About us
Taking action for children’s rights for 80 years
About Plan International UK
Plan International UK is a children’s charity. We strive to advance children’s rights and equality for girls all over the world.
We recognise the power and potential of every single child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected. Our Because I am a Girl campaign is a global movement that’s taking action to see a world that values girls, promotes their rights and ends injustice.
We encourage and help children take an active role in finding solutions to their problems and realising their rights and their full potential.
Our History
Originally named Foster Parents Scheme for Children in Spain, Plan International was founded in 1937 by British journalist and broadcaster John Langdon-Davies. He was later joined by Eric Muggeridge, Esme Odgers, and Nick (Barton) Carter. John Langdon-Davies had seen first-hand the plight of children orphaned during the Spanish Civil War and was determined to help. He wanted to provide not only food, shelter, and education to the children but also a sense that someone, somewhere, was thinking about them as an individual.
A pioneer of child sponsorship
In the beginning, the Foster Parents Scheme for Children in Spain asked British people to donate one shilling a day to provide a child with food and shelter and also asked them to write letters and send photos to the child to show them that someone cared about them. This was the beginning of what we now call child sponsorship.
Changing as the world changed
During the Second World War, renamed Foster Parents Plan for War Children, we expanded to work with displaced children throughout war-torn Europe and continued to work in Europe through the 1950s. Over the following decades, Plan International extended its work to Asia and Africa and ended its work in Europe. Countries that were once helped by Plan have now become donor nations, including Spain, where it all began. Today, we work in more than 50 of the world’s poorest countries.
A significant proportion of our income still comes from supporters who sponsor children. We aim to spend at least 80% of our income on charitable activities, but this figure varies year-on-year. For more information on our income and expenditure, please see our Trustees' Annual Reports.
How we spend your money
81%of our income was spent on charitable activities
42%of the money spent on charitable activities was spent on emergency response and disaster preparedness work
58%of the money spent on charitable activities went to our longer-term development work
Our Work
Helping children move themselves from a life of poverty to a future with opportunity
Education
Educating girls to break the cycle of poverty and inequality
Health and water
Improving access to health care, clean water, sanitation and menstrual hygiene
Disasters and Emergencies
Helping communities when disaster strikes and preparing for future disasters
Economic Empowerment
Helping families in poverty get the skills they need to provide for their children
Female Genital Mutilation
Ending a practice that causes physical and emotional trauma
Ending Child Marriage
Read child brides stories and find out how we're ending child marriage
Our people
At Plan International UK, we come to work every day because we won’t stop until we create a just and fair world for girls - a vital step in building a better world for all children. It’s our people’s passion, commitment, expert knowledge and skills that enable us to create lasting change for children who need it most.
Meet a selection of the team – find out what makes them tick and get a taste of what it’s like to work for us.
Change a life today
For every child you sponsor, an extra 72 children will benefit. Support our development work by sponsoring a child today