HELP END GLOBAL POVERTY WITH A BIG WALK IN HOUSTON!
WHAT: An estimated 10,000 people are expected to participate in Partnership Walk at Sam Houston Park – Downtown to demonstrate their support and build partnerships aimed at ending global poverty.
Partnership Walk is a public event to raise awareness and funds that help communities in Africa and Asia become self-reliant. Partnership Walk is an initiative of Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A. (AKF USA) and is organized by its network of volunteers in communities across the United States. Partnership Walk is a national event, held since 1995 in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Los Angeles. The Walk brings together families, community organizations, students and leaders in government, business, media and the arts for a day of entertainment, learning activities and fundraising. Over the past 14 years, over 250,000 have participated in PartnershipsInAction events across the U.S., raising $29 million.
One hundred percent of the funds raised at Partnership Walk go directly to projects supported by the Foundation; no a cent is spent on administrative costs. AKF USA is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service code.
The Foundation’s work improves health, education and living standards in some of the poorest communities in Africa and Asia through grassroots self-help programs. Its programs focus on reducing illiteracy, hunger, disease and poverty in countries such as Afghanistan, India, Kenya, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Tanzania. Aga Khan Foundation presently is engaged in over 100 programs in 18 countries and is an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network. www.akdn.org/usa. As a private, nondenominational, nonprofit international development organization, AKF works for the common good of all citizens, regardless of their gender, origin or religion. Its underlying impulse is the ethic of compassion for the vulnerable of society.
The Foundation works in partnership with other institutions dedicated to international development such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the World Bank as well as private foundations and corporations, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Citigroup Foundation, Microsoft Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, among others.
VISUALS: - Interviews with representatives of AKF USA and dignitaries including David Wallace (former mayor of Sugar Land), member of Board of Directors and Vice President of the Texas Economic Development Corporation, and Chief Executive Officer for Wallace Bajjali Development Partners, LP; and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.
- Entertainment program celebrating the diversity of world cultures through music, dance and performances will be hosted by media celebrities Lauren Lanning, producer/reporter for “Wild About Houston” and Sharron Melton, news anchor, ABC 13.
- Village in Action: interactive educational exhibits that showcase the Foundation’s work.
- 10,000 people walking in solidarity to end global poverty in a festive, culturally diverse atmosphere with live entertainment and speeches by notable dignitaries.
WHEN: Saturday, November 8, 2008, 8:30 a.m. registration; 10:30 a.m. opening ceremonies begins
WHERE: Sam Houston Park, Downtown, 1100 Bagby Street, Houston, Texas 77002
CONTACT:
