The unmet health needs of children, both globally and in the United States, have recently been extensively publicized in the media. Such publicity leads to the question: What can be done about these disturbing conditions? An answer can be seen in the ways in which vast proportions of the world's population, constrained by meager means, few facilities, and a clearly inadequate infrastructure, used what resources they had to make dramatic progress for their children in the 1980s. They empowered people with basic health knowledge and technologies by using every available means: radio, television, the press, teachers and their schools, priests and imams at the village level, commercial channels, and mass participation in health services at the community level. Low-cost measures that have produced major advances in child health include immunization, control of diarrhoeal diseases, breast-feeding of infants, and the practice of monitoring and keeping records of children's growth. The American Academy of Pediatrics can extend the benefits of members' knowledge and skills to unserved children by adhering to the principles guiding primary health care, drawing lessons from industrialized and developing countries, and exercising leadership in child health issues. A list of goals for child and maternal health, education, and development is appended. (RH)