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WFP walk to raise USD100, 000 next week
2007-05-04 09:23:00
By Judica Tarimo
The World Food Programme (WFP) -Tanzania has organized a charity walk, dubbed ``Fight Hunger: Walk the World`` that targets to raise about USD100, 000 to support children affected by hunger in the country.
Christine Massiaga, WFP Public Information Officer, said yesterday the money to be collected during the annual event, scheduled for May 13, this year, would be dished out to regions experiencing hunger Manyara, Dodoma, Singida and Arusha. Last year, WFP raised around USD100, 000 out of a similar event.
``Children in these regions are not going to school because their parents are pastoralists and livestock-keepers.
So, we picked these regions purposely to help their children in terms of food and other related assistance,`` said Massiaga in an interview with The Guardian.
``Fight Hunger: Walk the World,`` is a global advocacy and annual fund-raising event that seeks to highlight the problem of child hunger, one of the greatest threats to health worldwide.
More than 850 million people the world over are affected by hunger, out of which 400 million are children.
``The money to be raised through the event goes directly to purchasing food for the children in schools in the selected regions,`` said Massiaga.
According to the official, at the local level, the walking campaign will take place in Dar es Salaam and Dodoma regions.
It will start from WFP office along Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road and end at Karimjee Hall.
In Dodoma, it will start from New Dodoma Hotel to Jamhuri Stadium and will be graced by the Prime Minister, Edward Lowassa.
About 100 different organizations local and international, including companies and private individuals, have been invited to participate and contribute money during the event.
This initiative, according to the official, links food and education by offering free meals to some world’s most vulnerable children.
According to the WFP information officer, the organization provides food to about 199,097 children, affected by hunger in 330 schools in the selected regions.
``Parents in most of these regions always move with children from place to place.
As a result children fail to get education. That`s why WFP intervened with the school-feeding programme to assist these children access education,`` said Massiaga.
WFP has called on the local and international development partners, organizations, and public members to take a step to feed the children.
In the same context of helping the vulnerable children, Massiaga said, the organization support targeted schools in terms of construction of classrooms, schools, teachers` quarters, toilets, water tanks and provides drugs to students.
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