t UNICEF we understand all too well that size doesn’t always matter. That bigger

Joining is quick and hassle-free. Simply sign up at a UNICEF booth in the SM Mall nearest you. For just Php500 a month or Php16.67 a day, you can send five children to school with complete supplies. For Php600 a month or Php20 a day, you can give oral rehydration salts (ORS) to 24 children suffering from diarrhea. Regardless of the amount you choose to commit, we guarantee that you’ll be supporting vital programs for children like education, healthcare, nutrition, and protection from violence and exploitation.

You can charge your donations automatically to your credit card or an alternative mode of remittance can be arranged for you. Once on board, you’ll receive a welcome letter from UNICEF Philippines’ National Ambassador Gary Valenciano, your very own ID badge and a donor guide. You’ll also be given regular updates that will show your monthly contributions at work in UNICEF’s programs.

Sign up today and join Gary V, Bianca Gonzalez, Daphne Oseña-Paez and the rest of the UNICEF Champions for Children

UNICEF Needs More Champions for ChildrenWhy you don’t have to think big to make a big difference

Aisn’t always better. That a little really can go a long way.

Our UNICEF Champions for Children remind us just how true these statements are. We witness them in action every single day.

Launched last May 2009, UNICEF Champions for Children is a community of regular donors — ordinary people like you and me — whose monthly contributions add up to make a big difference in the lives of children. Champions provide UNICEF with a reliable source of funding, allowing us to sustain our long-term programs and to respond immediately and efficiently in times of crisis. It’s this shared commitment that makes it possible for us to do our job and do it well. It’s how we know that little things can indeed lead to very monumental changes.

As UNICEF Champions for Children turn a year older, we can’t think of a better way to mark the occasion than by welcoming more donors into the fold. Now numbering 1,800 strong for 2010, our goal is to have 6,000 more champions by year’s end and we’d love it if you’d join us.

family and start making a big difference in your own little way!

----------------For more information on Champions for Children, visit www.unicef.ph and click the Champions for Children button on the homepage. Or, call our donor hotlines: (632) 758-1000 or 758-1442, Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm.

I am proud to be one of UNICEF’s Champions for Children. Sharing is caring and caring to these children is worth living. Seeing unfortunate children really breaks my heart and knowing your drive to care and support them is really inspiring. I am inspired to be one of your Champions. - Jules

My husband and I decided to donate to UNICEF Philippines’ Champions for Children program because we wanted to give children a fair chance to survive and have healthy lives. By giving them the chance to continue to exist, they can then enjoy other life opportunities like education

We have a son too and we feel for those who have children that are sick and malnourished but can’t get the proper medical help due to financial reasons. If we can have a fancy meal worth more than the donation of Php20/day or Php600/month, contributing to children’s LIVES is a far more worthy endeavor. -Honeylou

If you are a current monthly donor of UNICEF, please share with us your unique experience of being a UNICEF Champion for Children! Simply email your short essay to psfrmanila@unicef.org (subject heading: Why I’m A UNICEF Champion for Children) and include your name, age and a current photo of yourself (photo must be in jpg/jpeg format, please). If your entry is chosen to be featured in our newsletter, you will receive a limited edition UNICEF Champions for Children mouse pad featuring fellow Champions for Children and renowned painter Manuel Baldemor’s artwork “Celebration of Life”. This is our way of thanking you for being a committed supporter and fellow advocate for children’s welfare. Indeed, we would not be able to carry out critical, life-saving programs without your valuable support.

In every issue of our Children First Newsletter, we will be featuring some of our monthly donors who will share with us their special reasons for signing up to be UNICEF Champions for Children.

is a community of special supporters striving to make a difference in children’s lives. Through their monthly donations to UNICEF, Champions can help children enjoy their rights to education, healthcare and nutrition as well as protection from neglect, abuse and exploitation.

he most rewarding part of being a fundraiser is seeing how the money I raise makes a difference.

made me say, ‘When I grow up, I want to be just like her’. Teacher Nida teaches pre-school children at the UNICEF-assisted Little Angel Day Care Centre in Barangay San Roque. You should see Teacher Nida beam with pride as she talks

about her pupils who do well when they move up to the big school! Her face is radiant with joy as she tells a story and sings along with her pupils. She has such a big heart for her children which is most probably why, even

at 67, she had all that energy, strength and enthusiasm.

I wish you could meet someone like Nanay Teresita. I also want to be a mother volunteer like her when I grow up (just before I reach Teacher Nida’s age). I’ll help other mothers by setting up a home-based daycare in my own home, too. Think of being under a UNICEF tent with all the wonderful books, toys and materials included in a UNICEF early learning pack. It must feel so good to be able to help prepare all our children for formal schooling. All the singing, dancing, coloring books, and drawing sounds fun enough

to do every day.

Then, there’s 8-year-old

Everlyn! Well I’m past her age but, I

keep thinking, if I had the chance then, I would have done the same for my classmates. While we were in their multi-grade classroom in Pag-asa Elementary

School, she was teaching her fellow Grade 4 classmates multiplication by doing Math drills. This allows her teacher to help the other grade levels with their own lesson. Ang galing! You can start to help make a difference at such an early age! Oh, I wanna be a lot of things!!! I want to do a lot of things!

But I already have my dream job and not very many people can say that. So I dream not on my own any more. I dream with Teacher Nida, Nanay Teresita, and Everlyn. Having been blessed with my dream job, my job now is to dream for others – for children.

When I grow up…

I’m always excited to go see children and explore new places. Among the more exciting site visits I’ve done was during the Days of Peace campaign where we gave vitamin supplements to children in war-torn North Cotabato (and to think that a bomb exploded in the town we were in just an hour before we arrived). Another memorable trip was a long, long, long trek (4 hours on foot and horseback!!!) to an indigenous people’s village in Sitio Cabagbahangan, Davao.

The most recent one was just last March with UNICEF Child Rights Supporter Bianca Gonzalez in Camarines Norte. I wasn’t too excited at first (I get car sick during long road trips) but, was I in for a surprise. I had no idea how beautiful the place is. My car sickness didn’t bother me since I was too distracted, awed even, by the variety of lovely, lush vegetation on the road to Daet. I didn’t mind the rough roads to a remote barangay because it was situated along a beautiful, pristine river. And, I couldn’t pass up on photo opportunities at the famous Bagasbas beach and the abandoned air strip just beside it. But my favourite was this beautiful view of the hills and a river that greeted our team as we reached the top of the hill where Pag-asa Elementary School is perched.

That is not all the beauty that I found there.

I have never seen anything like Teacher Nida’s dedication & love for children. It

Tby Kristine Carbon,UNICEF Fundraising Assistant

The author traverses the mountainous terrain of Davao with a horse carrying materials for day care pupils in Sitio Cabagbahangan

The author observing a class at Pag-Asa Elementary

School in Camarines Norte

The author interacting with students in Almario Elementary School, Tondo, Manila

elebrity and TV host Bianca Gonzalez was recently appointed Child Rights Supporter for UNICEF Philippines. Bianca’s role will focus on education issues such as the importance of

the lives of children around the world! What’s amazing is how accessible it is. To be able to “help”, sometimes you think you’d have to do something so grand or spend so much to be able to make a difference. But with Champions for Children, all you have to do is commit a little of your savings each month. Not at all major, not at all impossible!

It means a lot to me, knowing that with the savings I set aside, I can share the blessings given to me, to kids in need. Kids! Who wouldn’t want to make the world a better place for them? Knowing that people come together to be able to save this child from sickness, or help send this child to school, or help educate this kid’s community about health and sanitation—it means so much. Knowing that we can help make their future better makes you want to help even more. :)”

After being officially appointed as UNICEF Child Rights Supporter, Bianca along with UNICEF staff went on her first official out-of-town fieldtrip to Camarines Norte last March. The 2-day visit exposed her to center and home-based day care, handwashing and toothbrushing programs in schools, and UNICEF’s child protection assistance in a halfway home for abused girls.

Aside from working (for free!) with us at UNICEF, Bianca is also a part of the bigger family -- UNICEF Champions for Children along with our only National Ambassador Gary Valenciano.

UNICEF Champions for Children is a community of UNICEF supporters that seeks to help Filipino children all over the country enjoy the right to education, healthcare and nutrition as well as protection from neglect, abuse and exploitation through regular monthly donations. With Php15/day or Php500/month, you can help 5 children stay in school with basic supplies.

Bianca Gonzalez is currently a co- host of Pinoy Big Brother. To know more about Bianca visit http://superbianca.blogspot.com or follow her on Twitter.

Cearly learning, how children can be better prepared to enter and complete school, and violence against children within the school environment.

Helping children and UNICEF is not new to Bianca as she has been informally raising money for us since 2007 when she raised PHP 36,000 for a 100-book library through the help of family and friends via her personal blog helpkidslearnproject.multiply.com. The success of the project encouraged her to launch another fundraising activity and in August 2009 she was able to raise a whopping PHP 48,000. The money was used to provide two early learning packages consisting of books, toys and musical instruments for two day care centers in Tondo and Sta. Cruz, Manila where she was able to personally visit and play with the children and the community.

“Ang pinaka-naging passion ko is to help bring kids to school—parang cliché na ’yon lang ang key nila to become successful and to get out of poverty,” says Bianca Gonzalez about choosing children’s education as the main focus of her fund-raising project.

Asked on how she felt when we asked her to formally become part of the UNICEF family, this is what she had to say:

“Ever since I was young, I’ve always wanted to be a part of UNICEF. I read about and see the work that they do and I’ve always wanted to help in my own little way. Through Champions for Children, we can all be a part of UNICEF’s efforts to better

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Join UNICEF Philip

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Every two hours, approximately one Filipino mother dies due to complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth. Infant mortality is 14 times greater within the first month of life for infants born in a developing country such as the Philippines than for one born in a developed nation. These alarming statistics are the driving force behind UNICEF and Johnson & Johnson’s safe motherhood and newborn health programs.

Johnson & Johnson renewed this partnership with a P3M donation this year. The funds will go towards educating women of childbearing age about the preventable risks during pregnancy and childbirth, including classes on prenatal and post-natal care. A portion of the fund will also go towards early childhood education programs.

Johnson & Johnson’s commitment to the cause runs deep. They support safe motherhood programs not just locally but also worldwide. And UNICEF is only too happy to have them on board again.

Corporate Donors Step Up for Children’s Education

UNICEF is committed to one goal: a world fit for children. Yet this is a goal we cannot achieve on our own. Because we rely solely on voluntary contributions to fund our various programs, it would be impossible for us to work towards this objective without the unrelenting generosity of our donors and partners.

To the following corporate partners who readily step up time and again to do their part in helping to raise the Filipino child, our warmest thanks.

A large percentage of Filipino children drop out at Grades 1 or 2. One reason for this is their lack of school preparation. It is for this reason that UNICEF advocates for the expansion of early childhood

education, especially for the most disadvantaged children. Children who

receive proper mental stimulation from ages zero to six years old--the most critical period in brain development-- increase their chances of making it beyond the early grades.

Starbucks began supporting our campaign for early childhood education through the SparkHope program in 2004. Under the program, each Starbucks store in the country adopts a partner community and helps fund a well-equipped day care center in that area. The SparkHope corner in each Starbucks outlet showcases the work being done in the selected community’s day care center. The corner also features a collection box for generous customers who may be inspired to donate to the cause.

How heartening it is to realize that the first graders who benefited from SparkHope in 2004 are now about to enter high school! Now six years running, SparkHope continues to do just that--spark hope in the lives of children.

Last March, Procter & Gamble via its flagship brand Safeguard, the Department of Education and UNICEF kicked off the first leg of the Essential Health Care Program (EHCP) in Camiling, Tarlac.

Dubbed Clean Hands, Healthy Teeth, the program taught children proper hand washing and dental care techniques. Children were also given Safeguard

soaps, toothbrushes and toothpaste so that they would be able to practice what they learned.

The program was initiated to decrease the incidence of common illnesses like diarrhea and dental caries through simple, daily

hygiene practices. Though easily preventable and curable, diarrhea and dental caries are two of the top reasons affecting attendance and performance of children in schools which often leads to repeating grades or worse, dropping out.

The Clean Hands, Healthy Teeth program hopes to make proper hand washing and dental care second nature to over 1M children nationwide.

Following the success of last year’s Spread the Smiles campaign, Sony Ericsson, together with its sister company Ericsson Philippines, donated another Php1M to UNICEF, this time for a fully-equipped mobile education and child protection van designed to bring the gift of learning directly to children who call the streets their home.

The van, launched this April, has been outfitted with a laptop, broadband internet access and other multimedia instructional materials. Staffed by qualified street educators and social workers, this roaming classroom will be deployed within Manila

through UNICEF partner Lingap Pangkabataan. Aside from street education sessions, Lingap provides psychosocial support, parenting seminars and other social services not only to children living and working on the streets but to their families as well.

An estimated 250,000 children are living and working on the streets throughout the Philippines.They scrape by, without access to proper nutrition, health care and education. Worse yet, they face the bleakest of prospects and often fall prey to violence and exploitation out in the streets. The mobile education and child protection van is part of

UNICEF’s ongoing efforts to give children on the streets a second chance at education, and through this, a means to get off the streets. Attending the street education sessions helps these children earn the equivalence of a grade school or high school diploma, by means of the Alternative Learning System developed by the Department of Education. When children feel safe and are equipped with basic life skills they are better able to cope and protect themselves from abuse and exploitation.