Children are at the heart of everything we do

Children are at the heart of everything we do

Children are our future. They carry our hopes and dreams for the world. But to realise these dreams, to truly fulfill their potential, children must be allowed to live in a world that protects them, listens to their needs and respects their rights and dignity.
Plan is a child-centred community development organisation with no religious and political affiliations, enabling families and communities in the poorest countries to make lasting improvements to the lives of their children.
In the countries where we work, one out of five children die before the age of five, and the ones who survive often go hungry and have no chance of learning to read and write.
Plan works with children, their parents, and their community, to plan practical ways to provide many of the things we take for granted in the UK, so that together we build schools, drill wells, get nurses trained and help families to better support themselves.
Plan seeks to ensure that children are actively involved in the decision-making process, working with adults who have learnt to value their contribution.

We build relationships
The success of Plan's development projects depends on our holistic approach that addresses the needs of the children and communities we work with, through comprehensive projects which include health, education, habitat and livelihood. Because our projects take place over long periods of time, we really get to know the people and communities we work with, and understand the day-to-day challenges they face.
When we begin to work in partnership with a community, a close relationship is established with all the children, their families, and the community members. We listen to their views and opinions, and support them in addressing their needs.
For example, when Plan started working in Santa Cruz in Bolivia, some of the community members and children visited El Torno, a neighbouring community which had been collaborating with Plan for five years. Children in Santa Cruz participated in assessing their needs, deciding how to address them through suitable projects and how to monitor their progress. Together with community members the objectives of the partnership were then put in place.
Local people help themselves in the long-term
Our projects are about making sure that communities have the resources and the knowledge they need to help their children in the future.
When we are satisfied that substantial progress towards improving children's lives has been made and that the community is now able to continue developing independently of Plan, we prepare to withdraw from the area. We then move on to work with new communities in greater need of support. Our working with a community lasts on average for ten to twelve years, by which time significant achievements should have been made.
Plan's eventual withdrawal is important so that community members can use the skills they have learned to the full and feel in control of their own future. The objectives to improve education, health care, livelihood opportunities and habitat set in consultation with community members in the early stages of our relationship with each community are monitored during a continual progress. These objectives include not only achievements, like how many schools have been built since Plan's programme started, or how many latrines have been constructed, but also objectives such as whether people have an increased awareness of children's rights, accept the importance of education or understand issues like HIV/AIDS.
As time goes on, we examine with the communities whether these objectives have been addressed, whether local people have acquired the knowledge and skills for them to carry on with projects without Plan's support, or where relevant, with a local partner organisation. Once that has been achieved Plan can focus its work to reach even more people. Only in this way can we make sure that an increasing number of children have the best chance in life.
We are accountable
We are first and foremost responsible to the children and their communities and to all our supporters, sponsors and funding bodies.
At Plan we audit our programmes as well as our finances. This is to assess whether we are using best practice when we design projects with communities, to help us to learn from experience and from others, and to see whether we are meeting the expectations of the communities with whom we work. Our projects are evaluated and monitored regularly to assess just how effective they are in meeting children's needs.
We fund our work through a multitude of sources: primarily by individual sponsors, grants from statutory funding bodies, corporate partnerships and individual donors.