7 June 2009, Shanghai — Almost 4,000 people in Shanghai and 24 other locations across China took part in the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), its local partner, China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) and its major corporate partners, TNT and DSM, in an annual event “End Hunger: Walk the World” to call for an end to child hunger and malnutrition.

“End Hunger: Walk the World” was first launched jointly by United Nations World Food Programme and its largest corporate partner, TNT, in 2003. Through the past 7 years, the Walk has mobilised about one million people, across 24 time zones, around the globe. This year, the walk saw people walking in 70 countries. It began in Australia with a climb up the Sydney Harbour Bridge and continued through all 24 time zones finishing on the Pacific island of Samoa.

In Shanghai, Olympic champion Li Xiaopeng joined employees, families and friends from TNT and DSM to call for an end to child hunger and malnutrition around the world. They raised funds to deliver nutritious meals to poor children in Cambodia, and in project in China run by the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation and WFP.

Hunger and malnutrition are the biggest threats to global health worldwide, and WFP is the United Nation’s frontline agency in the fight against hunger. Nearly one in six people on the planet go to bed hungry at night, and one in three children in the developing world is suffering from stunted growth due to micronutrient deficiencies. According to WFP, it will costs just RMB 2 dollars for WFP to give a child a nutritious meal through its school feeding programmes.

“Walk the World comes at a time of unprecedented challenges for the hungry and the poor,” said Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of WFP. “Children are suffering because food prices are still high in many developing countries, and the global financial crisis is now hitting family incomes hard.”  

“For just a few Yuan, WFP and CFPA can provide a nutritious meal to a child at school – helping them grow and learn well,” said Anthea Webb, Director of WFP China. “Every child deserves the best chance we can offer them, wherever they live.”

‘Walk the World’ exemplifies our commitment to further our cooperation with WFP. We will publish the usage of fund raised in today’s event via our official website to ensure the fund will be used to help needy children in China and Cambodia,” said Mr. Chen Kaizhi, Vice-President of China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation.

“This is the seventh time that TNT has taken part in this event. We have seen the positive changes brought by this meaningful program to help children in hunger and malnutrition,” said Michael Drake, Regional Managing Director, TNT North Asia. “I am particularly proud that, this year, our Chinese colleagues outside of Shanghai in other 24 cities also participated in the benefit walk event at the same time, to fight hunger.”

“As a world leader in supplying nutritional products, DSM works closely with WFP globally to fight against malnutrition and hunger for people especially children in those poor countries with our knowledge and expertise,” said Weiming Jiang, President of DSM China.”Through this “walk”, DSM hopes to encourage more people especially private and social sector to join their efforts to resolve the “hidden hunger”, DSM will stay its commitment in building a healthier life for people.

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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency and the UN’s frontline agency for hunger solutions. In 2009, WFP aims to feed 105 million people in 74 countries.

China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) is one of the largest national charity organizations (NGOs). In 2008, CFPA was one of the six NGOs rated as Five A in China. Since its establishment in March 1989, CFPA has raised a total of RMB 2400 million yuan, carried out over 200 programs in poverty reduction, with 7.18 million people directly benefited.  CFPA has ever carried international relief programs with international partners upon Indonesia tsunami, Pakistan earthquake and Burma hurricane. In 2008, CFPA launched nutritious food program targeting poor kids in Sichuan earthquake-affected regions.

TNT is a global mail and express delivery company serving more than 200 countries. Since 2002, they have been an active partner of WFP and to date have invested over $50 million in the partnership.  TNT founded Walk the World in 2003 as an engagement event for its employees.

DSM is a life sciences and materials sciences company. In April 2007, DSM and WFP joined forces to ensure the nutritional needs of WFP beneficiaries are met through the creation of cost-effective micronutrient interventions to improve the general food basket.

Note to Editors:
•    Satellite feeds with images of Walks held around the world are freely available for all media throughout the day on June 7.

•    Images are made available through APTN Global Video Wire (GVW). These GVWs cover non edited video material of WFP (general and school feeding programmes) and Walk the World events held on the day. It’s up to media to edit these images according to their own needs.

•    All media can download materials trough APTN Global Video Wire during these times:
•    04:45-04:50 GMT    GVW 1: Generic feed WFP info and images previous Walks
•    06:15-06:30 GMT    GVW 2: Generic feed + footage Walk 2009 Australia/Asia
•    11:10-11:25 GMT    GWV 3: Previous feeds + footage Walk 2009 Europe/Africa
•    14:15-14:30 GMT    GWV 4: Previous feeds combined
•    18:15-18:30 GMT    GVW 5: Previous feeds + footage Walk 2009 Americas
•    20:15-20:30 GMT    GVW 6: All previous feeds

For more information please contact:

World Food Programme  Nan Xu
139 1005 7802
nan.xu@wfp.org

TNT China  Diao Ning
139 162 00364
ning.diao@tnt.com

CFPA  Wen Huifang
138 1047 5741
ngo@fupin.org.cn  

DSM  Lina Shi
Tel: 138 1611 3665
lina.shi@dsm.com