"This event provides an opportunity for Plan to profile children and youth issues and inspire journalists on the value of reporting issues affecting children and youth. Organisations working to promote children’s rights should continue to support this course," said Samuel Musyoki, Acting Country Director for Plan Kenya. Mr Musyoki presented the "Children and Youth Affairs Reporting Award" to the winning Journalists on 3 May 2013 during the gala event hosted by the Media Council of Kenya.

Plan has been a key partner with the Media council in training journalists on excellent reporting of children issues. The Media Council of Kenya holds Annual Journalism Excellence Awards [AJEA] in May each year targeted to coincide with the World Press Freedom Day celebrations.

The award was presented to David Throp, Plan Ethiopia Country Director, by Ahmed Shine, Ethiopian Minister of Finance and Economic Development, and Barbara Plinkert, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Ethiopia.

Improving access

The project was funded through the EU and UKNO, and has benefitted 257,838 people across three project districts. It aimed to improve access to essential services like health and education, and the livelihoods of poor households in rural areas. The results included:

• 13 solar-powered water supply services benefitting 19,500 people, which means women and girls do not have to walk for hours each day to collect water
• ten solar-powered health clinics, which serve 25,000 people, which has led to the introduction of night services and savings on energy bills
• ten solar-powered schools, benefitting 8,000 primary school pupils, 500 adult students and more than 100 teachers and school staff, by introducing teaching aids like computers and televisions.
• 6,000 households (about 30,000 people) benefitting from fuel saving stoves, which means families save money on buying wood and also reduce indoor air pollution.

The award acknowledged the project’s visibility in the three districts. This included the use of Plan and EU branding on signboards, publications, videos, stickers, car stickers, posters and banners.

The award also recognised the project’s achievements, best practice, impact and scalability.

Acknowledgement

David said: “This award is an important acknowledgement of Plan’s leadership in promoting the use of renewable energy to improve the lives of children in poor communities.

“Public recognition from our donor, the EU, is to the immense credit of all those involved: the Plan teams in Ethiopia and the UK, and our project partners including local officials and the communities we work alongside.”

RESA explores governance and economic opportunities with youth

Participants who included youth programmes staff from RESA, International Headquarters, Canadian and UK National Offices, Youth Civil Society Organisations and other partner organisations discussed the development of the regional framework for youth in governance and economic security that will guide Plan RESA countries in facilitating the role of young people as active citizens through employability and governance.

Robert Njoroge, Regional Youth Employability and Governance Specialist for Plan RESA said: “Through this meeting, youth economic security and governance have been identified as the two main issues of concern for the young people in the region. A regional framework will guide countries in RESA on how to engage with young people to improve their well being by enhancing their economic security and meaningful participation in governance.”

“The framework, once completed, will inform countries on youth programming, and act as a guide and voice on youth activities in the region. The framework document is just a component of the process and embedding it in our programmes work in countries will be key,” he said

Best models for RESA

Opportunities for governance

Other identified opportunities for governance include: holding duty bearers accountable; peer reviewing of programmes on youth; tapping into resources or funding, since many donors and partners have governance as a core strategy; exchanging and learning from other countries implementing successful governance programmes in the region; out-reach to youth and expansion of programs to ensure inclusive, diverse and representative youth participation, as well as forming alliances with existing youth advocacy institutions; Plan Walking the Talk, becoming more accountable to young people, and affirming that a certain percentage of its jobs will go to the youth, as well as implement an ambitious internship and volunteer system to imbue skills among the youth.

Malika's fundraising enabled her to buy 60 bikes for her classmates

10th April 2013: The pomp and ceremony of Plan’s Because I am a Girl campaign on the International Day of the Girl, 11^th October, inspired one girl in Burkina’s Namentenga province to take action. Participating in the ceremony wasn’t enough for Malika, however.

Malika lives in Boulsa, 185km from Burkina's capitol city Ouagadougou. Children in the province have difficulty getting to school primarily because many live 10 to 15km away. The long walks are tiring and children, understandably, lack the motivation to walk up to 30km per day to go to school. It’s no surprise only 12.8% of girls go on to secondary education, with only 4.6% of them graduating.

International Day of the Girl

Plan brought this fact to attention during the festivities and through the Because I am a Girl campaign was able to donate 182 bicycles to girls to facilitate their journey to school. This got Malika thinking, and then, acting. At her school’s Christmas fair in December 2012, Malika and her friends set up a stand. The girls shared Plan’s vision that all children, especially girls, have the right to go to school and have a quality education.

School doesn't seem so far away now that the girls can cycle there

With photos of bicycle distribution in October, some Because I am a Girl t-shirts and flyers, Malika and her friends were in business. They spread word to all at the fair about girls’ difficulty in accessing education. With pens and donation forms at the ready, their goal was to raise as much money as possible to donate it to Plan to buy more bicycles.

The girls continued to raise funds to get more bikes over the next 4 months at any opportunity. “I approached relatives, friends, anyone I knew, to come to our house and donate. The staff at Plan contributed FCFA 1,000,000 ($2000) to help us out.” Malika said. All in all, she and her friends were able to raise roughly $4,000; and they were able to buy 60 bikes.

“Today, I look at all these bicycles intended for young girls like me, girls with ambition and a strong desire to learn. I feel such a joy deep inside me, just having accomplished a small thing for other people.”

Namentega’s High Commissioner was elated by Malika’s efforts and told girls from her school to make good use of their bikes as well as to continue to study hard. Naturally, Malika has become very popular among her class mates.

Support Plan's Because I am a Girl campaign

Solar powered water supply system installed by Plan Malawi.

March 2013: Every day in Kamtsizi and Mazaza villages, of Njewa, Lilongwe part of Malawi, families turn on taps at shared water points and out flows clean, fresh water for drinking, cooking, washing and bathing.

This may seem unremarkable but, a while back the story was quite different. For years, residents of these 2 villages had been drinking and cooking using contaminated water drawn from unprotected sources such as streams and dambos (Malawian name for wetlands).

Safe water supply

The change is as a result of a solar powered safe water supply system installed by Plan Malawi in 2012 in an effort to address water and sanitation issues.

Vincent Robert, washing his hands after using the latrine.

“We suffered from recurrent bouts of diarrhoea due to lack of safe water and proper sanitation services, coupled with poor hygiene practices, now this is past tense” says Henderson Mbendera, secretary for Kamtsizi-Mazaza Village Health Committee.

“In the past, I missed classes often due to frequent stomach aches. But now there is pure drinking water, hand washing has become a habit after using the latrine. I can now go to school and study without getting sick, says 9-year old Vincent Roberts.

Extending the service

The water supply system installed alongside several water points, serves Kamtsizi and Mazaza villages, and the service is extended to neighbouring villages.

“People from neighbouring villages come to draw water from this point, especially when they can’t get water from taps in their own communities,” Henderson explains as other residents gather around the water points.

To maintain the water tank, community members and neighbours pay a monthly contribution of K100.00 (USD 0.0026) per household. People being served by the water points take care of the facilities themselves, including maintaining the taps when they break down.

“We have water and we need to take care of it,” says Henderson.

Plan Malawi’s National Coordinator for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programmes, Richman Kalua says Ministry of Water officers trained the residents on how they can maintain the water taps.

Working together

“Each time we are implementing a water project in a community, we engage the Ministry of Water to help in supervising the work and in training water users on how to carry out maintenance works,” says Kalua.

Plan Malawi intends to expand the system to serve more people within the neighbouring villages. The water points serve close to 300 people in the 2 villages combined.

But according to Kalua, the facility has the capacity of serving up to 2, 200 people per day, which translates to an average of 7 villages. “We intend to make safe drinking water accessible to more people in the coming years. Our partnership with the Ministry of Water is key in ensuring that we achieve this goal,” says Kalua.

Learn more about our work in Malawi

Learn more about Plan water and sanitation work

Ms Loj talks with youth at the Plan supported Akotoe irrigation project that uses water from the river to allow for all year round farming

18th January 2013: “Now the youth do not have to go to the cities in search of non existing jobs” John Kwesi Tetteh, is patron of a Plan supported 5 acre vegetable farm along the Volta River, Akotoe community, Eastern Ghana. This is what he told Plan Chair Ellen Loj on her recent visit to the area.

Ms Loj saw for herself how Plan had helped the Akotoe community; having built a 6 classroom school complete with libraries and staff room and making it possible to use the Volta river to irrigate the farm, so that the youth can farm all year round, giving a source of livelihood for many youths in the community who have completed school and are unemployed.

Children in Papaase show they understand education

But this was not the only community that Ellen Loj had the pleasure of visiting. She visited the community of Papaase, in Plan’s Central Programme Unit, where she received a rousing welcome from the community. The Papaase Rights of the Child club performed a sketch on teenage pregnancy, demonstrating how a lack of education could lead children into anti-social activities. Ms Loj then urged parents not to let their sons interfere with girls at a young age and to really understand the importance of education.

Health, jobs and education

Joseph Tetteh Angmor is the District Chief Executive of the Upper Manya Krobo District, in eastern Ghana. On Ms Loj’s visit, he took the opportunity to praise Plan for their work in the area saying “Without the help of Plan, we would not have come this far in the development of our district.” Plan’s areas of intervention in eastern Ghana concentrate heavily on health and education which, most recently includes the opening of the Dream Centre that gives youth employable skills.

Standing up for girls' rights

Ellen Loj met with girls from projects in Assesewa high school to see just how the clubs and associations were helping them

The final activity on Ms Loj’s agenda with Plan was a visit to the Assesewa Senior High School, also in Plan Ghana’s Eastern Programme Unit, to talk with youth involved in Plan’s Girls Football team and Girls Making Media club; 2 programmes which encourage youth to stay in school as well as to train girls in journalism so that they can contribute to the elimination of gender discrimination and improve the quality of media reporting on adolescent girls’ issues in West Africa.

Social clubs bring goal focus

The Girls Making Media club staged a talk show in which they discussed the importance of education for both girls and boys. After the debate, the host of the programme showed off even more talent, interviewing both Ellen Loj and Plan Ghana’s Country Director, Prem Shukla, about their career and the need to educate girls.

Some of the girls spoke about how the clubs had led them to become more focused on their goals. “Since I started playing football, I have now become confident and focused on completing my education.  I want to pursue a career as a professional footballer after I graduate from school,” said 17-year-old Mary.

Read more about Plan's involvement of children in media

See what Plan gets up to in Ghana

March 2013: These girls always meet at this centre run by a girls’ organisation, SOLGIDI–Solidarity with girls in Distress, in Kenya‘s coastal town of Mombasa over the weekends. It is here that they share their experiences.

Today I find them playing and dancing. They greet us but one cannot help but ask what it is that brought them to this place in the first place.

Most of the girls here have either experienced sexual or physical violence. I am introduced to Amina by a girl who is a beneficiary of the programme and now pursuing a degree at one of the local universities introduces

Amina's experience

Amina’s mother is a commercial sex worker. She is the eldest of their 4 siblings. She came to Solgidi after being sexually abused by one of her mom’s clients a year ago. Amina is now 15 years. She is still dealing with trauma of injuries she got after being raped and on being thoroughly beaten. She keeps pulling the sleeve of her top to hide the scars in her arm though I’m informed she has made good progress in dealing with her situation. Just like other weekends she is here to meet her counsellor. She agrees to talk to us about her experience.

A safe haven

“I like coming here, I feel safe and happy while am here. My younger sister and two brothers also come with me and they also enjoy playing with the other children. It still hurts when I think about him and what he did to me. My mother did not believe me. He forced me on the bed, and later beat me claiming that I stole his money while he was waiting for my mother. No one believed me”

Amina is now teary. She looks down before she can reach for her handkerchief. She wipes her eyes and tears. She then looks up, smiles warmly at me as she sits upright.

“I am okay, I have to be okay for my sister and brothers, I am all they have and all I have. Our mother is rarely around. She comes to the house drunk with men. I am happy Solgidi has helped me very much. I have received some scholarship and this is keeping me in school.

Most of the girls you see here have had pain, they have gone through things they should not but we are here to walk together. Some have now gone to the university. It gives us hope.”

Agnes Mailu, coordinator of the Programme at Solgidi says there has been significant improvement on many of the girls in the programme despite the many challenges the families are facing.

Strength

“These girls have gone through a lot but they are strong. They do not need to be forced to be strong; we need to pull our efforts to just let them be girls.

Amina is just a young girl who has gone through a difficult situation and she still has to be a mother to her sister and brothers. We are not doing enough, we do not believe our children when they report abuse, the system is not working and these girls even boys are the silent victims.”

Working together

Solgidi is one of the few organisations in Mombasa where girls who have been rescued from situations of violence get a chance to receive psychosocial support. The centre also provides care and support for children of commercial sex workers and also girls who have been in commercial sex work.

Plan Kenya in Kwale and Kilifi has been working with Solgidi as a partner in the child protection work through the Pwani child rights network.

Learn more about our work in Kenya.

Learn more about our Plan's child protection work »

Freddie Walton is the web and social media editor at Plan's West Africa Regional Office in Dakar

8th March 2013: To prepare for what seemed to be a regular interview, I read a series of emails written by Fatma. Her comment, “I am still ready to share my story even though it is somehow private and moving,” made me a little anxious, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Working in Senegal, for Plan, I edited sad, moving stories about children, daily from an almost clinical perspective. However, I was unsure of my reaction first hand.

Fatma Ndaw manages Plan’s “Mille Filles” programme in Senegal benefiting 1,000 girls in urban Dakar who cannot afford to go to school, or, struggle with grades

I imagined Fatma to be a close to my own age. So I was quite stunned, when a kind older lady sat down and asked, “So, I hear you have some questions for me?” Fatma’s grace was instantly apparent overlooking my surprised expression.

Education was her escape from poverty

Born in Dakar, Fatma grew up in St. Louis living with an aunt after her parents died. She didn’t dwell on the loss because she was too young to remember them. Instead, she spoke lively about starting to school. “I was only 6 years old,” she said with her eyes wide open gazing intensely into mine.

I understand why she seemed to think this was such a shocking revelation. I had been at school for a year at age 6. But then, I thought, while we both started school around the same age, I was not an orphan living with loads of relatives in a straw hut or helping my aunt to run a market stand so that I could eat at the age of 6.

Suddenly, my eyes were wide. Going to school was an accomplishment.

A model student...and wife

With no running water or electricity, Fatma studied by candlelight. I couldn’t believe that she understood how important education was at such a young age. At that age, I only cared about making fortresses in the woods, riding my bike, and collecting Pokémon cards.

Her studies paid off; she was accepted into a prestigious all-girls school. Because Fatma was an orphan, the government gave her a scholarship of 10,000CFA for each term, about £13 (US$20). I’ve had meals out that cost more than that.

When she was 15, Fatma came home from school one day to her aunt casually informing her that she was now married. Her new husband was no stranger: he was her uncle.

I had heard of so many stories like this but it was strange to actually be talking to someone who lived it.

Soon after her marriage, Fatma became pregnant forcing her to drop out of school. She was lucky one day to meet a teacher who helped her enrol at another school and continue her studies.  Teenage pregnancy happens in the UK but young mothers are supported either by the state or by relatives, they aren’t forced to drop out of school. In Senegal, it’s not the same. She began having stomach pains one day, “I was too young to realise what was happening to me, no one told me” she said of labour. She had a son.

Determination and strength

After the birth of her son, Fatma made the tough decision to return to school. Education was key to her future, so she would leave her baby at home whilst she returned to school. I can’t imagine just how desperate things must have been for her. Coming home to her baby crying and a husband who wanted more children.  Fatma wanted more, so she asked her husband/uncle for a divorce, he agreed reluctantly.

Fatma was accepted to university. One day her ex-husband, remarried, asked her for their son, now a toddler. She agreed to let the boy join this new family, recognizing the value of living with a family versus living with a student. She then finished her degree and began to teach English in St. Louis.

She worked very hard, but lived very frugally. Saving most of her wages to build her aunt a proper house. She had escaped poverty, gave birth to child and made her family proud. Her story really brought home just how important education can be.

Read more about Fatma's work with Plan in Senegal

February 2013: In Senegal’s worst Koranic schools, the teachers routinely send their pupils to beg on the streets, citing it as a part of their religious learning.

The children, known as ‘talibés’, receive no formal education and can suffer poor living conditions. Boys aged from 3 to 15 must earn their keep on the streets, while girls may be put to work in the school – or daara – itself.

Education project

Watch the clip to learn more and see how Plan is working as a partner in the USAID-funded Basic Education Project, which is supporting the introduction of a formal education cycle and better learning conditions into daaras in Louga and Dakar.

Now in its fourth year, the project has seen 108 daaras enrol in the programme, benefiting nearly 5,000 talibé children. Many of them are excelling, achieving higher results than their counterparts in formal French schools.

President promise

“When I’m president,” vows pupil Abdou, 13, with a beaming smile, “I’ll make everything better for everyone, so that everyone has a nice life and no one suffers.”

Find out more about Plan’s work in Senegal

February 2013: Plan is distributing 10,000 learners’ kits to help children affected by the devastating floods in Mozambique to return to school.

The move is part of Plan's work to support the Mozambican government's emergency response to the disaster, which has affected more than 250,000 people across Gaza Province - destroying homes, schools and roads.

Each learners' kit includes 10 exercise books, pens, pencils, a ruler, eraser, a geometric set and a school bag. This will help restore schooling and sustain pupils for at least one term as the country rebuilds institutions and systems destroyed by the floods.

Vital support

Pupils rummage through a heap of flood-damaged school books in Chókwè, Mozambique

“None of these children had complete materials. This kind of support goes a long way to assist them get quality education as each child will now have a book for every subject,” says Teresa Manhique, director of the first primary school that benefited from the kits.

In her school, tucked away just a few metres from Chókwè  town, reading materials and desks were completely destroyed by the floods, forcing more than 300 pupils to lose out on their education for 2 weeks while they were relocated.

Feeling good about going to school

“I was using one exercise book for all subjects, but now I have many choices, this makes me feel really good about going to school,” says Elico, a second grade pupil after receiving his learners' kit.

The list of pressing needs is still long. Teachers badly need mobile blackboards and other teaching materials - but primarily they require emotional help.

In response, Plan is providing emotional and psychological support to hundreds of teachers affected by the floods, which have killed more than 80 people.

Learn more about Plan's work in Mozambique

Read about Plan's global emergencies work

School girls in Tharaka reciting poems on education and child rights.

This is a story of Kalendi, a dramatized narrative about a young girl from Tharaka, one of the most marginalised regions of Kenya, who was circumcised by force and infected with HIV.

Dennis and Winfred, both pupils at a primary school in Tharaka are using their talent to educate and campaign against female genital mutilation in their community through the narrative.

Spreading the word

“We want to tell people that FGM is harmful to young girls. There are many dangers brought by the practice and it should be stopped. All boys and girls are equal and should be allowed to go to school in peace,” says Dennis.

The two pupils are members of a peace club which educates the public on the need to stop FGM and the importance of taking girls to school by performing in various community gatherings to raise awareness among the members of the community, some who are still resistance against efforts to abandon the harmful practice.

Breaking the barriers

“Tharaka is a closed community, so getting through is a big challenge. They have a culture of silence and getting information from them is very hard. The custodians of the community are not always willing to reveal information or engage with ‘outsiders’. Breaking the barriers is often hard but we have to remain committed because we aim to promote girls’ reproductive health and education positions,” says Irene Wali, Plan International’s Child Protection and Governance Coordinator in Tharaka.

Female circumcision is more than the practice itself. It’s often deeply rooted in the culture with endless taboos and beliefs that impact the young girl’s social status and identify. According to the World Health Organisation, in Africa alone, an estimated 92 million girls, 10 years old and older, have undergone FGM.

“When girls here undergo the cut at an early age as 9, it is not long before they are married, because they are deemed as adults and ripe for sexual activity and wifely duties,” adds Wali.

Closing the gap

Although significant changes have been seen in the community, some members still appear unwilling to discard the practice.

“The elderly members of the community are still very rigid. It is this group that we aim to reach because their views carry a lot of weight in the community,” says Kennedy Njagi, a nurse in one of dispensaries in Tharaka.

Njagi has worked in the region for 16-years and understands well the community’s rigidity when it comes to cultural practices such as FGM.

Community advocacy

“Our aim is to do everything we can to bring about cultural and attitudinal change within the community,” adds Njagi, who is also in charge of a group of community health workers.

The community health committee’s advocates against FGM and are tasked with reaching parents, clan elders and other members of the community. Only several years ago, over 90% of girls in sections of Tharaka were undergoing FGM. But the numbers have significantly reduced.

In December 2012, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution banning the practice of FGM. A total of 194 members supported the resolution.

“We would like to see this community give up the practice completely, because of the extensive harm it has on girls’ reproductive health. It negatively affects all parts of their lives specifically their education and further impoverishing the community,” says Njagi.

Learn more about our work in Kenya

Learn about Plan’s Because I am a Girl campaign

* Facts from WHO. Plan is not responsible for the content on external websites.

A drawing illustrating FGM, done by a young girl from Egypt.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) of any type has been recognised as a harmful practice and violation of rights of girls and women. Unfortunately, it still remains a deep-rooted repugnant practice in some communities, especially in parts of Africa. In spite of the excessive bleeding, risk of exposure to disease from unsterilized equipment and procedures as well as the unbearable pain young girls have to endure to satisfy the said ‘rite of passage’.

'The day I shall never forget'

“I shall never forget that day. ‘Get up and be ready for circumcision’, were the firm words from my mother in the very early hours of morning. I didn’t understand exactly what she meant but deep inside, I felt afraid. I tried to make her explain what but all the attempts were in vain. As a continued to push for an explanation, a burly woman entered the room and asked me to lie on my back before she fished out a razor out of her very filthy bag,” recalls *Ahlam, a 13 years-old girl from Egypt.

Ahlam is a living example of girls who have been coerced into the practice and live regretting why they had to undergo a process that has not only lowered her personal esteem, notwithstanding the fact that it also denied her the opportunity to exercise her right to choose whether she needed the surgery or not.

“My mother held my arms so tight that I could not move.  Suddenly, the woman quickly finished her job.  I made a loud cry but nobody seemed to care. The pain was unbearable.  I could see through my tears my mum handing over some money to the woman. Shortly after, I started to bleed.  My mum put ashes on the wound to stop the blood. Though bleeding stopped, pain never did.  I endured severe pain for almost 2 weeks, says Ahlam.

Bitter taste

For her, the act not only denied her joy but also made her feel as if happiness would never be a reality in her life again. Ahlam is also bitter that she never had a chance to decide for herself and vows that as a mother, she will resist any attempts to harm her children in a similar way.

FGM has no known health benefits. On the contrary, it is associated with a series of short and long-term risks to both physical, mental and sexual health and well-being of the girls who undergo the process.

12 years old *Halima had come to reality with the practice 4 years earlier during a visit by her family to the rural village where circumcision of a 9-year old had turned fatal, sending the entire village into grief.

“We always spent summer vacations in the village.  It used to be very exciting time for me.   But this time, when we arrived in the village, I noticed that sadness reigned almost everywhere. Most women were dressed in black and men wore sad faces.  When I enquired, I was told that a 9-year old girl had died from excessive bleeding after being circumcised and when her family got a doctor, it was too late,” I was 8-years old then, Halima narrates.

Dampened love

The images had dampened her love for the rural life but come the following year, her parents insisted that they had to go to the village as they always did.

“All the way, I thought of the poor girl. The sad memories were compounded by a terrible pain in my teeth. Not oblivious of what awaited me, early the following morning my mum woke me up and asked me to get dressed in order to visit the dentist. On arrival at the clinic, I was told I would be circumcised. This was unbelievable. I turned pale and started screaming.  I tried to stop my mum and even reminded her of the girl who died because of FGM but she insisted that it was a must. She argued that there was no risk in my case as the one who would perform the circumcision was a qualified doctor.  After many trials, I surrendered,” laments Nada.

While Halima survived the process, she has been encountering nightmares of her bleeding to death and feels the pain she had to endure every time she recounts the surgery.

“When I grow up, I’ll never circumcise my children. It is painful,” Halima declares.

Positive steps

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 140 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of FGM. In Africa an estimated 92 million girls 10 years old and above have undergone FGM. Although the practice is mostly carried out by traditional circumcisers, FGM is also being performed by health care providers, and the trend is increasing.

Great efforts have been made to counter FGM through work within communities and change in public policy. Progress both at the international and local levels have been recognised resulting to a decrease in the prevalence and an increase in community participation and support towards ending the practice.

Research also shows that, if practising communities themselves decide to abandon FGM, the practice can be eliminated very rapidly.

International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation is marked every 6 February to raise awareness of FGM and promote its eradication. Read more facts from WHO. (*Plan is not responsible for the content on external websites)

Learn about Plan’s Because I am a Girl campaign

Plan works to raise awareness of FGM and change attitudes through working with religious leaders, community leaders, FGM practitioners, teachers, youth and parents and local partners.

*Names have been changed for privacy purposes

January 2013: Take a tour of a Plan child-friendly space in Niger and see the support it is providing to children who have been forced to flee fighting in Mali.

Plan installs child-friendly spaces after a disaster or crisis to give affected children a place to play, be safe, have a nutritious meal and receive emotional support to help them cope and recover.

This child-friendly space in one Niger refugee camp alone has already benefited hundreds of children.

Find out more about Plan's response to the Mali conflict and Sahel crisis

Learn about Plan's global emergencies work

Mairama is president of a local nutritional community group

8th January 2013: Mairama, 26, lives in the community of Wangai, Poli district. She is the president of the Saptou association whose members recently participated in a community training on nutrition sponsored by Plan. She describes how the training has changed her life.

“Since the nutrition crisis started in Poli, Plan has done a lot for us. Plan has not only supported our area with a lot of equipment and supplies, but also trained our association on how to prepare a balanced diet for our children and families. We in turn train other women in our communities.

During sessions on nutrition, we explain to women how they can feed their babies to prevent malnutrition. We discuss the benefits of breastfeeding from birth to 6 months, breastfeeding and complementary foods from 6-11 months, and, after that, how to wean children.

Women learning about the different nutrients found in foods

For families, we talk about what foods can be found in the village that provide energy and boost the immune system to protect children from diseases. It’s not expensive to eat right. My own eating habits have improved.

A community volunteer questioned my 8 year-old daughter about our new eating habits, and she said: “My mum does not cook any more just because we are hungry and have to eat; but because we need to eat a balanced diet. She varies the meals every day.”

More assistance needed

Plan Cameroon working with international and local partners has positively impacted the lives of thousands of people in Poli District, where most are food insecure. Thanks to the combined efforts, the prevalence of malnutrition has decreased considerably.

However, the community remains concerned about the future. With continued droughts, and poor growing seasons resulting in reduced harvests, people remain vulnerable. Programmes like the training attended by Mairama help educate mothers and care-givers about nutrition and how to improve it with local supplies. But high prices on staple grains and other items combined with food shortages continue to create hunger and malnutrition.

Through long-term support and programmes that address the root causes of hunger, and providing people with the skills necessary to reduce their own vulnerability, Plan is having impact. To support our long-term development programmes that improve food and overall security of children and women, please click here.

The nutritional crisis that Mairama speaks of is more widely referred to as the West African Food and Refugee Crisis

See more about Plan's action in Cameroon

Despite the promulgation of a law prohibiting child marriages in Kenya, the practice is still rampant in the country’s rural areas, according a recent study by Plan International in Kenya.

The report

The report indicates that most parents in rural Kenya marry off their girl children as young as 14 to escape to pangs of poverty and out of the fear and stigma associated with teen pregnancies and children born out of wedlock.

Deeper analysis reveals that girls are either seen as an economic burden or  valued as capital for their exchange value in terms of goods, money and livestock. It also apparent that a combination of cultural, traditional and religious arguments are used to justify child marriages.

The Kenya’s new Marriage Bill outlaws marriage below the age of 18. It states that no person shall get engaged or betrothed to a person under the age of eighteen years. The law imposes stiff penalties to anyone who gets engaged or betrothed to a person under the age of eighteen years.

However, Plan’s report, based on recent research conducted across 8 Counties, says most of the under-age girls were being married off to men who are significant older than them.

Worrying Trends

The research showed that child marriage was high among girls compared to males. 43 percent of the girls interviewed were married when they were below 18 years. This proportion is higher than national prevalence which stands at 34 percent for female and 1.4percent for males.

Statistics show that Kilifi has the highest prevalence of child marriage with 47.4 per cent, followed by Homa Bay 38 percent, Kwale 37.9 percent, Bondo 29.5 percent and Tharaka 25.3 percent.

It also notes worrying trends on increasing number of girls engaged in child labour within their household and are putting many hours in filling up for their absentee parents some of whom are employed as house helps which hinders them from attending school and eventually drop out.

Need to work together

“Improving access to education for both girls and boys and eliminating gender gaps in education are important ways of ending the practice of child marriage,” says Samuel Musyoki, Acting Country Director for Plan Kenya.

He added that: “Lobbying and advocating for enforcement of laws of sex with under-age children and forced marriage can also be one of the approaches that can be employed to deal with these problems.

“At a governmental level, individual ministries need to work together to coordinate efforts to tackle the social and economic barriers to girls’ education that cut across multiple sectors.

Under it’s Because I Am A Girl Campaign, Plan is calling for a minimum of 9 years schooling for girls and boys – which ensures a better transition to the critical stage of secondary education.

Because I am a Girl is Plan's campaign to fight gender inequality, promote girls' rights and lift millions of girls out of poverty.

Learn more about the campaign www.becauseiamagirl.org

Download the ‘Because I am a Girl’ Kenya Country report 2012. (PDF File; 700KB)