Hundreds of Arcadia residents will walk on Saturday, April 22 alongside Compassion International, a Christian child development organization that works to release more than 1.8 million children from extreme poverty worldwide. The non-competitive walk event will challenge participants to walk in the shoes of children living in extreme poverty, while raising funds to meet their most urgent needs.
The one-day event will take place April 22 at Arcadia Park located at 405 South Santa Anita Avenue beginning at 9:30 a.m. Day-of registration will open at 8:30 a.m. Using the Walk with Compassion app, families, groups and community members will be guided along a 2-mile loop lined with seven hands-on stations. Each station illustrates daily challenges of children born into poverty, including housing, food, water, and falsehoods that perpetuate the cycle of poverty. The free event, which is the culmination of participants’ fundraising efforts, offers interactive activities for the entire family to discover.
“This is unlike any walk event you’ve ever been involved in,” said Johan Moum, Walk with Compassion national director. “Walkers are doing more than just raising money. They will not only help to change the trajectory of a child’s life but also will come away as inspired and informed advocates to join Compassion’s global cause of rescuing children from poverty.”
Funds raised go toward the most urgent needs of Compassion children that are not included in a traditional sponsorship, including emergency medical care, access to safe water, emergency housing, food, and care for abused and orphaned children.
The World Bank estimates that 700 million (9.6 percent of the global population) live on less than $1.90 a day (USD). In the areas where Compassion works, nearly one in five children die before the age of five, mostly from preventable causes, and 124 million children worldwide do not attend school mostly due to causes exacerbated by living in poverty, according UNESCO.
For more information about Walk With Compassion, visit WalkWithCompassion.com, @CompassionWalk on Twitter, and https://www.facebook.com/walkwithcompassion on Facebook.
