United Nations’ 40th Anniversary
In your editorial on the U.N. you noted that “much that the organization accomplishes is invisible.” Sadly, this seems true, even at this moment.
Has anyone , for example, heard of the UNICEF resolution to immunize all the worlds’ children by 1990? Currently, 5 million children die yearly and another 5 million are crippled mentally and physically for life by six major immunizable diseases: measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, tuberculosis and polio.
If immunizing all children in just five years sounds like an impossible goal, take heart, it’s not. In fact, it’s already been started. In Colombia the percentage of vaccinated children went from 40% to 80% in a government-backed campaign in the summer of ’84. In El Salvador, government and guerrilla troops called an unofficial truce for three days while Salvadoran children were vaccinated.
KATHRYN HARPER
Santa Monica
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