MTN and Coca-Cola Nigeria, major sponsors of the annual ‘Hope Walk’ are collaborating with Hope Worldwide Nigeria to mobilize 10,000 volunteer participants for this year’s ‘Hope Work’ slated for Saturday, December 3, 2011. The theme of this year’s Walk is ‘Support a child, build a great nation’.
The 10 kilometer Hope Walk which first held in 1998 as a walk for sport in Lagos now holds as a national event spanning other major cities of Nigeria including Port-Harcourt, Calabar, Owerri, Sokoto, Ilorin, Ibadan, Benin, Okene, Gombe will start from Maryland Comprehensive High School, Ikeja to Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
Speaking at a strategic press conference to announce the date and logistic arrangements for this year’s Hope Walk, the CEO of Hope Worldwide Nigeria Mr. Olaoshebikan Clement said that arrangements are concluded to insure that this year’s Hope Walk is hitch free and turns out to be a huge success like the previous ones. He said that, security has been put in place to scan the stretch of Ikorodu road and that experts have been involved to ensure free flow of traffic and guard against accident.
According to him, the goal of the Hope Walk held annually for the past ten years is to sensitize Nigerians generally and the policy makers particularly to the plight of the Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC). “We also want to mobilize Nigerians to this work to raise funds towards meeting the educational, health, nutritional and psychosocial needs of these children. “The walk itself is not for fund raising - but it is the platform we use to raise awareness that draws the attention of prospective sponsors including corporate bodies and individuals, policy makers and the general public.”
He emphasized that, “Nigeria has one of the largest burdens of OVC in the world. The 2008 Situation Assessment and Analysis (SAA) on OVC from the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development (FMWASD 2008) showed that 17.5 million (24.5%) of Nigerian children are OVCs, while 7.3 million were orphaned from various causes ranging from poverty, high rate of maternal mortality, ethno-religious conflicts, Aids, accidents, gender inequality and negative cultural practices.”
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