What is Help a Child with UNICEF?

Help a Child with UNICEF is a Facebook application through which you can help real children from developing countries live a better life. You can choose a virtual child to support and from time to time it will need basic things like food or vaccines. You can buy those virtually, for free or via a small donation. In that case, the money you donate will be used to fund various UNICEF projects giving real children in developing countries food, shelter, safety, education and love.

Who is behind it all?

The Help a Child application is a UNICEF project. UNICEF is the driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realized. It was established by the United Nations in 1946 to meet the emergency needs of children in post-war Europe and China. In 1950, its mandate was broadened to address the long-term needs of children and women in developing countries everywhere. UNICEF became a permanent part of the United Nations system in 1953. UNICEF's work is carried out in 191 countries through country programmes and National Committees. Some 88 per cent of the organization's posts are located in the field. To find out more about UNICEF, please visit unicef.org

To create the Help a Child with UNICEF application, UNICEF partnered with interactive creative Radovan Grezo. He came up with the idea and then worked on it for over a year in his spare time to make it happen. In the process, he had to find people who designed, programmed and maintain the application for UNICEF free of charge. You can find out more about Radovan Grezo at http://grezo.wordpress.com

How does it work?

First, you add the application in your Facebook account. Then you create your virtual child by choosing from various countries of origin, age, sex and the child's first name. That's all you need to do right now. Later, every two weeks or so, the application will send you a "request" asking you to help your virtual child by getting it food or other basic things. You can do it for free or by donating money and thus helping real children get what they need via UNICEF programs. You can also choose to ignore the requests. Nothing bad will happen to your virtual adoptee, but neither will much good happen in reality where children living in slums or other inhuman conditions need your help. But even if you never donate, just having the application on your profile shows you support the cause and we thank you for that.