Doing good makes a difference.
We regularly support aid projects run by the child welfare organisation Plan International, always with a focus on helping people to help themselves.
Employment prospects for young people in Bolivia.
We support young people in Bolivia in gaining access to safe and decent jobs. Therefore, we are donating to a project of the children's aid organisation Plan International Germany, which offers more than 1,600 young people between 15 and 24 years of age, and especially young women, the opportunity to improve their professional skills and thus their economic situation in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia. For this purpose, vocational training is offered in cattle breeding and tourism. In addition, they are offered courses in vegetable cultivation and food processing, as well as support in setting up micro-enterprises.
We support Plan International.
With this year' s Christmas donation, DeWAG is supporting the children's welfare organisation Plan International Germany in a project in Bolivia. Young people living in rural regions have a hard time finding paid employment in Bolivia. In the urban project region of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, many young people are employed in informal jobs. Earnings are far below the national minimum wage. Working conditions are mostly precarious and offer no social protection.
More than 1,600 young people between the ages of 15 and 24, and especially young women, are therefore to be given the opportunity to improve their professional skills and thus their economic situation. They are to be supported in setting up their own businesses as well as being offered vocational training. The aim is for the young people to have access to secure and decent jobs that offer them long-term employment and an adequate income.
Furthermore, the project aims to contribute to equality by teaching young women and men to critically question existing role models and power relations.
DeWAG is supporting the child welfare organisation Plan International and its construction project to create safe and inclusive schools in Nepal. Karnali province in western Nepal is one of the most impoverished regions of the country. Although basic education is mandatory up to eighth grade, a large number of children – especially girls and children with disabilities – do not attend school regularly or even at all. This is often due to child labour or child marriage as well as the widespread lack of sanitary facilities for girls.
The aim of the project is to provide boys and girls in the Jumla, Dolpa and Kalikot districts of Karnali province with equal access to high-quality education. This involves refurbishing school buildings and classrooms as necessary, with a real focus on constructing separate girls’ toilets. Classrooms are also being made accessible and teachers and parents are being trained in equality and inclusive education.
Schools in the region are being provided with learning materials and children’s reading is being supported in a targeted manner. A further aim of the project is to enable all children to attend school. Children who do not go to school are visited by trained teaching staff who discuss the reasons with their parents and work to find solutions. All in all, the measures will benefit boys and girls at up to 80 schools in Karnali province.
In Cambodia, the child welfare organisation Plan International is working on a project focused on early childhood education and the improvement of diet, water supply and hygiene for children aged six and under. In the rural regions of Stung Treng and Ratanakiri, many children show signs of malnutrition. More than half of the children have no access to early childhood support or education. Around 40 percent of people have no access to clean water, sanitary installations or washing facilities.
DeWAG is helping Plan International to build and expand 14 nurseries. The water supply is being improved and sanitary facilities are being built in local communities in tandem with the villagers. Around 600 households and 1,000 schoolchildren are benefiting from this. Local health services are also being helped to train staff so that they can identify, treat and prevent malnutrition in children and pregnant women.
Access to clean water and sanitary facilities is being improved through construction projects. These facilities are being built in such a way that they can be maintained easily and cost-effectively, so that people can benefit from them for a long time to come. 300 households are receiving water tanks fitted with filters. This enables them to store rainwater and then use it for cooking, washing and watering their vegetable gardens.
Around a quarter of the population of the Philippines live below the national poverty line. Children are often given away by their families or fall victim to people traffickers, who kidnap them to work abroad or in other parts of the country. Studies suggest that between 60,000 and 100,000 children in the Philippines are forced into prostitution. Young girls are particularly at risk.
DeWAG is supporting the child welfare organisation Plan International in a project to protect children against child trafficking and help them deal with traumatic experiences. The protective structures for girls and boys in 24 villages and towns in the regions of Eastern Visayas, Mindanao and Caraga are being reinforced. Children and young people affected by human trafficking are receiving help to deal with their traumatic experiences, as well as being given new life and educational prospects that ease their reintegration into society.
Around 80,000 children and young people are benefiting from this work in the region. As they are particularly at risk, girls are the focal point of many of the measures.
Learning conditions in Malawi are challenging in many schools. Most classes are overcrowded, there are not enough desks and chairs and there is a lack of adequate learning resources. Not all children successfully complete the prescribed eight years of primary education. This is certainly the case in two schools in the focus region of Lilongwe: Mkoma and Malikha.
With support from DeWAG, the child welfare organisation Plan International is building classrooms, sanitary facilities and accommodation for teachers in the schools in both communities. Plus, new water supply systems are being constructed and the schools are being equipped with learning resources and furnishings. To improve teaching quality, 60 teachers and the school management teams are undergoing advanced training. The aim is to enable more children, especially girls, to complete their education at the school successfully.
A safe, child-oriented learning environment is being created for around 4,000 pupils in total.
DeWAG is supporting a project being run by the child welfare organisation Plan International in the Eastern and Volta regions of Ghana. According to UNICEF, only 14 percent of Ghana’s population have access to sanitary facilities. More than 3 million people have no access to clean drinking water. The limited access to sanitary facilities and clean drinking water has serious effects on the hygiene and health situation of infants in particular.
Separate, fully functioning school toilets with washing facilities for girls and boys are being constructed in 19 schools. Sustainable water and sanitary solutions developed in tandem with the community are being built in 20 villages, where awareness of the links between hygiene and disease prevention is also being raised. This ensures that the installations are easily accessible and the water extracted is hygienically sound. To maintain the water supply in the communities after the end of the project, local water and sanitation committees are being trained in how to manage, maintain and repair the installations.
Once the project is complete, 19,500 members of the community should have access to clean drinking water.
In Geita, a region of northern Tanzania, many children work in gold mines because their families often cannot afford to send them to school. Although the Tanzanian government has abolished school fees, there are still lots of children who do not go to school. Low-income families in particular often do not have enough money for school materials.
DeWAG is supporting the child welfare organisation Plan International’s project to stop children working in the gold mines and enable them to go to school. With this in mind, 4,000 children are being provided with books, pens, rulers, school uniforms and schoolbags, making it easier for them to get into school. In addition, washable sanitary pads are being handed out to teenage girls so that they can go to school during their period.
With the poor economic situation of families being the main cause of child poverty, low-income families are being given help to improve their financial position. Savings groups are being set up, enabling their members to save up shared assets from which they can receive loans for small investments as required. Furthermore, young men and women are being given training opportunities at local workshops.
In Guatemala, around 1.9 million women are illiterate, as girls attend school much less frequently than boys, even though access to six years of primary-school education has been expanded, including in rural regions. Families are more likely to follow tradition and send their sons to school if money is tight.
A DeWAG-supported project being run by the child welfare organisation Plan International in San Pedro Carcha, where there were previously no secondary schools, is aimed at giving girls in particular access to quality secondary-school education so that they can gain appropriate qualifications.
Initiatives include furnishing schools, constructing six new classrooms and renovating four existing ones. Plan is helping to develop and purchase teaching materials that are essential to the delivery of remote learning. Each classroom is being equipped with a television set, teaching videos on the individual subjects and instructions for the pupils. In addition, Plan is offering teacher training throughout the entire project.
The project is being implemented at 32 schools. As a result, around 2,500 girls and boys from 64 communities in San Pedro Carcha, Alta Verapaz are gaining access to secondary education.