As hard as it may sound, children are living in crisis as I write this post and it honestly breaks my heart. There are Syrian children who are living under harsh conditions in refugee camps who just want to go home to a world they once knew and there are also children who are running from severe violence in the Central African Republic and don’t know where to turn. Children in West Africa have lost both of their parents and even extended family members during the Ebola crisis and are completely lost and  there are also children in the Ukraine who hear and see massive shelling every day and witness unthinkable things that are extremely difficult for adults to handle.

Even last year Save the Children released a report about Motherhood in Crisis. If mothers are in crisis, so are their children. According to the report, “over 60 million women and children are in need of humanitarian assistance.”

Although many of our children are living relatively simple, carefree lives, children around the world are living in fear, don’t have enough to eat, cannot attend school, and must care for younger siblings even though they are children themselves. And they are traumatized. We cannot forget this! That is why SOS Children’s Villages is vital to the wellbeing of millions of children around the world as the largest NGO that helps orphaned and abandoned children globally.

I have personally seen two SOS Children’s Villages (and gratefully so) – one in Addis Ababa and one in Chicago. Even though these two villages are thousands of miles away, the tenet and the sentiment is the same: children deserve the utmost care no matter where they live or their lot in life. I have been impressed by both villages and have seen with my own eyes the stellar work SOS Children’s Villages does for children who would have difficulty finding a home if it were not for SOS’s help and compassion.

The seemingly dismal fate for some children is heartbreaking to think about, to be sure. But, the reality is millions of children experience crises every day and it is up to us to help them as much as possible even if the crises are not in our backyard.

It may not always be feasible to send a sizable check to a charity that helps children or hop on a plane to volunteer in a faraway country. Sometimes helping means simply spreading awareness about a cause you believe in and during the process donating money to children.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Yesterday, the #relay4kids campaign launched where each day through April 24 a new post will be published on Huffington Post from SOS leadership, online influencers, bloggers, and celebrities. For every social share $1 will be donated by Johnson & Johnson to our partner, SOS Children’s Villages, to help children in crisis. Honestly, it couldn’t be easier! Share a post on your most popular social media sites and literally help children in the process. Johnson & Johnson will donate up to $30,000 to SOS Children’s Villages for each of your social shares.

Want to get started and do your part? Visit www.sos-usa.org/relayforkids to see all of the posts you can share. Dollars add up quickly, friends, so share as much as you can!

*Blogs must be shared between March 23 to April 24, via Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, reddit, Tumblr and Google+ from the Huffington Post. Each share will trigger a $1 donation up to $30,000. There are no limits on how many times you can share a post.

** via the Donate A Photo app for iOS and Android. Johnson & Johnson has curated a list of trusted causes, and you can donate a photo to one cause, once a day. Each cause will appear in the app until it reaches its goal, or the donation period ends. If the goal isn’t reached, the cause will still get a minimum donation.

Photos: SOS Children’s Villages

Featured Photo: UN Photo/JC McIlwaine: Kapuri Primary School children arrive for the celebrations (Rwanda)