The price of not educating girls
Failing to educate girls to the same standard as boys costs developing countries US$92 billion each year - only slightly less than the developed world's $103bn annual overseas development aid budget.
Because I am a Girl Campaign
Because I am a Girl is Plan's campaign to fight gender inequality, promote girls' rights and break this cycle of poverty.
Across the world, girls face the double discrimination of their gender and age, leaving them suffering at the bottom of the social ladder. Girls are denied access to health services and education, and also face extremely high levels of violence, abuse, and harassment. Girls in the poorest regions of the world are among the most disadvantaged people on the planet, so no country has emerged from poverty without investing in its girls.
Donate to the Fund & support girl-friendly projects
Run or walk the Women's Mini Marathon for Girls!
Make a difference this June Bank Holiday weekend and run or walk for girls! We are asking all girls: friends, daughters, sisters, nieces and aunties, mums and grannies to join our 'Because I am a Girl' Team and run or walk the Flora's Women's Mini Marathon on 4th June 2012.
Sign up today!
Join the Because I am a Girl Mini Marathon team and raise money for girls in the developing world!
We did it! October 11th is International Day of the Girl
Plan Ireland is delighted that the United Nations has made the decision to officially recognise October 11th as the ‘International Day of the Girl Child’. Read more here about Day of the Girl announcement here
Play our Online Card Game!
We have launched an interactive online card game for the Because I am a Girl campaign - all 10 questions are related to girls rights and gender.
So what are you waiting for? Play your cards right and unleash the power of Girls!
Play the Because I am a Girl card game
Sponsor a Girl
Child sponsorship is an effective and ethical way for you to make an immediate and lasting improvement to the lives of the world's most vulnerable and neglected group - girls. When you sponsor a girl in a developing country, your donations are an investment in her future and the future of her whole family.
Sponsor a Girl today
Here's what you can do
1. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook
2. Read this week's guest blogger on what being a girl means to her
3. Run the Women's Mini Marathon for girls!
4. Sponsor a girl in one of the 50 developing countries we work in
5. Donate to the Because I am a Girl fund
6. Invite us to your school to talk about the campaign
Be Inspired!
Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese has sent the following message of support for Plan's "Because I am A Girl" campaign:
"We cannot hope to make progress towards the Millennium Development Goals unless women and girls achieve greater access to resources and have an active role in decision-making. I welcome and commend Plan Ireland's flagship campaign 'Because I am a girl'. It is only through profound changes that the lives of millions of girls worldwide will be transformed."
How far would $1 (or 72c) go?
70% of all people living on less than $1 per day are female. For the same amount per day, you can sponsor a girl and change her life.
Have you got the Back-to-School blues?
Sixty-two million girls are not in primary school.
Who gets fed first in the family?
Girls are 3 times more likely to suffer from malnutrition, because their family feeds their brothers first. About 450 million women suffer from stunted growth as a result of being poorly fed in childhood.
How many girls are forced into marriage?
More than 100 million girls under 18, some as young as 12, are expected to marry over the next decade. I in 7 are under 15. Some are as young as 5. Every 3 seconds a girl is coaxed, coerced or forced into marriage.
What happens to over 2 million girls under 15 every year?
Each year 2 million girls between the ages of 5 - 15 are trafficked, sold or coerced into the sex trade.
