About two years ago on a trip to Gaza and the West Bank, she visited a school that had been caught between the crossfire of the warring parties. “As I walked around the school complex I noticed that the walls were riddled with bullet holes and that there was some destruction from artillery shelling,” she says. “The windows were covered with cinder blocks to keep random fire from penetrating and injuring students.”

As she heard the sounds of conflict in the background she immediately became terrified. And then, the most unlikely person came to her rescue—a ten-year-old boy.

“He said in his accented but perfect English, ‘Do not worry. Why are you frightened? [The gunfire] is not near. I can hear when it is close. You should not worry.’”

The boy and his classmates asked her what it was like to go to school in her country. “I couldn’t answer them with the full truth,” she admits. “It would hurt too much to tell them that this was not normal and they should not have to be used to gunfire and artillery shelling.”

Besides helping during conflicts, UNICEF also must provide aid when natural disasters strike. The staffers are used to the fact that catastrophes come without warning. “The organization typically prepares for a crisis by having emergency supplies pre-positioned and ready to be retrieved at a moment’s notice. Likewise, when we fundraise we try to encourage donors to give to unrestricted funds so that we can choose to send the money where it is most needed.”