Thank you for your heart-wrenching replies. Keep the letters coming, I will personally reply to every one.

To everyone at Winterbourne Infant and Nursery School, what a success last week was.

All credit to headmistress Christina Clark and her team for making my visit such a memorable and well organised occasion. There will be many more assembly mornings with schools in the near future.

As promised in last week's UNICEF article, I now intend to detail some of the urgent projects that need immediate funding, starting with children growing up alone in the midst of war.

They need hope, love and understanding. For instance, take the recent report on the two brothers orphaned during the war, one aged six and the other aged eight.

With Burundi's smouldering inter-ethnic conflict at fever pitch, the boys fled to neighbouring Tanzania together with many others caught up in the atrocities of war.

Tanzania is home to Africa's largest refugee population. Ever since that dreadful day when they watched their parents die, the youngest of the two brothers has been unable to speak to anyone except his elder brother, who is quite naturally very protective of his brother.

The boys have built themselves a hut, the elder one cooks their food and acts as the parent. Both wear terribly worn clothes and suffer from immense trauma under the horrendous living conditions.

Over one million children are now growing up alone because of war, famine and HIV.

Over 10 million have been exposed to machine gun shrapnel and bombs and as a result suffer extreme trauma.

At least 20 million children have been removed from their homes in the past 10 years through conflict, not forgetting the two million that have died or the six million injured through land mines and sniper bullets. Many of those suffering will never recover the actual power of speech.

With war in mind we consider Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Congo, East Timor and many others the whole world over.

Are you aware of the fact that there are over 300,000 child soldiers worldwide? These children have a right to childhood and they also have the right to a good education.

Two optional protocols were adopted by the United Nations' Convention on The Rights of the Child. Vietnam's president Tran Duc Luong, together with Tony Blair, signed the document which prohibits the participation and recruitment of children in armed conflict.

Thank you all for your continued support. Next week I will feature the children's health issues such as those who suffer with polio and various other ailments in the midst of famine and poverty.

Peace and love