafficked women in the Philippines. This is achieved through raising community awareness, and campaigning about the dangers of trafficking. Young girls in the communities are learning about anti-trafficking laws, and about the importance of gender and child protection. The project also provides services for the recovery of survivors of trafficking. These services include group and individual counselling and support, education, and participation in games and cultural events.

Personal stories:

One of the main purposes of the reading centre is to provide adolescents in the area with a safe space for them to be with their friends, and to help protect them from being