THE IDEA just stuck. In early 2008, 10-year-old Maria Elena ?Milena? Quiaoit wanted to find a way to help poor kids through education, and found a perfectly sticky way of doing so. She was in fifth grade at Beacon International School when her schoolwork touched on poverty.

Visits to Smokey Mountain and Gawad Kalinga Baseco, among other places, opened her eyes. ?The project in school really moved me and I started noticing vendors on the street and street children. I could see how there were so many poor children around and I wanted to find a way to help them,? Milena recalls. At an exhibit, she read about the United Nations Children?s Fund (Unicef) and its SparkHope program, which helps reduce poverty through education. In a tie-up with the Starbucks coffee shop chain, the program provides early childhood care and education to impoverished children 6 years and younger.

For Christmas, a friend gave Milena some personalized iron-on decals from Japan that were useful in labeling pieces of clothing so they don?t get mixed up in the wash. She thought she could make her own labels and sell them, donating money to Unicef and SparkHope in the process. Her parents, manager CJ and homemaker Bambi Quiaoit, helped her out.

Says Milena: ?We got special paper from the US and found a way to format the labels.? She sold the decals to friends and participated in a a bazaar, eventually raising P1,800 for Unicef.

It was during Milena?s visit to the Unicef office to make the donation that Michelle Parazo-Borromeo, Unicef Philippines Private Fundraising and Partnerships Head, told her about the 100-Book Library program. The program identifies 100 books and other items ? school supplies and the like sourced from select suppliers ? that could be donated to a school somewhere in the country. The books are particularly significant because they are not textbooks but are non-required reading materials.

Ma. Lourdes De Vera-Mateo, Chief of the Unicef Philippines Education Section, says the program is meant ?to enhance the reading culture of the children?s schools,? since the Department of Education is only able to invest in regular, boring, academic textbooks. This is an important project from the point of view of children because it makes the learning environment stimulating and attractive.?

Unicef?s Education Section assists 19 provinces, five cities and 8,700 elementary schools. The high cost of books has, however, limited the program?s coverage to some 25 percent of the schools. The ultimate goal is to provide libraries for all the schools.

Recalls Borromeo: ?I told Milena, why don?t you think about supporting this 100-Book Library? She took it to heart and next thing I knew, she called to say, ?I?m turning over P18,000 because I want to provide a 100-Book library to a school.? Wow!?

Milena has found her new target. ?I like it because it has to do with building up education for younger kids,? she says. ?Like my teachers say, if you read, you can learn a lot of words, ask people about them and they will teach you. The books will have a major effect on kids.? She also dreams of someday visiting Dalican Pilot Elementary School in Maguindanao, where her donated books are going.

With her parents, Milena made more decals, put up streamers announcing her pledge to donate to Unicef?s 100-Book Library program and joined several bazaars. They now dub their project ?Tag My Stuff,? and have created a website for easy access.

Surprised by just how big Tag My Stuff has gotten, Bambi is justifiably proud of what her daughter is doing, and how it has helped her develop.

?She?s talkative and very happy,? Bambi says of the giggly Milena. To further motivate her daughter, Bambi gives her a small amount from each sale as well.

On her own, Milena has other interests like kids her age. ?I like checking my Facebook and reading,? she says, counting among her favorites Scholastic?s 39 Clues series, the Twilight saga, ?Walk Two Moons? by Sharon Creech and Madeleine L?Engle?s ?A Wrinkle in Time.? She also enjoys playing Taylor Swift songs on her acoustic guitar and considers herself an adventurous girl ? except where it involves spiders of any size.

While Milena dreams of again donating P18,000 to Unicef like she did in December 2008, she would have to try harder. Inflation and other factors have raised the cost of providing one school with the 100-Book Library project to P22,000.

That is Milena?s new goal. She has redoubled her efforts and plans to join more bazaars, while also approaching friends and teachers to promote her product. Asked what she wants to do when she grows up, this seventh grader says without hesitation: ?Work for Unicef!? Sounds like another good idea that?s going to stick. ?

For inquiries regarding Tag My Stuff, please call 0917-5275046 or visit www.tagmystuff.co.cc. For more information on the 100-Books Library project and Unicef?s other programs, please visit www.unicef.org/philippines.