Right after she made that statement -- in a UNTV program focused on what was achieved at the recent children's summit (or not, as the case may be) -- a report came out of Washington that here in the richest, most advanced country in the world more than 10 million American kids are members of families that have a hard time making ends meet. Families in distress in most cases, even when at least one parent had a year-round, paying job. Yet legislators resist a substantial increase in the minimum wage, fearing (falsely, many believe) that employers then would fire workers to save money, thus increasing the ranks of the poor.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation, which produced the data on US poverty amid affluence, does an annual review called Kids Count. To some degree, the just-released 2002 edition mirrors information that Unicef presented for the consideration of heads of state or government and other leading officials during three days of meetings at the UN. One difference is that the UN agency was speaking mostly about poor, developing states, not a rich nation like ours.

Carol Bellamy reported that since the previous summit, in 1990, the lot of children has improved somewhat. But by no means enough. It's still way below what the earlier summiteers promised when they set their lofty targets. The Casey Foundation Kids Count makes clear that that America also has seen pledges dishonored, and children were the sufferers.

Here in the US, kids have indeed seen significant progress in their well being, the report shows. But with notable gaps. Judging by 10 measures used to rank states, seven recorded improvement, one was unchanged and two showed a deterioration. Not good enough, uncle!

A closer look at the US numbers for individual states reveals wide disparities, especially among child death rates, teen deaths and teen births. Here, the worst performing states had a rate of more than three times that of the best performing ones, the report says.

"The robust economy and the welfare reforms of the 1990s significantly helped to increase the number of working parents in low income families and to lower the child poverty rate," said Douglas W. Nelson, the Foundation's president. (He was speaking, of course, about America before the economic downturn that already preceded Sept. 11 and was exacebated with devastating impact throughout society after the terrorist attacks, the cost of which remains still only the roughest estimate. One thing is sure, it's a number that includes a long row of zeroes.)

"The truth is, many low income working parents still find it awfully tough -- and sometimes impossible -- to meet their kids' needs," Nelson said.

Among the findings in Kids Count, are these.