Editorial January 1, 1979 Issue

International Year of the Child

Naomi Price

Of the more than one and a half billion children in the world today probably the majority are cared for and nurtured by loving parents and friends. But there are many who are not. Abandoned, exploited, abused, and battered, millions of these unfortunate little people—some scarcely more than infants—are existing in fear and squalor, desperately in need of help. ...

It is a matter for gratitude, therefore, that during the coming year special attention is to be given to this junior group of the world's population. The United Nations General Assembly has designated 1979 as the International Year of the Child and called on each of the one hundred and fifty member nations to organize working groups to implement programs for relieving the plight of underprivileged children and to establish their basic right to humane treatment, education, and opportunity.

Surely all our readers will desire to pray wholeheartedly for the overcoming of injustice, cruelty, and neglect of children because of the importance of this problem to the whole world's population. We expect, therefore, from time to time throughout the year to publish in the Christian Science periodicals—in the Journal, the Sentinel, and in each of the thirteen editions of the Herald—as well as in the religious column of our daily newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor, articles giving concrete spiritual solutions for problems of child welfare. These articles will show how we can pray effectively to help our own offspring and those millions who are neglected and maltreated and who desperately need aid.