The 24-Hour Race has been held annually since 2010 on The Peak. This event took place in three cities this year (Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur). This program happens through fundraising and awareness campaigns, to impact the trajectory of Slavery and Exploitation in Asia. Every 24 hours 5500 men, women and children becomes victims of slavery. 35 million slaves in the world today, of which only 44,000 victims are helped annually. This slave trades generates $150 billion annually in illegal profits, while only $350 million goes to anti- slavery programs. We are not winning the fight against slavery, urgency is needed. For this 24 hours continuous relay, every lap ran, raised funds and awareness to benefit anti-slavery charities. There was a lot more than running:  music performances, speeches and an awareness exhibition that gave us motivation to run that next lap. The 24 hour programs have been a youth movement since the very beginning.

The day of 24 hours race we meet up at the Hong Kong station and waited for classmates to come. After arriving we headed towards The Peak.

After registered we got a small area where we can rest, sleep, and keep our stuff for the day. This race was like a relay, one person needed to run about 3.2 km and then switch with another runner. During this race we have to wear an identification wristband and individual number, which could not be removed for the duration of the event. If a runner did not wear the band then the lap would not be counted.

We started our race at 9:00 a.m. sharp and other members just sat in our canopy. We all were excited and ready to have fun. We could see many volunteers dressed in every station of the track giving us the encouragement:  “ You can do it !! Almost there !! We did our best and played some games that we brought from home to bide the time while others ran. We had our lunch at 12:30 p.m. from the nearby cafe as besides that night’s dinner, only water, bananas and some sandwiches were provided.  We had our dinner at 7:00p.m. consisted of Thai food. Again, we continued our race at night. In darkness, we had to wear a head torch and running. At midnight sharp all were gathered to hear a speech by Sean Kesluk Light For Freedom Vigil. At, night we could sleep but when it was our turn we needed to get up and run. All that night and the next day, we kept on running

and together enjoyed the beauty scenery.

If you think this race could save other people lives. What are you waiting for? Although we didn’t win the race, we did our best to help others. But, what we did win is others’ hearts. I hope you will join us for our next race.

From our school the participants were 22 students

(Shosti Gurung, Tina Chang, Rita Chang, Barry Chan, Cynthia Arabella Lam, Siu Hin Christopher Mak, Rutkay Alici, Kenyu Chen, Chris Mohn, Bowen Zhang, Lau Yee Ching Ivan, Woo Jae Lim, Kit Ying Leung, Belle Ngan, Atsuki Ito, Sakurako Koseki, Bryony, Autumn O’Reilly, Alex Ng, Jacky Choi)

                                                                                                                                                                          (Contributed by Gurung, Shosti G10)