|
’Walk the World’ Day to raise millions in support of poor children
2006-05-20 08:56:58
By Michael Haonga
Tomorrow is World Food Programme (WFP) ’’Walk the World’’ Day. It is aimed at fighting hunger among school children.
Locally, the event will be held in a number of regions and districts with the Prime Minister Edward Lowassa being the Guest of Honour at Marangu, Kilimanjaro region. Correspondent MICHAEL HAONGA explains the details.
LAST year, Tanzania scored second position in the ’’Walk the World’’ fund raising for the plight of school children after raising some 24m/-. Spain raised over 60m/-, thus becoming the first in the world.
This year, Tanzania expects to raise more than 60m/= for the same purpose, and the walk is to be held in Dar es Salaam, Dodoma at regional level and in Marangu Kilimanjaro region at national and international level.
At District level the ’’Walk the World’’ event will take place in Kigoma, Kasulu, and Kibondo districts in Kigoma region, Ngara district in Kagera region and the last district is Isaka in Tabora.
The UN designated WFP Fight-Hunger Ambassador, Reginald Mengi has called for people to turn up and support the fight against hunger.
A Press Statement released by WFP says that the walk to end child hunger under the theme ’’Fight Hunger Walk the World ’’ invites people to work collectively for something larger than their own self interest.
It out of this concern that the UN-designated WFP Fight Hunger Ambassador Reginald Mengi, has appealed to every stakeholder in fighting hunger to participate in the walk and help contribute something.
Mengi says ’’Walk the World’’ can be effected through many ways, such as taking part in the walk, to underscore the significance of solidarity towards that noble goal and by contributing something within one’s reach.
He says ’’Contribution of say one or two hundred Tanzania Shillings by each in the country would go a long way in helping fight hunger that prevent school children from studying and listening to teachers in classes.’’
The 16 talking points of the WFP have it that ’’Fight Hunger -Walk the World is about growing a movement that has as its objective the achievement of the First United Nations Millennium Development Goal -reducing by half the number of chronically hungry people in the world. Rich and Poor, young and old, people are on the move.’’
Other talking points include the observation that the fight hunger movement is happening because it involves people from all over the world, in every time zone, in every demographic, of every race. And creed. And ethnicity- rich and poor all being in the move.
Noted too is that the world has thousands of people who have may gain and others loose to make the ’’walk the world’’ movement not only unique but of lasting importance and happening to fight hunger in every corner of the world.
Cases in point world-wide include Tanzania which like other countries such as Uganda, Liberia, Moscow, Dubai, Brazil and others to just mention a few have thousands of school children affected by hunger to magnitudes that they cannot pursue their lessons smoothly and in effective understanding way.
In Northern Uganda for instance one of the most challenging conflict situations on earth, as cited by WFP in the talking points, is that it has 40,000 displaced people receive humanitarian aid.
’’These are civilians- mothers, fathers and children who are out of their homes and livelihoods by the conflict and forced to live in camps.
The UN Agency adds that ”Our school feeding beneficiaries are walking in force. In Sierra Leone, some 10,000 children are walking.
In Liberia, we expect about 50,000 children to walk. In Malawi, school children are expected to walk in 43 districts- beating their record of 43,500 walkers last year.
In Moscow, some 10,000 people are expected to walk next to the Red Square, notes the WFP talking points.
In Dubai also, thousands are expected to walk through parks of futuristic city, In Oklahoma City they are scheduled to walk by the Cowboy Hall of Fame, In Brazil scores of thousands are due to walk to demonstrate their country’s extraordinary commitment to the idea of Zero Hunger.
In Athens and Atlanta, Guam and Grenada, and in Israel and even Iraq, people are scheduled to come together to give voice to the belief that we can be the history to end child hunger.
In the final analysis, Fight Hunger- Walk the World is about engaging citizens world wide to demand that governments - rich governments and poor governments alike- do more to end this scourge. For governments with resources to give the message is simple - You must give more to address this crisis.
According to the WFP in 2005, the UN Agency reached almost 22 million children in schools all around the world in its school feeding programmes. ’’By 2008 we must reach at least 50million children.
We know that when we feed children in schools, good things happen. Children learn more, they learn better, and they are less likely to live in poverty if they eat nutritious meals and learn in the process’’ notes the WFP.
It adds that educated children are healthier children, and are healthier and more productive in adulthood, breaking the hunger-illiteracy-poverty circle for the next generation.
The WFP emphasizes further that this is not rocket science, but simply basic common sense. And if , then we also know why the solution haven’t been applied to everyone, everywhere.
And that is for the simple and unavoidable fact that this is not a a question of wallet, it is in fact a question of will.
The WFP says ’’…this world has more than enough food, more than enough money, more than enough expertise to feed every m and child on the planet. Fight Hunger -walk the world is about helping to create the will for change. And that change will come’’
In Dar es Salaam the ’’Walk the World ’’ event will have the Minister for Education and Vocational Training, Margreth Sitta as the guest of honour while in Dodoma the guest of honour is the Minister for Agriculture and Food Security, Joseph Mungai.
|
