2012 marks 75 years of Plan's commitment to children in the world's poorest countries. Founded in 1937 by British journalist John Langdon-Davies and refugee worker Eric Muggeridge, the aim originally was to provide food, accommodation and education to children whose lives had been disrupted by the Spanish Civil War.
Early child sponsors included Eleanor Roosevelt, who started supporting Plan in 1939 and in 1942 visited three of her sponsored children at Plan's colony in Barnet, north London.
Read more about our history
1.5 million sponsored children
As Europe rebuilt following the Second World War, work moved on to Africa, Asia and the Americas. Plan now reaches 56.5 million children in 50 developing countries. Sponsorship is the key to building relationships between individual donors, the communities where Plan works and more than 1.5 million sponsored children.
A better deal for girls
Because I am a Girl is Plan's campaign to fight gender inequality, promote girls' rights and lift millions of girls out of poverty. The global campaign will be launched on October 11, 2012, the day adopted by the UN in late December 2011 as International Day of the Girl Child.
Across the world, girls face double discrimination due to their gender and age, leaving them at the bottom of the social ladder. With your help, the Because I am a Girl campaign will help transform the lives of the world's poorest girls.
Working with children to achieve their full potential
Because I am a Girl will be a major plank of Plan's work in 2012. However, boys and girls alike comprise the hundreds of millions of children who remain without their rights. Plan believes this is totally unacceptable. Plan's strategy explains how the organisation is going to address those wrongs and work towards enabling every child to have rights and opportunities.
Plan’s strategy to 2015 has one goal: to reach as many children as possible, particularly those who are excluded or marginalised, with high-quality programmes that deliver long-lasting benefits.
Homepage photo: A group of children in Italy pose for a Plan photographer. Plan archives, University of Rhode Island