Showing posts with label Walk Across the World. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walk Across the World. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

We’re in Africa … Already?!?!

By David Hylton,
Public Relations Specialist

We’re walking so fast that my fingers can’t keep up! As part of our Walk Across the World initiative, we’ve already “visited” our program areas in Mexico and Brazil. From Brazil, we crossed the Atlantic Ocean to visit Senegal.

We have worked with children and families in the western African nation for more than 20 years. Program initiatives tackle health issues such as malaria and HIV. CCF Senegal offers activities including education, health and sanitation and nutrition to address the overall wellbeing of children and their families.

For more about Senegal, click here to check out our Web site. You can also click here to check out our “In the Field” blog and read about our director of Communications’ trip to the country last summer.

In about six weeks of our Walk Across the World, nearly 100 of our International Office employees have walked more than 8,200 miles. We’re currently walking across Africa to another program area. I’m not telling you which one just yet … but at this rate we’re probably almost there. Check back soon for updates!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Making a Stop in South America

By David Hylton,
Public Relations Specialist


From Richmond to Mexico to Brazil to … we’re not telling! In our “Walk Across the World” initiative, our employees have now “visited” two program areas and walked more than 6,200 miles in less than a month.

Most recently, we made a stop in Brazil, where CCF has worked since 1966. CCF Brazil’s National Director Gerson Pacheco gave us a warm welcome.

“Our country, our children, families and communities, welcome you with our arms open and our hearts filled with joy and gratitude for everything you do for us,” Gerson said. “Come and enjoy our hospitality, our culture, our customs, our music, our Carnival, our food and drinks (such as ‘Feijoada’ and ‘Caipirinha’), our beaches, our historical towns, our forests, our champion football, all the amazing collection of organized diversity that makes Brazil one of the most significant and important countries on the face of the planet.”

One highlight of our programs in Brazil is education. CCF Brazil provides after-school centers where children receive a balanced meal and homework supervision. CCF Brazil also offers “dream corners” – small libraries – for children and “toy libraries” in rural communities where children have a chance to play and experiment with educational toys. The libraries bring educational toys like blocks and puzzles to children who have few or no toys at home.

For more on our programs in Brazil, click here. Continue to check back here to see where we’re making our next stop!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Benvenido a México!

By David Hylton, Public Relations Specialist

With nearly 20 teams of five people each, our Walk Across the World initiative has gotten off to a quick start – we’ve already made it to Mexico! As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, collectively as a staff we are walking across the world to “visit” some of the 31 countries where we work. We started at our International Office in Richmond,Va., and ventured more than 1,800 miles to our first stop in Mexico.

Team Fabulous Five collected the most miles on the first portion of the trek, logging more than 220 miles in one week. Two other teams also passed the 200-mile mark. To put this mileage figure in perspective, 1,800 miles is also about the same driving distance from San Diego, Calif., to Memphis, Tenn., and from Key West, Fla., to Portland, Maine.

Team Fabulous Five received special recognition from Mexico’s National Director Virginia Vargas for collecting the most miles so far: “I am sure you all enjoyed the journey and had a lot of fun, but more than that, this team effort proves your love for CCF. During your ‘stay’ in Mexico you will find 45,000 children that recognize the hard work all of you do every day in order to have better opportunities in life. Also you will enjoy tacos and enchiladas with the company of Mariachis!”

Christian Children’s Fund has worked in Mexico since 1955. One program highlight there is our Early Childhood Development program to provide education to children age 5 and under. More than 7,000 children are enrolled in this program. More than 180 educators monitor the child's development, train mothers on how to help their child overcome learning delays, make home visits, discuss early child development strategies with parents and coordinate with local governmental ECD programs. Other community volunteers, known as Guide Mothers, also play an important role in helping children’s cognitive learning.

For the next stop in our Walk Across the World journey we continue to head south to Brazil, which is more than 3,500 miles away. How quick will we get there?

Friday, April 3, 2009

Walk Across the World With Us

By David Hylton, Public Relations Specialist

In many countries around the world, children have to walk miles and miles each day to go to school or to find clean drinking water for their household or to receive adequate health care. They’re not walking for their health – they’re walking because they have no other choice.

At Christian Children’s Fund’s headquarters in Richmond, we often take walking for granted. We ride the elevator down a couple of floors for a meeting instead of taking the steps; we park at the closest spot possible at the office or at the mall; we go home, sit on the couch and watch TV throughout the evening. Well, enough is enough.

Beginning today, we are launching a program called Walk Across the World in which we are walking to several countries where we work. We aren’t literally going out the door and walking there, but we are using pedometers to track the numbers of steps we take each day.

The Walk Across the World initiative involves about a dozen teams with five people each. Walking across the world will be an overall CCF effort, with some friendly competition along the way. Every 2,000 steps will be counted as a mile.

While this is an effort of our newly formed Wellness Committee – Power Up – we also are doing this to stop and visit our program areas around the globe. The first stop is Mexico, which is 1,808 miles from Richmond (according to most crows). How fast will we get there? Check back with us often to find out and to learn more about our work there.

In addition to following our progress here, you can keep tabs on us on Twitter at twitter.com/C_C_F where we will tag our walking entries with #WorldWalk. Please join us!