WFP TO ORGANIZE EVENT TO HELP POOR CHILDREN

Jakarta, June 4 (ANTARA) - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) office in Indonesia will launch a fund raising event in Jakarta and other cities in the world on June 7, 2009, to help poor children and pregnant women.

The event, themed "End Hunger, Walk the World," in Jakarta would be held at the Senayan West Plaza and aimed at assuring the sustainability of providing nutritious food to poor children,including those under five-years old, and pregnant women, Allan Brown, a WFP fund raiser, said here on Thursday.

Some 9,000 people had registered themselves by paying Rp50,000 each person to take part in the Walk the World event. WFP Indonesia hoped at least 10,000 people would join the event.

'The Walk the Word' would be held simultaneously in 74 countries. WFP needed Rp250,000 annually for each child, Brown, who was accompanied by Enal Taher of the coordinating ministry for people's welfare, and Luna Maya, an Indonesian actress and national WFP ambassador.

In Indonesia, WFP has focused its nutrition improvement programs especially in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) provinces, as around 30 percent of the two provinces' people had no access to sanitation and clean water, he said.

After implementing the programs for three years in NTT and NTB, the nutrition, sanitation and clean water supply had improved, Brown said.

WFP also helped implement sanitation and clean water supply programs in Sampang, Madura, East Java Province, he said.

Meanwhile, Taher expressed gratitude to WFP for helping Indonesia, including earthquake victims in Aceh and Yogyakarta, and hoped that the UN body could extend its presence in Indonesia for the third period after 2010.

"End Hunger: Walk the World" is an annual event to raise money and awareness for WFP's efforts to fight child hunger and malnutrition.

The Walk is a joint effort of WFP and its corporate partners, led by TNT, Unilever and DSM.