Press release
Raise the Awareness of Global Hunger Issue
China Joins the Walk the World for the Eighth Consecutive Year
June 6, 2010 – Today, "End Hunger: Walk the World" Charity event, hosted together with the World Food Program and its global corporate partners TNT and DSM Group, took place concurrently in 27 cities across China. This event saw the participation of 3,000 TNT and DSM employees, as well as their families, friends and customers, with the aim of raising awareness of and funds for the issue of global hunger. The funds will be used to sponsor the WFP’s School Feeding Programmes across Cambodia, in addition to a project run by the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation which deliver nutritious meals to children living in Sichuan, China.
Walk the World takes place across a span of 24 hours in all of the globe’s 24 time zones, beginning in Australia and ending the same day in Samoa. Thousands of people took to the streets in locations ranging from the Philippines to Malawi, from Portugal to the Netherlands. For the first time this year, a walk is also taking place in Iraq.
Hunger and malnutrition are the biggest threats to global health worldwide - every six seconds a child dies because of hunger and related causes. It costs the WFP just 20 Euro cents to provide a nutritious meal to a child at school. Through providing nutritious meals, school feeding programmes, which are carried out globally, are strong incentives to keep poor children in school.
"The WFP and its partners are passionate about taking action on this important issue and believe that everyone can help by joining Walk the World to take a first step towards ending hunger," said Anthea Webb, Director, WFP China.
"This is the eighth time that TNT has taken part in this global event. As the founding partner of event, we are glad to see that Walk the World has grown to a global initiative involving more than millions people," expressed Iman Stratenus, Managing Director, TNT China."We are very proud that more than 2,000 TNT employees in China, together with their families, friends and partners, joined the walk again this year to call for increased attention to the issue of global hunger and help raise funds to solve child hunger."
Copyright © 2010 TNT China