MASERU — The United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) Lesotho staff will on Sunday team up with beneficiaries, government and other non-governmental organisations to join the global event ‘Walk the World’ to raise awareness about the plight of hungry children in the world.
Fight Hunger: Walk the World was started six years ago by TNT, a global provider of express, mail and logistic services.
It is inspired by millions of children around the world who walk several kilometres to school every day — often hungry and barefoot — determined to get an education and improve their future.
About 25 000 people in the world die of hunger every day.
Of this number 14 000 are children.
The senior programme assistant of WFP Kekeletso Mabeleng said the aim of the event is to raise awareness about child hunger and raise funds to address the problem.
She said hundreds and thousands of people across the world are expected to literally walk the world to end child hunger on Sunday.
“The aim of the event is to fight hunger and malnutrition. The funds raised during the event supports the school feeding programme in the highlands areas of Lesotho,” said Mabeleng.
“We buy seedlings, tools and fencing material for them to establish the gardens.
“We want them to grow their own vegetables so that they can have a variety of food besides the food packages that we supply.”
She said they also supply water tanks for children to have access to water.
Between 500 and 1000 people are expected to participate in the event.
The First Lady ‘Mathato Mosisili and the minister of education Mamphono Khaketla as well as other government ministers are expected to attend the event.
The event will start at Maseru Club at 8am.
WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation. This year WFP is helping 90 million people in 80 countries. About 16 million of the beneficiaries will be children.
