Plan marks Global Campaign for Education Action Week

Vietnam
Twelve year-old Duong will be  joining six hundred street and working children aged between six and 17, who attend informal evening-classes because their economic circumstances prevent them attending daytime school, at the Children’s Palace in the Vietnamese city of Hanoi.  The girls and boys, many of whom miss out on vital life-chances because they do not have birth certificates, will be carrying life-size cardboard cut-outs of children to represent friends who are absent from the classroom.

Duong has been attending the evening-classes for street children since she was eight years old.  She cannot go to school because she does not have a birth certificate.  Doung's father was sent to prison when she was six years old and her mother left home, leaving Duong in the care of her seventy year-old grandfather.  The girl and her grandfather manage to scrape together a small living from selling cups of tea in the street.

The children will be asking for the opportunity for themselves and children like them to go to school.
Officials from the education and justice ministries and Commission for Population, Family and Children, the People's Committee and Youth Union, as well as representatives from the UN and civil society have been invited to attend the event.

The rally will take place at:
14.00  – 17.00 (local time)
Saturday 23 April 2005
Hanoi Children’s Palace
36 Ly Thai To Street
Hanoi
Vietnam

Benin
Throughout the week 300 children, aged six to 14 from the Couffo area, in the south of Benin, will make life-size cardboard cut-outs to represent the shadows of their friends who do not go to school and send them to President of the Republic, Mathieu Kerekou.  They will also draw up maps showing the whereabouts of children who are not enrolled in school, and then each community will use the maps as the basis for making an action plan to increase school enrolment. 
 
Plan Benin has invited senators, ministers and local mayors from Couffo to visit three local schools, Gningbo, Fangbedjihoue and Davihoui, on Thursday 28 April.  They will tour the schools and then meet with children, teachers, parents and community leaders, in the schools to report on their impressions of what they have seen and participate in a discussion about strategies to increase school enrolment in the area. 

Germany
An estimated 3,500 children aged 6 to 19, from more than 100 schools throughout Germany will be making cut-out friends in various sizes, representing girls and boys who are currently denied an education. The life-size friends will be presented to local and national politicians who have been invited to come to the schools and accept the cut-out friends as a token of their commitment to their pledges concerning the millennium goal of education for all. Small versions of the cut-outs will be sent to the G8 Summit in Scotland in July to remind world leaders of their promises.

A group of 40 to 60 students aged six to 16 will meet with the vice president of the German Bundestag Dr. Susanne Kastner in front of the German Parliament in Berlin.

A press conference will take place at: 10:00 (CEST) Thursday 28 April 2005 Berliner Pressekonferenz Reichstagufer 14 10117 Berlin Germany

The meeting with Vice-President Kastner will take place at: 12 noon (CEST) Thursday 28 April 2005 In front of the Reichstag, South Wing Platz der Republik 1 11011 Berlin Germany

Philippines
Plan Philippines will join three other international non-government organisations and local groups working with child labourers to launch the National Pledge Day for Education. A schedule of activities, which includes songs, folk dance adaptations, theatre & cultural plays, kite flying, and signing of pledges will be held at the Quezon Memorial Circle in the National Capital Region on April 25, 2005.  Some pre-school, tribal, and street children and child labourers will be joining in the different activities.  Plan mascots will be joined by 12 children representing the provinces and Plan staff. The theme is "Pag-aralin Kami: Wakasan ang Kahirapan" (Educate to End Poverty).

On the provincial level, Plan program units will launch their "send a friend to school" campaign on different dates during the GCE week in April.  These campaigns will be held in cooperation with the Department of Education, Division Level, and with the Local Government Units and tap government officials, businessmen, and local people to sponsor out-of-school youth and children back to school.  Besides these campaigns, there will be various other activities per program unit.

Uganda
Throughout the week, children from more than 60 schools in Uganda's Bamunanika area of the north-eastern district of Lowero, each led by a children's band, will march round their school catchment areas. During the procession, children will carry banners and messages on birth registration, HIV/AIDS, and the equal rights of girls and boys. 

Plan Uganda hopes that the march will lead to increased awareness of children’s rights to be educated. At the end of each march, children will gather to explain the meanings behind their messages to the teachers, parents, community members, and invited guests. 

Niger
On Tuesday 26 April Nigerien leaders (from the government, parliament, regional and local level authorities) will be invited to see for themselves.  The school children will give them pieces of material on which are written: “send my friend to school” and each leader will be asked to sign a written commitment to work towards education for all children in Niger.

Friday 29 April has been chosen as "Banner’s day against poverty", when groups will march to the Prime Minister’s office to give him the same message.  Their goal will be to remind government, financial institutions and international organisations of their commitments in the fight against poverty and implement the education-related Millennium Development Goals. All the banners carried on the march will be joined together to make the longest banner ever made in Niger. The banner will be displayed during the hand over of the messages "send my friend to school".

Sweden
Plan Sweden is part of an Education for All network, comprising of Swedish non-government organisations. The network will be organising a workshop on Monday 25 April, where a new study on the global process towards education for all will be presented to politicians and education specialists.

Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, Plan is working alongside other NGOs to mark the GCE Action Week.  Activities will include a question and answer session between a group of children and Members of Parliament; essay writing and painting competition; press conference; and national and local rallies.

Finland
In Finland, Plan will be collecting petition signatures requesting the Finnish government to double its support to primary education by 2010. Signatures will be collected during special events, festivals, shopping centres etc. The results of the petition campaign will be given to the Finnish Minister for Development Cooperation.  School children will also be making cardboard cut-outs to represent children who are not able to attend school.

Netherlands
Plan Netherlands sent educational materials to 8,500 primary schools to encourage school children and teachers to mark the GCE Action Week.  Dutch children can also find out more about the Action Week by clicking on www.sendmyfriend.nl. On Wednesday 27 April, Plan Netherlands will be leading a demonstration at 11.00am in front of the Dutch Parliament with 750 students, who will demonstrate for education for all through theatre and music. The children will also be making masks to represent their friends who are unable to attend school. At 12.45 the Minister of Developing Cooperation will meet the demonstrators and receive all of the friend masks.