Our Story - Plan in Time
Esme Odgers was the first Plan field director. Her compassion, good humor, courage and ingenuity set a standard for hundreds more. France, early 1939.
During World War II, Anna Freud, daughter of the great psychoanalyst, sought and received Plan's support for Hampstead Nursery. At Hampstead she worked to help children from London's poorest neighborhoods cope with and recover from the effects of the Blitz. Her book on the psychological effects of danger and violence, War and Children, was first published by Plan.
Mrs. Roosevelt became a Plan sponsor in 1939 before World War II began and continued her support for many years. In 1942 she visited her three foster children, Tommy an English boy, Janina from Poland and Kerman of Spain at Barnet Colony in England.
1937 Puigcerdá, Spain. During the Spanish Civil War, Eric Muggeridge, an English relief volunteer, and John Langdon-Davies, a British reporter, begin moving truckloads of orphaned and displaced children to safe camps in France, where they were provided medical care, food, shelter and clothing.
1938 Plan, with 500 Spanish sponsored children, holds its first public meeting, Algonquin Hotel, New York City.
1940 The world at war. Plan, with 1,200 children, flees bombardments in Spain, through France, to England. Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund Freud, opens Hampstead Nurseries for Plan children. Enrollment is opened to children living with families at home.
1949 At the end of the decade, sponsors in the US and Canada are helping 5,706 sponsored children.
1959 Plan programs in Belgium, England, France, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, China, Korea, Greece, Italy, Vietnam and Hong Kong. Total enrolled children and their families: 15,004.
1960 A decade begins of expansion in the developing world, and a reconstruction of our program’s objectives and methods. The war now is the war on poverty.
1970 Australia joins the US and Canada as a Plan donor country. Sponsorship grows. By 1969, the number of children sponsored reaches 53,069.
1975 The Netherlands becomes the first Plan program country to recover and join the US, Australia and Canada as a donor country. Plan surpasses the 100,000th sponsored child milestone.
1980 Plan United Kingdom opens. Plan program countries now are all outside of Europe: Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Hong Kong, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Mali, El Salvador, Peru, Indonesia, Haiti, Vietnam and the Philippines.
1981 Plan is recognized by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
1983 Belgium and Japan join Plan as donor countries. A new milestone crossed: 206,128 children sponsored worldwide.
1987 Plan celebrates its 50th anniversary. There are now 310,000 sponsored children around the world.
1997 Plan ends its 60th year helping 1.1 million sponsored children in 42 developing countries.
2007 Plan celebrates 70 years helping children and their families. Today, Plan is in 17 industrialized nations and working in 49 developing countries.
Sponsor a child today and help make a lasting difference to the lives of the world’s poorest children and their communities.
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1938 Plan, with 500 Spanish sponsored children, holds its first public meeting, Algonquin Hotel, New York City.
1940 The world at war. Plan, with 1,200 children, flees bombardments in Spain, through France, to England. Anna Freud, daughter of Sigmund Freud, opens Hampstead Nurseries for Plan children. Enrollment is opened to children living with families at home.
1949 At the end of the decade, sponsors in the US and Canada are helping 5,706 sponsored children.
1959 Plan programs in Belgium, England, France, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, China, Korea, Greece, Italy, Vietnam and Hong Kong. Total enrolled children and their families: 15,004.
1960 A decade begins of expansion in the developing world, and a reconstruction of our program’s objectives and methods. The war now is the war on poverty.
1970 Australia joins the US and Canada as a Plan donor country. Sponsorship grows. By 1969, the number of children sponsored reaches 53,069.
1975 The Netherlands becomes the first Plan program country to recover and join the US, Australia and Canada as a donor country. Plan surpasses the 100,000th sponsored child milestone.
1980 Plan United Kingdom opens. Plan program countries now are all outside of Europe: Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Hong Kong, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Mali, El Salvador, Peru, Indonesia, Haiti, Vietnam and the Philippines.
1981 Plan is recognized by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
1983 Belgium and Japan join Plan as donor countries. A new milestone crossed: 206,128 children sponsored worldwide.
1987 Plan celebrates its 50th anniversary. There are now 310,000 sponsored children around the world.
1997 Plan ends its 60th year helping 1.1 million sponsored children in 42 developing countries.
2007 Plan celebrates 70 years helping children and their families. Today, Plan is in 17 industrialized nations and working in 49 developing countries.
Sponsor a child today and help make a lasting difference to the lives of the world’s poorest children and their communities.
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