Plan Worldwide Annual Review and Combined Financial ...

Plan’s global spend in 2012
€97 million
Vietnam
Young children and parents play and
learn together
High in the mountains of Quang Tri, in northern
Vietnam, a group of children under five are learning
through play – and so are their parents. Through games,
singing Vietnamese songs, dancing and reciting poems,
the children develop new skills, while their parents
learn the best ways to play with their children.
In a country with few preschool programmes,
and a tradition of learning by rote, Plan has
developed a child-centred, bilingual approach to
preschool provision specially tailored to members
of minority ethnic groups whose mother tongue is
not Vietnamese.
Each playgroup hosts more than 100 parents and
130 children, who come together twice a month.
Twenty-one Plan-trained early childhood care and
development teachers and community volunteers
facilitate activities tailored to different age groups,
using toys, posters and hygiene accessories provided
by Plan. Key information and childcare practices are
reinforced through home visits by ECCD promoters.
So far, 17,000 children from birth to the age of six,
from seven communities in the area, have benefited
from the scheme. “Now, I spend more time playing
with my six-month-old boy,” says one mother. “The
ECCD promoters also advise me on how to keep
children clean and safe.”
Uganda
Early childhood centres give children
a head start
Few Ugandan children have access to early childhood
care – especially in marginalised communities. As a
result, many of these children struggle in school, which
means they risk dropping out or leaving school with not
enough learning to continue in education or get work.
In 2009, Plan began supporting communitymanaged
early childhood centres in 16 marginalised
communities, using an approach called Community-Led
Action For Children. Community members provide the
space, labour and local materials, and contribute to
the curriculum, as well as recruiting teachers and
forming management committees. Plan provides
on-site supervision and support in lesson planning
and delivery, plus a small stipend to 88 teachers
(68 of whom are female). The scheme also runs
parenting sessions on issues ranging from literacy
to effective, non-violent discipline.
So far, 647 children (including 319 girls) have enrolled
directly from the centres into grade 1. Thanks to the
high demand, in just three years the number of
centres has grown from the initial 16 to 65.
“When my children moved on to primary
school,” says one mother, “they could write
properly. When the teacher asked them their
names, they didn’t shy away like beginners.
I’m proud that my children acquired social skills
that enable them to express themselves.”
Guatemala
Mothers learn to protect against
malnutrition
Doña Olga, 31, left school in the fifth grade.
Today she runs a community childcare centre in
her hillside home in Alta Verapaz for 22 mothers and
their children aged up to 6, every Saturday morning.
Doña Olga was prepared for the role by Plan’s
Networks for Children project, run with the
Organization of Ibero-American States to help
communities detect and prevent malnutrition.
Despite progress in the last decade, Guatemala still
has the highest rates of infant mortality in Central
America, with 32 deaths in under-fives for every
1,000 live births, often due to chronic malnutrition.
These self-managed community centres are being
run in 80 communities in Guatemala that have little or
no formal early childhood care provision. They are for
mothers of children under six and led by local Caregiver
Mothers, like Doña Olga, who are trained in nutrition,
health and maternity care.
This year, Plan advised 30,993 pregnant and lactating
women on child care and breastfeeding, and 10,093
households participated in food education and
demonstration activities promoted by Plan.
We also trained 804 people working in hospitals
and communities in caring for children’s nutrition.
“I’m spreading what I’m learning,” says Doña Olga.
“I learn it, I pass it on.”
EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT
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