Press release
Three Top Chinese Cities Joined The Global Walk to End Child Hunger
(June 12, China) - On Sunday, June 12, 2005, at 10:00am, more than 3,000 people in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou joined in Fight Hunger: Walk the World, a global advocacy and fund raising event for the UN's World Food Programme (WFP). In all, more than 200,000 people in over 90 countries across 24 time zones participated in this five-kilometer event. All participants around the world—from Sydney to Santiago, and from Moscow to Los Angeles—helped put the spotlight on hunger, and show how one collective footstep can transform the lives of the world's poorest children.
Fight Hunger: Walk the World also reminded people of the fact that in a world producing more than enough food for everyone, some 18,000 children die every day of hunger. Another 300 million children suffer chronic hunger and 100 million do not attend school. All too often children – particularly girls – are deprived of education because their families cannot afford to send them to school. Yet educating children is one of the best ways of escaping the cycle of poverty and hunger.
To help address this issue, WFP and its partner TNT, global provider of express, logistics, and mail services, organized Fight Hunger: Walk the World for the second consecutive year to raise money for WFP's global school feeding project, which last year provided one meal a day to 16.6 million primary school children in 72 countries. By 2007, the project aims to help 50 million hungry children throughout the world. This year, Fight Hunger: Walk the World hopes to raise over 2 million Euros (or more than US$2.5 million), moving the world one step closer to eradicating child hunger.
The funds raised in China will be used for WFP's efforts in China's Gansu Province. Altogether, the hope is to raise enough money to feed and educate at least 50,000 of the world's poor children for one year. According to WFP, one child can be fed and educated for one year with only 282 RMB.
"In a world where war and disaster spawn countless human tragedies which compete for attention, the silent plight of the hungry – especially children, the world's future – is an urgent call we must all answer," said Dominique Frankefort, the Deputy Country Director of WFP China Office. "This walk is as important as it is inspiring to our mission to end hunger."
"With its exceptional generosity in logistics and transport, as well as advocacy on behalf of the hungry, TNT has made an immeasurable contribution to WFP's fight against world hunger," said Mr. Frankefort. "This partnership is a brilliant example of the private sector putting its people, resources and expertise to work to ease the suffering of so many of our fellow human beings."
Attending the walk in Shanghai, Ken McCall, CEO of TNT China, noted, "People at TNT fully support WFP's mission of ending child hunger. We believe that Fight Hunger: Walk the World will help encourage more people and companies to join the global fight, along with WFP, against hunger. "
In addition to attending the sponsored walk, donations can be made via text message - "WFP" - to either China Mobile (885050) or China Unicom (9950). 1 RMB will be donated to WFP for each SMS sent to China Mobile. 2 RMB will be donated to WFP for each SMS sent to China Unicom.
For more information or to make a donation, please visit www.fighthunger.org
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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency. In 2003, the organiser fed 104 million people including 56 million children in 81 countries. WFP Global School Feeding Campaign is fighting the hunger for a brighter future. For just 19 US cents a day, you can help WFP give children in poor countries a healthy meal. WFP staff will join the walk with the public.
TNT is the leading global provider of Express, Logistics and Mail services. The group employs around 161,000 people in 64 countries and serves over 200 countries. TNT provides customers with integrated business solutions covering the entire range of services, from direct marketing solutions, to door-to-door delivery services and supply chain management. The company focuses on a diverse range of market sectors including automotive, electronics, consumer goods, utilities and telecommunications, publishing and media. As a Global Fortune 500 company, TNT is headquartered in the Netherlands and publicly listed in the Amsterdam, New York, London and Frankfurt stock exchanges. The global revenues in 2004 are 12.6 billion Euros.
TNT Express has the biggest air and road delivery network in Europe and provides fast, reliable door-to-door express delivery service for more than 200 countries internationally with 187 million times deliveries annually. As the second largest logistics provider globally, TNT Express is the first logistics provider which was authorized ISO in agreement and management. And also, TNT is the world's leading third party logistics provider to the automotive industry and a key provider of Logistics services to the electronics and pharmaceuticals sectors. TPG Post is a market leader in international business mail that has been established for over 200 years. It runs mail networks in seven European countries and deals with 7 billion mails every year.
TNT China is the Chinese branch of TNT Group. TNT China provides integrated business solutions through three main business sectors such as Mail services, Logistics and Express, which covers from direct marketing solutions, door-to-door delivery services and supply chain management. It currently employs over 3,000 skilled professionals across its network of 25 branches and services more than 500 cities in China. TNT China has developed over 2,000 service stations and currently operates seven gateways to China which includes: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dalian, Hangzhou, Xiamen and Shenzhen
With its corporation with Shanghai Automotive Logistics Co., -- Anji – TNT Automotive Logistics Co., Ltd., TNT China has become the largest third party auto motive logistics provider in China
For more information, reporters may contact:
Ivy Wang
TNT China
Tel: 86 (21) 5352 4688 Ext. 6411
Fax : 86 (21) 6340 3657
Ivy.wang@tnt.com
Copyright © 2004 TNT China