Plan in Asia
Plan is present in Asia in the following countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
Situation in the region
As in previous years, Plan’s interventions in the region last year were supported to alleviate poverty, develop the capacity of local organisations, protecting children and improving their education, as well as lobbying activities to influence policies affecting children and their families at the regional, district and local levels. All Plan interventions are embedded in and linked to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Plan’s work in the region
Despite the breadth of our intervention in the region, and our overall priorities and key challenges in the various countries, Plan’s work respects the diversity of Asia and does not impose one standard or solution. Last year, Plan
- Continued to collaborate with the 50 organisations making up the Child Workers Asia Network (CWA) in 12 Asian countries, creating safe and appropriate environments for working children to participate in local governance and combatting the worst forms of child labour in the region;
- Promoted the importance of early childhood care and development (ECCD) centres in enhancing the physical, social, emotional and cognitive development of children, and increased awareness about child rights amongst community members, as well as encouraged the involvement of parents and communities in the care and development of their children;
- Strengthened the capability of women’s savings and credit co-operatives in the region, developing mechanisms to market local crops, provide financial and complementary services through co-operatives run by women, increase food security and families income. The position of women in the region in general is often secondary to the one of men, due to traditional and discriminatory practices and inadequate laws;
- Carried on its work for the promotion of universal birth registration in the region with the objective of establishing a sustainable birth registration system, ensuring that all children between the age of 0 and 5 are documented and registered. Plan worked with the governments and local organisations ensuring birth registration activities were integrated with routine immunisation activities;
- Improved the quality of education by improving teachers’ training and adopting child-centred teaching and learning methodologies;
- Bettered the living conditions, sanitation and health of rural communities;
- Improved the health of children under five and pregnant women in the region. In India, for example, Plan improved the health of women and their children by providing them with opportunities for education and overall development such as access to reproductive health services, safe motherhood, care and support and child health care services, and early childhood care;
- Continued to combat the spread of HIV/Aids and contributed to sexual behaviour change – reduced infection by sexually transmitted diseases among the population – changed the risk behaviour of the community in relation to HIV and any sexually transmitted diseases (STD), strengthened existing clinical services and provided supplies to the referral clinics and local health facilities to prevent and control HIV/STDs;
- Assisted those communities affected by disasters and emergencies, including earthquakes in Yogyakarta and Central Java, mudslides in the Philippines and worked to rebuild communities affected by the tsunami in Indonesia and Sri Lanka and by the Pakistan earthquake in the Siran Valley;
- Assisted children and young people in conflict with the law. Children in conflict with the law are generally children who run away from their home and are likely to experience some form of neglect or physical or sexual abuse. Plan aims to decrease the number of children in conflict with the law and last year worked with 270 street and other children at risk as active community participants in 35 communities to establish programmes that provide alternative and child-appropriate treatment to children in conflict with the law.
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