UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. children’s agency says it has failed to reach millions of the world’s neediest boys and girls in slums and remote countryside and is shifting to a strategy of getting critical health care services to the poorest of the poor.

UNICEF’s new approach would likely concentrate more on such initiatives as training rural health workers and building schools in remote areas, and less on building big modern hospitals and universities in cities.

“They are the heroes in the fight against the second wave of disease,” Lake said of the 96,000 employees in Pakistan’s Lady Health Workers program, who provide preventive care and education to more than 90 percent of the nation’s rural population.

Anthony Lake (new Executive Director of UNICEF) said that extensive data analysis since he joined UNICEF in May shows that grass-roots health, education and other development programs inside the most vulnerable communities could improve the lives of the world’s poorest children significantly and ensure they live long enough to go to school.

We would like to thank UNICEF and the Associated Press for publishing another testament to the effectiveness of programs like Tia’s.