On the Road to New Beginnings in Uganda

Posted by Tessie San Martin - Plan International USA CEO

Uganda is a contradiction. This beautiful lush east African country of 35 million is rich in minerals. With abundant rainfall and rich soils, you can grow practically anything. Uganda could feed Africa, people often say.

Yet, in a country that could be the breadbasket for the continent, malnutrition and stunting among children is common. Too many children in Uganda die before age five (it has one of the region’s highest child mortality rates). And though the country has relatively high primary school enrollment rates for both boys and girls (in the 90's), it also has very low completion rates. High incidence of debilitating infectious diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS among children are leading causes of school absenteeism.

Why should a country endowed with so much be struggling like this? Years of civil war and insurgency have been a major factor. Uganda has experienced civil war and insurgency practically every decade since independence. Conflict has wreaked havoc with the economy, destroyed infrastructure and stolen the futures of millions of children and youth. Thousands of families have been displaced.

My children can be free of malaria forever

By Habi Kanté, a beneficiary of Plan's efforts to fight malaria in West Africa

My village of Keniele, situated 56 miles south-east from Bamako, is marshland due to its wet climate. I have lived here for almost all my youth years and I got married here as well.

I have been married for 12 years, and live with my husband and our 6 children. The unexpected illness of my children from malaria had always been a source of strife in my marriage.

One would think that the curse has been cast upon my family. From the oldest boy to the youngest girl, all my children would be sick at the same time, several times a year. I would have to stay home to care for the children and couldn’t work. The cost of medicines or paying for their frequent stays in the hospital, was expensive. My husband and I often had difficulties providing daily meals. The lack of money, the illness would often be the source of arguments.

Malaria, soon to be an old story in Kangaba

Post by Dr. Abdrahamane Diallo, Coordinator of Plan’s project for maternal and neonatal health in Kangaba, Mali

Malaria is a killer. It claims the lives of so many children in Mali, but they die unnecessarily as the disease is easy to prevent. I became the coordinator of Plan’s project for maternal and neonatal health in Kangaba, an area where the risk from malaria was very high.

When I started in 2012, I knew the challenge would be great and require much energy and dedication from me. With approximately 36,932 pregnant women registered over the last year and 147,730 children under five at risk of malaria through 9 communes including 69 villages, it is a large population to protect. My main goal is then to contribute to the reduction of maternal and neonatal mortality by fighting malaria, this disease being the first cause of medical consultation and death of children under five in the region.

For six months now, the entire population of Kangaba has been participating in awareness raising program about hygiene to prevent malaria. The first step in my plan to combat malaria was the training of 223 community volunteers, 12 midwives and 36 community health agents assigned to the 12 health areas. The health agents were given bikes to help them reach remote villages where they provide care.

Glass Houses…INGOs and Walking the Walk on IATI

Posted by Tessie San Martin - Plan International USA CEO

Over 40 governments, along with UN organizations and the World Bank, have committed to a common standard and time schedule for publishing aid information under the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). There are high expectations for this initiative. The ultimate objective is to increase the effectiveness of donor assistance, making aid work for those whom we are trying to help and contributing to accelerated development outcomes on the ground. IATI is good news for increased accountability, can help improve coordination, and provides a space for engaging donors, communities, governments and the general public in a broader development dialogue.

Secretary of State Clinton signed on behalf of the US Government on November 2011. While US engagement has been very welcomed, US Government performance in terms of actually executing IATI has left much to be desired. Publish What You Fund, an organization helping to ensure governments are held to their initial aid transparency commitments, ranked only one out of six agencies (MCC) in the ‘fair’ category in terms of execution. Recently, organizations like Oxfam and ONE have rightly questioned the US Government’s commitment and progress, and exhorted the Obama administration to make full compliance with the IATI standard a priority.

Economic Booms, Water Committees, and Cambalhotas

Posted by Tessie San Martin - Plan International USA CEO

Youth in Maranhão, Brazil perform a dance.

The World Cup will be coming to Brazil in 2014. This has been joyful news in a country crazy about futbol (what the whole world, except the US, calls soccer). Such events are also always an opportunity to showcase your country. And Brazil has much to showcase. Mention Brazil to the average person, and images of Carnaval, samba, Pele, and beautiful beaches are all conjured up. But more recently Brazil – this lush country of 200 million – has been in the news as one of the world's largest and (until a few years ago) fastest growing economies. Brazil is the "B" in BRIC, the rapidly modernizing economies (that also include Russia, India and China) expected to be the dominant powers of the future.

But this is not quite what I see in Maranhão, a state in the Northeast region of the country. Indeed, though in the last 10 years the poverty rate in the country has been reduced appreciably, Maranhão's poverty rate remains stubbornly high. It has the second lowest state GDP per capita; and well-being indicators, such as the infant mortality rate, remain twice as high as the average for Brazil. As one of the leaders in a community I visited during my trip here said,"...the boom in Brazil has mostly passed us by."

World Water Day Congressional Advocacy Day

Post by Maame Yankah, Plan International Youth Representative

A day on 'The Hill', Maame (right)
with Lauren Yamagata, Plan WASH Program Associate

While Ghana has one of the strongest emerging economies in Africa, over a quarter of the population does not have access to clean safe drinking water. The problem is particularly dismal in most parts of Ghana where diarrhea causes 25 percent of all deaths of children below the age of five each year, according to UNICEF. The figures get even higher in the Northern parts where most of the population fetches water from the wells, rivers, streams, ponds and other natural water sources that often contain disease causing organisms.

When I was 15 years of age, I attended a public boarding high school in Ghana which was in a relatively developed area in Southern Ghana. There were days when the water flow was irregular which meant my housemates and I had to wake early to walk to the nearest water source to look for water before class. This could take thirty minutes to an hour depending on how close the water source was and how many people were already in line waiting to fetch water from this limited resource. My friends and I would carry buckets on our heads and jerry cans in our hands in order to avoid repeating the long journey it took to look for water and to minimize the time lost in going back and forth from the boarding house to the water source to fetch water. Often times we would go to the water pump at the school entrance when we heard there was water there. But, by the time we would get there, there would be long lines of people waiting to fetch water which meant it was likely we would get none to fetch. When it finally got to our turn, unfortunately the water source will be depleted and we would have to resort to other sources to find water. While this did not happen too often, it was very frustrating and infuriating when it did.

‘Lean In’ and ‘Girl Rising’: Superheroes are not enough

Posted by Tessie San Martin - Plan International USA CEO

It wasn’t even out yet, but it seemed that it was all that blogs and pundits talked about this weekend: Sheryl Sandberg’s new book: “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead.” Sandberg is the very accomplished Facebook COO, who catapulted from being a successful female executive to becoming the face of female achievement through a series of recorded talks that went viral. Her theme: do not become an obstacle to your own success and do not be overcome by self-doubt. To quote her best known line: do not “leave before you leave.”

Sandberg’s credo has been often juxtaposed with Anne-Marie Slaughter’s article in The Atlantic: Why Women Still Can’t Have it All. Slaughter is a highly accomplished professional: a Princeton University professor and former senior State Department official. Her point: “It is time for women in leadership positions to recognize that although we are still blazing trails and breaking ceilings, many of us are also reinforcing a falsehood: that ‘having it all’ is, more than anything, a function of personal determination.“ I suppose there are many ways to interpret Professor Slaughter’s statement. In my view, it is about recognizing that women face unique obstacles and enabling them to move forward with their ambition requires more than giving them the opportunity to “win” like a man; it requires that we make it possible to succeed like a woman. So as empowering as the dictum “lean in” is for the individual, it is also important to acknowledge that there is an “enabling environment” – a collection of family, culture, organizational, societal structures - which affects whether and how women progress to positions of leadership.

The True Importance of Investing in Girls’ Education

Post by Judithe Registre, Program Director – Because I am a Girl, Plan International USA

Education is the greatest investment that a nation can make in its citizens or that a parent can make in his or her child. It is indisputable that historically marginalized groups are too often denied access to an education by those holding power. Withholding education is the most effective tool for those in power to control their citizens.

Learning is equally effective for economic development and national transformation. As a precursor to the evolution of a nation, an investment in education gives people the knowledge and skills needed for the entire nation to advance. Governments will lead more effectively with an educated populace, and only then is democracy truly conceivable and economic development possible.

The sharp contrast seen today between the developed and developing nations is embedded in the allocation of national resources to ensure access to an education for all its citizens. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) better life index, in the United States, 89% of adults aged 25-64 have earned the equivalent of a high-school degree, much higher than the OECD average of only 74%. This achievement is truer of women than men, with 90% of women in the US completing high school compared to 88% of men. A person in the US has on average 12 years of schooling; whereas citizens in countries like Indonesia and India have on average only five years of schooling. In Haiti, the average is 2.8 years, and in Sierra Leone and Nepal, only 2.4 years.

Attending the world premiere of Girl Rising

Post by Maame Yankah, Plan International USA Youth Ambassador

The official Girl Rising poster

March 6, 2013 not only marked Ghana's 56th Independence Day; it was also the world premiere of the feature film Girl Rising! I had an amazing opportunity, courtesy of Plan International USA, to attend this memorable event. It all began with opening remarks from Holly Gordon, Tom Yellin, and Richard Robbins. Then came the moment we had all been awaiting for: the words “Girl Rising” appeared on the screen. Narrated by incredible actresses, the stories of these nine girls unfolded beautifully on film.

Featuring nine inspiring adolescent girls, nine aspirations, and nine amazing stories of determination, nothing captured the essence of educating and empowering a girl like this movie did! It embodied so much hope despite the insurmountable obstacles faced by these girls.

Thoughts from the 57th Commission on the Status of Women

Post by Ann Wang - Senior Writer/Communications Specialist, Plan International USA

While Plan has had a presence at the annual Commission on the Status of Women for a few years now, this 57th session is the first time I’ve attended…so wasn’t quite sure what to expect. However, knowing that we were hosting a few girls involved in Plan’s programs in Burkina Faso, El Salvador, Vietnam, and elsewhere, I was very much looking forward to hearing from them what their priorities are…and how they are affecting change in their own communities.

In listening to Marcela – our girl delegate from El Salvador – speak at today’s “Rise Up: Advocating for Girls Around the World” event sponsored by the UN Foundation and Girl Up, I was not disappointed. After an introduction by UN Foundation CEO Kathy Calvin and other speakers – including 10x10’s Director of NGO Partnerships Justin Reeves – girl delegates from Plan, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, and Girl Up were asked to share their experiences and thoughts.

Marcela introduced herself first, and she spoke articulately about her involvement in Plan’s programs in El Salvador, sensitizing not just girls but entire communities about girls’ issues and advocating for their rights. She elicited a round of applause from the crowded room when talking about how her single mother’s hard work inspires her, and how she uses what she’s learned through Plan’s programs to ensure she, her sisters, and her mother are aware of their right to be protected from violence. What an amazing young woman…and what a reminder to me that young people are their own best advocates when given the opportunity to fulfill their potential.


I think back to when I was 17…and am humbled both by the challenges these girls face, as well as by their strength and determination to overcome those challenges, not letting those barriers define who and what they are and will become. Sitting in a room of people who are all committed to supporting these girls – and the millions of others around the world – reinforces the belief that when we work together to ensure these voices are heard…change can happen.