ABSTRACT
A decade ago, UNESCO reported that four hundred fifty million people of the world's population develop a physical or mental limitation at some time in their life cycle (UNESCO Courier, 1981: 8). By the year 2000, this number is expected to rise to 600 million (Mittler, 1990: 54). A great number of these people are children who, because of hunger, malnutrition, or lack of adequate health care, are marked for life with a disabling condition. One hundred and forty million children between six and 60 months of age are chronically undernourished--almost 40 percent of the world's children (UNICEF, 1987). The cost to society in terms of lost economic production and other societal contributions cannot easily be measured. However, the world assuredly pays a high price for this loss, especially considering the fact that human capital is the most abundant resource in developing countries.
