World Food Programme (WFP) Bangladesh organises a walk in the city yesterday. Photo: STAR Hundreds of children, UN officials and their partners yesterday walked the streets of the major cities, including the capital of the country calling for national and global efforts to end hunger and malnutrition of children. Holding colourful festoons and banners and wearing T-shirts that carried slogans 'End Hunger- Walk the World', they walked to raise awareness and funds for WFP to provide school meals to the millions of children who attend schools hungry everyday. The walk was organised by World Food Programme (WFP) Bangladesh and its partners TNT and Unilever. According to a WFP news release, about 50 percent children of Bangladesh under the age of five are underweight and stunted that results in a reduced mental capacity and physical development. The global campaign aims at raising resources for WFP to provide school meals for some 59 million children who attend school hungry everyday. Hunger continues to be the greatest threat to health worldwide, killing a child every six seconds, while high commodity and fuel prices coupled with an increase in natural disasters threaten to wipe out any gains made against hunger in recent years, it added. In the capital, the children accompanied by the officials and employees of WFP, its partners Helen Keller International (HKI), Standard Chartered Bank and TNT Express also joined the walk from IDB Bhaban to Chandrima Udyan. Similar walk programmes were also held in Chittagong, Jessore, Comilla, Gazipur, Khulna, Chandpu and Narayanganj. Talking to newsmen after the end of the walk near Chandrima Udyan, WFP Acting Representative in Bangladesh Edward Kallon said, "We are here to stop hunger, especially of the children.' Bangladesh achieved good success in Boro production this season, but rice price is not likely to come down shortly, he said, adding that safety net programmes should be there to help poor people and children. In collaboration with the government, the WFP under its school feeding programme provides a 75 gram packet of biscuits fortified with vitamins and minerals to six lakh poor children in six districts. "WFP has plans to expand the programme for five million children,' Edward added. Standard Chartered Bank Chief Executive Officer Osman Murad, TNT Country Manager Turab-ur Rahman and WFP Head of External Relations Enamul Haque also spoke. End Hunger-Walk the World was evolved from an initiative of TNT employees in Asia in 2003, with Unilever joining as key organiser in 2007. Over the past five years, the event mobilised around one million participants and raised funds to feed over one lakh children in schools for one year.