Children International is a nonprofit humanitarian organization dedicated to bettering the lives of impoverished children, their families and communities. As a non-profit humanitarian organization, Children International strives to help children around the world overcome the burdens of poverty to become healthy, educated, self-sustaining and contributing members of society.

Children International achieves their goals primarily through child sponsorship, which unites children in need with individual sponsors who wish to address the children's immediate and basic needs. Sponsorship gives poor children the tools and opportunities necessary for success by providing benefits and supporting programs for each child - primarily in the areas of education and health. Sponsorship programs currently benefit more than 300,000 impoverished children and their families in 11 countries throughout the world, including Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mexico, the Philippines, the United States and Zambia.

In addition to sponsorship, Children International works to further improve the living conditions of children and families living in poverty. Through projects such as latrine building, clean-water initiatives and income-generation programs, Children International helps families live healthier and happier lives.

Children International continues to provide safe, sturdy homes for impoverished families who suffer in substandard housing. Through our housing program, they’ve built hundreds of new homes for victims of natural disasters, such as hurricanes and fires; and thousands of homes have been repaired and upgraded with sturdy roofs and concrete floors.

Visit Children International online, at www.childreninternational.org

Feed The Children is a Christian, international, non-profit relief organization with headquarters in Oklahoma City, Okla., that delivers food, medicine, clothing and other necessities to individuals, children and families who lack these essentials due to famine, war, poverty or natural disaster.

During our 26-year history, Feed The Children has created and developed one of the world's largest private organizations dedicated to feeding hungry people. Last year, Feed The Children shipped 61 million pounds of food and 22 million pounds of other essentials to children and families in all 50 states and in 62 foreign countries. Feed The Children supplemented 509,133 meals a day, worldwide.

Since 1979, we have provided food, clothing, medical assistance and educational opportunities to those in need in more than 100 nations around the world. Through schools, orphanages and church-related programs, Feed The Children touches the lives of thousands of children overseas every day. We also provide financial assistance to orphanages, schools and other charitable groups in these regions.

A key goal is to help needy families move past needing help and into becoming self-sufficient members of their community. Through long-term, self-help development programs funded by grants and by our Child Sponsorship partners, tens of thousands of families in countries around the world have increased their ability to be self-sufficient by learning and applying new, marketable skills. Find out how you can be a part of the solution to the problem of child hunger around the world.

Visit Feed The Children online, at www.feedthechildren.org

UNICEF is the world's leading children's organization. Over the last six decades, UNICEF has cultivated policy positions on a wide range of issues that affect children. UNICEF has five key priorities for children. They include Child Protection, Immunization, Early Childhood, Fighting HIV/AIDS and Girls' Education.

Child Protection: UNICEF’s approach recognizes that all children are entitled to protection – as laid out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Immunization: UNICEF in action examines what the organization and its partners are doing in the area of Immunization Plus to ensure every child’s right to be protected against preventable diseases and to meet the Millennium Development Goals of reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and reversing the spread of killer diseases.

Early Childhood: UNICEF is advocating a time-tested, globally applicable and effective integrated approach to early childhood that can greatly improve the prospect that every child will both survive and thrive. This integrated approach takes into account the whole child and the range of her or his needs. It includes good health and proper nutrition for children, mothers and communities, as well as safe water and basic sanitation. It includes psycho-social care and attention to early learning. It includes protection from violence, exploitation and discrimination. Interventions in all of these areas work together to support children and their primary caregivers.

Fighting HIV/AIDS: There is hope. We know how to minimise the risk of parent-to-child transmission, and what is needed to provide care, support and protection for children growing up without caregivers. We also have the clearest evidence yet that young people are the key to turning back the disease. The challenge now facing UNICEF and our partners among the international community, national governments and key stakeholders, is the comprehensive, massive scaling up of successful interventions and initiatives for prevention, treatment and care. The fight to prevent infection against HIV/AIDS among young people and children has both immediate and long-term objectives: to stop the disease in its tracks, and to undo the structural, entrenched inequities that continue today to put children and young people at risk.

Girls' Education: Education is a fundamental right for all children, including girls. Yet, as in many other areas of their lives, girls’ prospects for education are diminished because of gender discrimination. The statistics say it all. 65 of the 121 million children in the world who are not in school are girls. In Sub Saharan Africa, 24 million girls were out of school in 2002. 83% of all girls out of school live in Sub Saharan Africa, South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific. Two-thirds of the world’s 875 million illiterate adults are women. UNICEF works in 157 countries, calling on development agencies, governments, families, religious groups, civil society and donors to step up efforts on behalf of education for all children.

Visit UNICEF online, at www.unicef.org