Remember a time when your heart ached when you saw a malnourished child living in the streets, with no parental guidance as his innocence was tainted by the cruelty of the world? And you wanted to help but didn't and couldn't? That child may be the next one you'll help UNICEF to save.

We all know how much the world is struggling right now. The COVID-19 pandemic has put the world into a halt with a staggering 10 million confirmed cases worldwide (35,000 in the Philippines alone), the number of cases growing every single day.

As Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director, once said "Children are the hidden victims of the COVID-19 pandemic." A child growing up in such environment full of suffering and exploitation, not only ruins his/her childhood, but also ruins the future of their generation and the next to come. They carry the hope that we all have for this world to be a better safe place. But how can they carry such hope with the risk of a deadly virus, poverty that results to malnutrition and lack of access to medical facilities, child abuse, and constant war (to mention some) that happens all around us? The most important question is posed: What can we do to help?

I am Nikki Murielle Paras, a UNICEF fundraising advocate and volunteer, who shares your feeling of powerlessness and burning desire to make a change. And I am here to introduce an agency that you can use to help. The United Nations Children's Fund or UNICEF is a United Nations agency that provides humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide.