THERE are thousands of them and they need help now.

Now the children of south Asia - caught up in the horrific tsunami disaster - have a new champion.

Unicef ambassador Martin Bell, the former TV reporter turned MP, said: "Every day and every hour now matters. Delay kills.

"It is perhaps only once in a lifetime or even in a generation that a calamity occurs of such colossal and earth-shaking proportions that it stops us in our tracks.

"A calamity that impresses on us most suddenly and dramatically what not to take for granted; that reminds us of destructive forces beyond our control; that shakes us out of our ingrained habit of caring mostly for ourselves and those around us.

"The current crisis in Asia is one such calamity.

"It has inflicted untold damage and casualties that can still only be guessed at, on some of the poorest places in the world.

"What is tragically clear, however, is that across the affected countries it is the children who have suffered and are suffering, disproportionately.

Unicef estimates that one third of the victims of this disaster are children.

"The very young are the most vulnerable to the next stage of this catastrophe - cholera and other diseases.

"These arise from the destruction of fresh water supplies and the contamination of water by whatever human and animal remains may be decomposing in it.

"Governments have a responsibility to do what they can, and what they must. So does the United Nations. So, also, do we.

"Here's a challenge. Reckon how much money you think you can give to organisations like Unicef. And then double it."