Charity: Plan UK
In 1937 a journalist names John Langdon-Davies discovered a young boy at a railways station in Santander, Spain. The boy was carrying a note that read “This is Jose. I am his father. When Santander falls I shall be shot, whoever finds my son, take care of him for me”.
Jose was amongst over 10,000 refugees who were passing through Santander during the Spanish Civil War, and was one of the many children who were orphaned as a result of it. Langdon-Davies started the ‘FPP’ (Foster Parent’s Plan for Children in Spain) along with his friend Eric Muggeridge, which provided the orphans with shelter, food and emotional support for the terrible experiences they had gone through.
This organisation was called the FPP right up until the 1990’s when it changed its name to ‘Plan’. Plan UK is one of 16 ‘Plan’ charities across 16 nations including the United States of America, Japan, Sweden and Germany and helped raise over $540 million in 2006 alone.
Although its name has changed, Plan UK still maintains the same ethos that inspired John Langdon-Davies and Eric Muggeridge to star the charity, and that is to listen to the ideas and aspirations of children and to help them achieve their full potential in life. Plan UK, along with its multinational counterparts, has been propelling orphaned children into great careers and happy lives of fulfilled dreams for over 70 years and its popularity continues to grow day by day.
This charity does not only work with children, but with whole communities. They carry out projects, each of which lasting around 10 years which aim to develop resources, education, housing and healthcare to ensure that the youngsters realise their full potential.
Plan UK is a religiously and politically neutral organisation. This means that it is affiliated with no religions or political parties, and as a result can work in any part of the UK, with any people.
In order to help Plan UK, the public is able to take part in fundraising activities (e.g. sponsored skydives and family adventures), shop online and volunteer. Plan UK also offers their ‘Sponsor a Child’ programme, whereby members of the public send £12 a month to the charity and their money is used to sustain the community work. This work involves building schools, training teachers, providing sanitation (clean water, toilets and medical care), educating parents in keeping their children healthy and building community banks.
Filed under: Childrens Charities