Plan International UK and international real estate services and investment firm CBRE have launched a £700,000, three-year corporate partnership to support children in Sierra Leone.

CBRE’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) business is the lead corporate partner in Plan’s three-year, £6.9m community investment programme to help provide an education to more than 135,000 children, particularly girls, in Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone has a high level of national debt and poverty, with child and maternal mortality rates among the highest in the world.

CBRE has pledged to raise at least £722,000 through corporate and employee donations for Plan’s three-year project.

The Department for International Development has pledged £6.2m to the project.

Tanya Barron, chief executive at Plan International UK, said the partnership has the capacity to make a real difference at a crucial time for girls' education in Sierra Leone. 

“Girls are less likely to have enough to eat, get the medicine they need or simply survive than their brothers. By giving them a safe education we can help to remove common threats such as early marriage and childbirth, domestic slavery, violence and discrimination.”

Ciaran Bird, managing director at CBRE UK said the partnership "forms a central part of our responsible business commitments, and is focused on an area where we believe we can make a real difference".

CBRE’s fundraising activities to support this project are already underway and will involve 27 countries across the EMEA region. This includes CBRE’s annual EMEA Charity Bike Ride, this year from Madrid, Spain to Lisbon, Portugal from 22 – 26 May 2014.