Meeting Held on Efforts to Help Children

Children’s advocates in the eastern San Gabriel Valley met Wednesday to talk about how their agencies can take part in an international move to combat children’s deaths from disease, malnutrition and abuse.

Some local efforts are already under way. Jean McIntosh, director of the Child Welfare League of America in San Dimas, said her organization supports the McKinley Home for Boys, which helps boys ages 5 to 12 who have been abused.

The Pomona Unified School District provides day-care services seven days a week, said Bill Ewing, director of child development programs. The school district has 18 child-care centers that serve 1,200 children of students and other working parents.

The meeting was one of 44 held nationwide to coincide with UNICEF’s annual State of the World’s Children report. According to the report released Wednesday, more than 12 million children have been saved by a decade-long effort to immunize children in developing countries. UNICEF is the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Swati Adarkar, director of community affairs for Children Now in Santa Monica, told the audience to think “globally, but act locally.”