Makati City, 25 October 2005 --- “Let us launch a more passionate desire to make a difference in the lives of children.”

2005 Miss International, Precious Lara Quigaman, urged guests at the launch of the 2005 UNICEF Greeting Cards Campaign held on 13 October in Manila.

A teary-eyed Ms. Quigaman shared that she was unsure before how she could make a difference in the lives of people. She said that getting familiar with the work of UNICEF allowed her to consider her options.

"There is a lot more that we can do," she said. Ms Quigaman is herself a UNICEF donor, having donated to the Japan National Committee for UNICEF after winning the beauty title in September.

At the launch, Ms. Quigaman learned that UNICEF greeting cards raised P10 million for children’s programmes last year. UNICEF Country Representative in the Philippines, Dr Nicholas Alipui (right), reported that this enabled UNICEF to “provide books and learning materials to day car centres, including toy blocks and musical instruments.”

He added, “UNICEF also helped train day-care workers and teachers so that they could use more effective and child-sensitive teaching techniques.”

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For further information or to arrange interviews, please contact:

Dale Rutstein
UNICEF Manila, 901 0177 or 0917 866 4969, drutstein@unicef.org
Alexis Rodrigo
UNICEF Manila, 901 0173 or 0917 858 9447, arodrigo@unicef.org