Why do children have to flee their homes to find somewhere safe to live? Why do many live out their childhood's in refugee camps? Why is life so unfair? It's a sad fact that the answers are complex and the problems that cause this situation are difficult to solve. So why bother even trying to help? Why try to make a difference?

Because we can. We can make a bad situation better. No one is saying we can fix the world, but for as many kids as we can provide help to, we can bring a wealth of opportunities. We can provide a better education which can help prevent boredham, drug use, HIV. We can provide sports, which can bring self esteem, healthy bodies, friends. We can provide technology which can make these children feel like they are part of our world too.

It's fair to ask 'why?'... but don't be defeated by the size of the problem. The whole point is that although there are more than nine million kids in the world who are living as refugees or IDPs, each one is an individual, with a story, with hopes and dreams. With a future. Be a part of that future. Why? Because you can make a difference.

Why give?

Giving, even to a good cause, can feel like a drop in the ocean. Know that for these kids, even a small donation can make a real difference in their lives. Your money can help provide these young people with a better future. This campaign is about providing a fishing rod, not fish.

By supporting ninemillion.org you are giving the most vulnerable children in the world access to an education that will allow them to find employment and support themselves as adults. You are giving them the chance to know what it is to be on a winning team, to be strong, fast and skilful.

This is achieved through the provision of better access to education and sports programs. ninemillion.org provides funds to create sport and play facilities and opportunities, to refurbish, rebuild and equip classrooms and even to build and equip computer technology centres.

Why Education?

Education is a fundamental human right, but more than this, education is important to children who have been uprooted from their regular lives. It offers a sense of normality and it offers the tools to build a better future.

The campaign uses the term 'Education (plus)' to more fully describe the programs that UNHCR funds, designs and implements to help refugee children. Education (plus) considers all of the barriers that these children face when trying to gain an education.

This means that programs implemented through ninemillion.org provide more than schoolrooms and books. They also provide separated latrines so that girls can attend classes, they consider the needs of the family so that girls are not required to fetch firewood or mind younger siblings when they should be in school and they focus on the sustainability of programs, ensuring that the longer term requirements of the programs are included in budgets.

Why sport?

Article 31 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child says that every child has the right to a childhood through play. Giving refugee children access to sport gives them pride, self belief, team spirit and passion.

Sport develops tolerance, cooperation, an appreciation of rules. It motivates refugee children to attend camp schools, which is particularly important for girls who are all too often left out.

The UN refugee agency is the leading humanitarian agency providing sports programs to refugee children and partners with sporting organizations and with athletes to help us to raise awareness and funds and also to reach out to future advocates for this very important and often forgotten cause.

Through UNHCR's Council of Business Leader partnership with Nike Inc. and support from the Nike Foundation, ninemillion.org has implemented holistic sport and education programs for refugee adolescents in Azerbaijan, Thailand, Liberia, Uganda and Chad. As a result UNHCR, will for the first time, integrate sport into UNHCR's education guidelines.

Share your passion with nine million of the world's most vulnerable kids. You like to run, play ball, shoot baskets. So do they. Help them play.

Why Technology?

Access to technology is an important element of children's education today and that includes refugees. These kids won't remain in refugee camps for their entire lives. We hope that they will be able to return home, or resettle in a new country, and when they do, they need to know their way around a computer so they can fit in at school and even get a job.

Although political restrictions can mean that we can't always provide access to the internet, we are working on a programme that will include internet access, which we will implement where possible. Access to the internet brings the same benefits to refugees as it does to everyone - a means of communicating with the wider world, of knowing what is going on in the world, of accessing a wealth of information.

When Microsoft exec and ninemillion.org champion Bill Hilf visited the ninemillion.org computer lab in Tham Hin refugee camp in Thailand he realised the need to provide skills:

“Computer skills will certainly help them in their lives in one way or another. The passion of the students in the computer lab and the skills they've developed...is a shining example of how much children desire to and can learn - even in a bamboo hut, with power generators running the PCs, plastic over the dirt floor to limit dust, and no access to the Internet.”

Why single out girls?

Throughout all of our programming, we pay special attention to girls. Why? Because girls almost always bear the brunt of poverty. If you are a refugee girl, you're more likely to be the one your mother turns to for help in the home. You're more likely to contract HIV or AIDS. You're less likely to be allowed to learn, or to play.

Yet all the research shows that when you empower a girl and provide her with education, you increase the chances of an entire community to climb its way out of poverty. Girls grow up to be mothers, leaders, and role models, architects of peace, learners together with their children and champions of community growth. That's good for boys, too.

The Together for Girls partnership, launched by Nike and UNHCR in Kenya educates more than 1,700 Somali girls in refugee camps in Dadaab, using sports programmes as an inducement to particpating in education. Participating in sport helps build self esteem and provides a social support network. Your support counts in making a real difference in the lives of refugee children.