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Until Everyone Can, We Can

The Futures for Youth mission is clear – Until Everyone Can, We Can. It means until everyone can access their rights, we can take action to amplify young voices and drive meaningful change.

Authentic Stories Told by Authentic People

We don’t know if you’ve noticed, but students today are more involved with empowering access to basic human rights than ever before. That’s why we paired up with young people globally to create Futures for Youth. This is the generation that’s going to change the world. If we work together, we can start on that change now.

Anyone Can Get Involved

The intention of Futures for Youth is to elevate the voices, stories and experiences of people globally and authentically. We believe in the importance of each person forging their own journey when it comes to supporting a cause. From signing petitions, to taking part in a local educational programme, there are always so many ways to help and play a part in supporting young people. We know flexibility is important in this day and age, which is why we’re determined to include anyone who wants to be a part of Futures for Youth in a way that's meaningful to them. We truly believe everyone has something to offer, and that spans far beyond financial support. We want to keep you at the heart of everything we do and make sure you’re kept in the loop, every step of the way.

Our rally cry is heard worldwide!

From India to Indonesia, Kenya to Columbia, Futures for Youth is committed to securing better, stronger and better futures for young people globally. First-person stories narrate this initiative and are told by the voices who are shaping it. Their fearless, inclusive, and bold work is bringing better access to education, health, safety and opportunity globally. Say it with us: Until Everyone Can, We Can.

Every child deserves a clean, safe space to learn and grow. Yet, for many children in India, especially girls, the lack of clean toilets remains a major hurdle to education.On #WorldToiletDay, we’re proud to share the transformation brought by the Ramgarh Project in Rajasthan. Over 2.5 years, Plan India has:Improved sanitation facilities in two government schools, Doubled school enrollment in just one year, Increased attendance among girls and female teachers. With support from Rajeev Shroff and school leaders, we’re building inclusive spaces and breaking barriers to education—one clean toilet at a time.

At seventeen years of age, Jennifer is a young, vibrant, ambitious young girl living in Mangolpuri, Delhi. When she was sixteen – she was suffering from anaemia.

Jennifer lives with her parents, four sisters and one brother in Delhi. Her father works as a tailor while her mother is a housewife. She tells us, her favourite subject is history and she likes listening to music, hanging out with her friends and spending time at the Health Information Clinic (HIC) run by Plan India in her community under the Young Health Programme (YHP).

Initially, she was a shy unambitious girl, afraid and scared to talk to others and did not give much thought to her health, particularly, her eating habits. Then one day, she heard about the HIC from a friend. Jennifer learned about the training’s provided at the centre, along with information on health, cleanliness, etc. Hearing about this got her excited and so she joined the HIC. While there, she attended peer educator training, poster making classes, took part in anti-tobacco rallies and other engaging activities. But all was not well.

Jennifer was suffering from health issues. She used to eat 1-2 rotis (homemade bread) a day without any meals in between. She was later diagnosed with anaemia (a low amount of red blood cells in the body) and became weak, barely being able to leave her home or go to school. Lonely and struggling to come to terms with her ailment, Jennifer was beginning to become isolated from the outside world. She stopped attending the YHP and very rarely would meet her friends. Her parents and siblings were growing more and more concerned about her as the days went by.

It was her association with YHP that helped her fight back against her illness.

When the YHP staff heard about Jennifer’s condition, they immediately intervened and had her admitted to a hospital. On admission, she underwent a blood transfusion operation. The operation successful and over time, Jennifer was able to regain her health and get back to full fitness.

For a young girl like Jennifer to go through such an ordeal was certainly scary. This experience not only made her healthier but braver. She continues to visit the HIC regularly and take part in the various activities. She even shares all her knowledge with her family and friends and has encouraged her sisters to join the YHP as well.

Speaking about her ambitions, Jennifer says she would like to be a teacher one day and with the support of her family, she will definitely succeed in her ambitions. She tells us, “I never really cared about my health earlier. But since then, I have become more aware. Even my mother is more conscious about mine and my whole family’s health and well-being now”.

Read More: https://www.planindia.org/

80,000 households in Mangolpuri, Madanpur Khadar and Gautampuri in Delhi are witnesses to efforts to make the city safe for young women and give wings to their ambition. Young women here are building promising futures, reclaiming public spaces for themselves and shattering boundaries that routinely make their lives ‘safer’. Here, public school teachers advocate girls’ safety and sanitation needs so that they can continue higher education. In these communities, girls aspire to a career in sports and thrive through technical as well as vocational training. All this is the result of Plan India’s long-term gender transformation programme Safer Cities which focuses on the gap in programming and research pertaining to how adolescent girls experience public spaces differently than men.

Safer Cities has put adolescent girls at the centre and challenges the perception of safety and fear of violence that define girls’ negotiation. It supports girls and boys in becoming active citizens by building capacities and creating opportunities for participation in city life. The programme is also being implemented in two wards of Jaipur.

Safer Cities Key Outcomes

Increased adolescent girls’ safety and access to public spaces

Increased girls’ active and meaningful participation in urban development and governance

Increased autonomous mobility in the city for adolescent girls

While Safer Cities works to empower girls, it also engages boys and men in the communities as allies. Strengthening local youth clubs is pivotal in effectively gathering evidence and data for Plan’s advocacy work. Programme activities help the children and youth visualise alternatives where safe spaces exist for them to counter the ever-present fear of violence. The integrated community-based approach uses innovative engagement modalities and gender transformative approaches. It also employs unique feedback and participatory research tools such as training curriculums, community scorecards and Information Education Communication (IEC) materials to involve parents and community leaders. Intergenerational dialogues help elders acknowledge the disparities and challenge the conventional understanding of safety. Dialogues were initiated within the community for addressing gender power relations and to challenge stereotypical social norms that perpetuate insecurity and exclusion of girls in cities.

Palika (name changed) is 20 years old and lives in a rural village in Bihar. She is an active and well known youth champion.

Palika’s association with Plan India began eight years ago when she joined a Children’s Club. She explained that before joining the club, she was very shy to speak out, “Whatever I was facing, I thought it was part of my life. Afterwards, I realised that this was not part of my life and these were issues that had to be overcome.”

In Bihar, girls are generally married off early, unprepared to bear the marital and childbearing responsibilities put upon them. Her village is particularly isolated, surrounded by mountains with only around 35 households. Additionally, due to the lack of educational and livelihood opportunities, child labour, child marriage and child trafficking are constant issues. Palika felt impelled to tackle the issue of child marriage in her community.

She managed to get support from her friends and the Plan Youth Advisory Panel (YAP). Palika went from door to door advocating for girls’ rights. Inevitably, she faced many challenges from her community; gender discrimination was so prevalent that her village would not listen to what she had to say. At 14 years, her own parents decided that they wanted to get her married but she raised her voice and successfully fought against their decision. Since then, she has worked with district officials and through Child Line (1098 tele helpline for nationwide support to children in distress), prevented 12 child marriages!

Pushpa Kumari, a #PeriodWarrior Teacher from Jharkhand