NAIROBI, May 23 (Xinhua) -- More than 760,000 people in 118 countries and 420 locations, across 24 time zones, participated in Fight Hunger: Walk the World, according to a press release of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) available here on Tuesday. ¡¡¡¡

    All around the globe, people came out in force on Sunday to deliver a message: child hunger has no place in this world and citizens working together can root it out.

    The WFP, its humanitarian and corporate partners, political leaders, artists and sport champions, as well as war-displaced families and over 100,000 school children in sub-Saharan Africa alone, stepped forward in the fight against child hunger, the WFP said.

    From Auckland of New Zealand, to the Pacific Ocean island of Samoa, people rose up to declare it is unacceptable that 18,000 children die of hunger daily on a planet that produces more than enough to feed every inhabitant.

    International capitals, rural communities, neighborhoods and historical landmarks served as the backdrop to walks which varied in size and style. In northern Uganda alone, on a hot and sunny day, some 114,000 displaced civilians living in camps in Pader joined the Walk.

    WFP Uganda Country Director Ken Davies said the turnout in Pader was phenomenal, almost triple the predicted number of 40,000.

    "People wanted to show their support for WFP's work in a place that the outside world often overlooks," Davies said. "When the communities in the camps heard about the walk, they decided this was a chance to remind the world of their plight. It was very moving, this spontaneous show of support."

    Davies said the walk also went ahead in 10 other locations in Uganda, with a total of 129,000 walkers netting fundraising pledges of 81.5 million Ugandan shillings (about 45,000 U.S. dollars) from corporate and private sponsors for WFP's school feeding programs in Uganda.

    In other parts of the world, a downpour in London could have caused some problems for Walk the World, but there was no stopping committed walkers led by Princess Haya of Dubai, WFP Goodwill Ambassador.

    In the Bolivian capital, La Paz, two brothers were reunited after having been separated for six years. Both are being fed by two separate school feeding programs administered by WFP.

    Participants in Lesotho had a wonderful time during the 11-km Walk in Maseru, which was led by Queen MaSenate Mohato Bereng Seeiso.

    Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was at the head of a 30,000-strong crowd through Monrovia that ended in the City Stadium.

    In Indonesia, a world champion swimmer set a new world record on behalf of Walk the World by crossing the treacherous Bali straits while other supporters of ending child hunger were planting Walk the World: Fight Hunger flags at Mount Everest and Kilimanjaro summits.

    The call to end child hunger was heard in Red Square in Moscow,on the Great Wall of China, in the historic centers of Budapest and Prague, in the old cities of Amman and Cairo, and in hundreds of other locations in all continents around the globe, the WFP said.

    In Kenya, Walk the World gathered more than 800 participants in Nairobi, and more than 70 others in the remote north of the country, in Kakuma and Dadaab. There, WFP staff who organize food assistance programs for refugees from Somalia and Sudan, stepped out in company with community members and other aid workers.

    In Nairobi, Minister of State John Munyes joined Kenya's marathon world record holder and WFP Ambassador Against Hunger Paul Tergat to flag off the event.

    The walkers included Kenya's Boston Marathon champion Robert Cheruiyot, Commonwealth Games marathon silver medalist Joshua Chelanga and 2006 Berlin marathon bronze medalist Titus Munji as well as more than 100 children, parents and teachers from schools in Nairobi's slum districts that benefit from WFP and government of Kenya school meals.

    Funds raised through the Kenyan events will go to support school feeding in the country where regular WFP and government school feeding reaches 1.1 million children each year, and currently targets an additional 500,000 affected by the drought.

    Last year, the WFP provided school meals for 21.7 million children in 74 countries. The program plans to reach 50 million school children by 2008, according to the press release. Enditem