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About Plan International Ireland

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We strive for a just world, working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners.

Plan International Ireland

Plan International Ireland was set up in 2003. We are now one of the leading international development organisations in Ireland. At the core of our work is a focus on girls’ rights and education. Our aim is for them to learn, lead, decide, survive and thrive in all aspects of their lives.

We don’t just educate girls in the most vulnerable communities on earth. We ensure they have the tools to survive. By starting with reading and writing, we are starting them on a journey to making informed choices and unlocking their potential.

Your very generous support gives girls the hope to create their own future, lead their communities and make a real difference. Because while they live in a male dominated world today, your support will help them decide what kind of a world they want for tomorrow.

This does not mean we do not work with boys. Quite the opposite, in fact. In 2021 we worked with 24.1 million boys.

We consistently engage men, boys and wider communities in dismantling the harmful gender norms and stereotypes that hold everyone back.

Striving for girls’ rights and gender equality is ultimately beneficial for all of us, not only girls and women. 

Our History

While Plan Ireland began in 2003, Plan International is more than 80 years strong. And we’ve been fighting for girls’ rights and equality since day one.

Plan was founded on the idea that children around the world are worth protecting.

John Langdon Davies, Founder of Plan International, with two of his children.
John Langdon Davies with two of his children
“WHEN SANTANDER FALLS, I WILL BE SHOT. I BEG YOU TO WORRY. I BEG YOU TO PROTECT MY CHILD.”

This heartfelt cry of a father during the Spanish Civil War was pinned to the jacket of his 6-year-old son, Jose. British war correspondent John Langdon-Davies found Jose wandering the streets and did as Jose’s dad asked. Santander had fallen. Jose’s dad had been killed. From this, Plan International, as we know it today, was born.

In 1937, John Langdon-Davies and refugee worker Eric Muggeridge founded The Foster Parents Plan for Children in Spain, to care for children whose lives had been disrupted by the Spanish Civil War. This eventually became Plan International.

During World War Two, Plan International expanded its work to include displaced children throughout Europe. Over the years, our focus shifted from wartime relief to long-term community development, with the rights and wellbeing of children remaining core to everything we do.

In the 1950s, as Europe recovered, it became increasingly evident that children in countries further afield were also in need of help. So, Plan International began working with children on the margins throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Today, Plan has a presence in more than 75 countries. And the legacy of our humanitarian founders lives on: we’re still fighting to protect children.

Here’s what we did in 2023

4,255
Children sponsored by our supporters
53,335
Children benefitted from education programmes
164,362
Children received education in an emergency
10
Emergencies responded to

Our donors, funders & partners

Irish Aid
Irish Aid’s support to our education programming in West Africa is core to our work in giving children the best opportunities in life. Irish Aid emergency funding enables us to respond to new emergencies at speed when they arise, saving lives and alleviating suffering. Read more
The European Union
The European Union supports our long-term development work in areas such as education, protection and climate adaptation. Read more
DG ECHO
Our disaster risk-reduction and response programmes in Asia, Africa and the Americas, is supported by the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Office (ECHO). Read more