Representatives of the Seventh-day Adventist Church will participate in the United Nations General Assembly on children in New York City, May 8 to 10. Organized by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 60 heads of State or governments are expected to participate in the event. Matt Mills and Samantha Burchard, staff at the church’s New York City UN office, will attend the session, which is focused on how investment in children’s education, health and protection contributes to global stability and peace.

According to statistics quoted by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, 40 out of every 100 children born today will not have their births registered at all; 26 will not be immunized against any disease; and, 19 will have no access to clean drinking water. One in three will suffer from malnutrition in the first five years of life; 17 will never go to school—of these, 9 will be girls; and, of every 100 who begin 1st grade, only 25 will reach the 5th grade.

Virginia Smith, director of children’s ministries for the Adventist world church, emphasizes the importance of educating people about these issues and allocating resources for children’s programs. “Often the weakest and the ‘voiceless’ lose out on resources,” Smith says. “We have inherited a perception that children are not important enough to spend resources on.” Smith says the church needs “more voices out there to advocate for children, and talking about the reasons why we should do more for the children.”

According to Smith, in the past many of the training programs organized by the Children’s Ministries department tended to reach only Adventist communities in local churches. However, according to Smith, in recent years there has been a paradigm shift. Outreach programs have benefited children from outside the Adventist community. “When the children take home information about what they’re learning or when they perform, such as in a children’s choir, the likelihood of their parents attending our programs is higher,” she says. “As a result whole families have been reached.”

Smith believes the Adventist Church needs to do more for children globally. But she also applauds the work of local churches that are developing programs for children, realizing that what they do for these children will help determine what they will be like socially, mentally, and spiritually when they become teenagers.