Stopping the Setback to Children's Rights and Equality for Girls
At Plan International Canada, we believe every child has the right to be healthy, educated, protected, valued, respected and heard. This year, as COVID-19 spread around the globe and nations struggled to understand and respond to the health crisis, we witnessed widespread infringements on children’s rights. Within a few months, the pandemic threatened to set back decades of progress made towards gender equality and girls’ rights. By the end of spring, school closures had impacted more than 90 per cent of students – including 743 million girls.
Guided by our commitment to gender equality and ensuring that children’s bright futures are not threatened by crisis, Plan International Canada took immediate action. We pivoted our programming to focus on COVID-19 responses in the communities where we’re active, and we’ve been working tirelessly to stop the setback the pandemic has caused for children, especially girls – who are most often denied their rights, particularly in emergencies.
Through it all, we’ve continued to deliver great results towards our five-year strategy, 20 Million Reasons. This year, we reached more than six million children around the globe, bringing the total number of children positively impacted by this strategy to over 18.4 million. After three years, we’ve almost reached our target of improving the lives of 20 million children by 2022 – putting us on track to exceed our goal in the final two years of this strategy.
We’re inviting all Canadians to join us as global citizens – together, we’ll help empower communities to overcome the effects of this pandemic, unleash human potential and end inequality for children, especially girls, around the world.