ON Saturday, primary school teacher, Josh Schapel will be hosting a Ping-Pong-a-thon event at the Tarrington Lutheran School stadium from 10am – 6pm.

Mr Schapel said ‘Pong’ is a fun way to help fight serious and large enemy-modern slavery.

“Ping pong (or table tennis) is very inclusive, and people are encouraged to register and seek sponsors online – we hear many stories from the wonderful partners who work at stages: education/prevention, rescuing and providing aftercare support for victims,” he said.

“We cannot bring 45.8 million people out of modern-day slavery in one bite but if we keep progressing steadily then we can eat away at that number.

“We can keep bringing people out of slavery or prevent them going into it one by one – it is estimated that it costs approximately $1500 to bring one person out of slavery.

“I participated in my first event five years ago and have really had it placed on my heart to serve and use my position as a teacher of young people and a father of two girls to host an event in our local area.

“This will be event number three – in 2019 we raised $4000 and last year was a little bit over $3000.”

Mr Schapel said people can donate to pingpongathon.com/t/southerngrampiansvictoria or come along and learn more about Ping-Pong-a-thon.

“There will be some fun challenges and records we can aim to break from a fun ping pong side but it’s really about raising money to take this issue which is sadly growing,” he said.

“Men from western countries are a big part of the problem with online child abuse and holidays – ‘Pong’ was started with the aim that it is us as Aussie men that can also be a big part of the solution.”

So far, the Southern Grampians event has about 15 people registered, with $1471 raised.

$300,000 has been raised this year and 250 people have had their lives changed forever because of ‘Pong’ last year.

Mr Schapel is expecting around 40 people to come along to the event which runs from 10am – 6pm.