Growing up healthy

Ensuring children’s survival, protection and healthy development

Last year, Plan continued supporting community projects to build health centres. The building of a health centre is driven by the community. While Plan will help provide the materials and organise the logistics, the community provides the land and labour, as well as establishing a committee to oversee the building and then the running and maintenance of the centre.

One of our other goals is to increase the number of adolescents with a basic knowledge of HIV/AIDS, which is devastating many parts of Africa. Currently, only about one-third of young people in the areas where we work have a basic understanding of the causes of the disease and the methods of preventing it.

Last year, we organised training sessions for nearly 100 traditional birth attendants, many of whom are responsible for the health of infants and pregnant women in their regions. The traditional birth attendants provide family planning services to parents, educate adolescents about HIV/AIDS and provide health care during pregnancy and childbirth.