Press release
Global walk against child hunger
[May 21, Beijing] – On Sunday, May 21 of 2006, hundreds of people are gathering in the Mutianyu Great Wall, joining other hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to walk together on the same day for one purpose. Representatives from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture, the universities and international schools in Beijing and companies walk for 5 kilometers in the Great Wall, calling for an end to child hunger. On the same day, more than 700,000 people in over 100 countries across 24 time zones are expected to walk for the same distance, highlighting the battle against child hunger.
"Fight Hunger: Walk the World", organized by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and its key global corporate partner TNT, is the primary organizing vehicle for engage citizens globally in the struggle to achieve an end to child hunger. This will be the most comprehensive and diverse demonstration in history focused on hungry children and the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of hungry people globally by 2015.
"Fight Hunger: Walk the World" was initiated three years ago by TNT, the global leader of express, mail and logistics services. Since 2002, TNT has partnered with WFP to fight child hunger. The annual event allows all TNT employees in 63 countries across the world's 24 time zones, together with WFP partners and others, to unite on a single day to raise funds for WFP's Global School Feeding Campaign. In 2005, over 200,000 people in 91 countries participated in "Fight Hunger: Walk the World", and €1,20,000 were raised by TNT. The RMB 780,000 funds raised by TNT China were used in WFP's School Feeding Programme in Gansu Province in China, and 6,000 impoverished students were provided with food and education assistance.
"Fight Hunger: Walk the World is about creating a movement to end child hunger," said Arlene Mitchell, Director of Walk the World for WFP. "By engaging citizens from rich and poor countries alike, governments worldwide will heed the call, and will do more to end child hunger. Without citizen action, the status quo will remain. But with it, we can help to end the unnecessary suffering of children."
Children throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America are also found in the teams made up of hundreds of thousands of people. Some 100,000 children are expected to walk in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. Most of these are beneficiaries of WFP's innovative and hugely successful School Feeding Programme.
By walking, these children are joining a growing chorus of voices across every demographic and every region of the world saying that it is unacceptable that 300 million children are chronically hungry in the world today.
Beginning in Auckland, New Zealand at 10:00 in the morning, and occurring sequentially for 24 hours across 24 time zones, the Walks are as diverse as their locations: more than 70,000 school children are expected to walk in Liberia, thousands are expected to converge near Red Square in Moscow, in Tanzania, an intrepid group of climbers will scale Mount Kilimanjaro, in Nepal, a WFP staffer will plant the Walk the World flag at the top of Mount Everest to Fight Hunger, and in Brazil the government has adopted Fight Hunger: Walk the World as part of the country's "Fome Zero" campaign.
Although hunger remains a serious issue in the rest part of the world, China has achieved great success in fighting hunger-the oldest enemy in human history. Since 1979, the Chinese population living below poverty line drops dramatically from 250 million to 26 million as of today, accounting for 2% of the total population. WFP ended its Food Aid Programme to China which has been operating for 26 years, saving 30 million impoverished Chinese people. Currently WFP is expanding to a broad cooperation with Chinese government and civilian, making a joint efforts to end hunger on a global scale.
Joining in the Walk in Beijing, Ken McCall, CEO of TNT China noted, "This is the 4th year people at TNT China fully support WFP's mission of ending child. 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, and build a brighter future for the next generations."
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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 N.V. provides businesses and consumers worldwide with an extensive range of services for their mail and express delivery needs. Headquartered in the Netherlands, TNT offers efficient network infrastructures in Europe and Asia and is expanding operations worldwide to maximise its network performance. TNT serves more than 200 countries and employs over 128,000 people (over 163,500 people including the division Logistics, which is intended to be divested). For 2005 the company reported €10.1 billion in revenues (€13.6 billion including Logistics). TNT N.V. is publicly listed on the stock exchanges of Amsterdam, New York, and Frankfurt. TNT recognises its social responsibility, and has formed partnerships with the United Nations World Food Programme and the United Nations Environmental Programme to fight hunger and pollution in the world. More information about TNT can be found on its website http://group.tnt.com.
TNT China is the Chinese branch of TNT Group. TNT China provides integrated business solutions through three main business sectors -- Mail services, Logistics and Express. These services cover direct marketing solutions, door-to-door express delivery services and supply chain management solutions. TNT currently employs over 4,500 skilled professionals across its network of 75 operating branches serving more than 500 cities in China. TNT China currently operates seven international gateways in China which includes: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dalian, Hangzhou, Xiamen and Shenzhen.
With its corporation with Shanghai Automotive Logistics -- Anji – TNT Automotive Logistics, TNT China has become the largest third party auto motive logistics provider in China.
For more information, reporters may contact:
Ning Diao
Senior Communications Manager
TNT China
Tel: 86 (21) 5352 4688 Ext. 6414
Fax: 86 (21) 6340 3657
ning.diao@tnt.com
For more about this historic event, please visit the website, www.fighthunger.org