Accra, May 19, GNA - Scancom Ghana Limited, operators of Areeba mobile phone network, on Friday donated 20 million cedis to the World Food Programme to support the UN agency's fight against hunger and malnutrition.

Mr Haitham Majed, Marketing Director of Areeba presented the cheque for the amount to Madam Trudy Bower-Pirinis, WFP Representative in Ghana at a brief ceremony at the company's headquarters in Accra. The donation comes ahead of WFP's fund raising walk against child hunger dubbed 'Fight Hunger - Walk the World' which will take place on Sunday, May 21 in 110 countries.

In Ghana, the walk, which will be under the distinguished patronage of Alhaji Aliu Mahama, Vice President, will commence at the Golden Tulip Hotel at 1000 hours and terminate at the Independence Square, with many dignitaries including ambassadors, heads of UN agencies and corporate big wigs participating.

Commenting on the donation, Mr Thomas Sowah, Public Relations Officer of Areeba said it was part of his company's social commitment to improve the lots of Ghanaians, particularly the less endowed who needed support from society to meet their food needs. He said Areeba had a heart 'which bleeds for the less privileged' and it was for that reason that they decided to support WFP in its fight against hunger.

Mr Sowah called on other corporate entities to follow the example of Areeba and donate to WFP to enable it to achieve its objective of eliminating hunger and malnutrition in Ghana.

Madam Bower Pirinis thanked Areeba for the support and called for political support in the fight against hunger.

She said much would be achieved if political support could be mobilised to establish and implement community based nutrition programmes for the benefit especially of women and children. The WFP Representative said her outfit intended to raise 20,000 US dollars from the Walk this year, as against the 10,000 US dollars they were able to raise last year.

She said Ghana was strategically placed for the implementation of WFP programmes and urged Ghanaians to put their hands to the wheel to ensure that food security was achieved.