How We Impact

There is a lot that gets packed into a name, and The Ping-Pong-A-Thon (or Pong for short!) is no exception. The Pong empowers communities all over Australia and the USA to run Table tennis marathon events, or, Ping-Pong-A-Thon’s, to raise crucial funds and awareness for those currently trapped in slavery.

Every year schools, sporting clubs, churches and pubs all across Australia run “Pongs”, and the impact that we witness at a community level is quite remarkable. When a group of people come together to enter into the reality of such a sobering and serious issue as Modern Day Slavery, the impact that occurs within those that participate is just as significant as the impact that gets achieved from the dollars raised. There is something powerful that occurs when a community collectively comes together, using their freedom to stand in solidarity for people that have no freedom. Knowing that doing something as simple as playing table tennis, to fight something as heinous and evil as slavery is profoundly empowering.

The Pong funds multiple programs that empower communities and individuals to understand the risks of trafficking, to teach people their human rights, and to ensure young people stay in school. Our prevention programs also provide micro-loans and seed funding for families to be able to run their own small businesses and enterprises. The number one reason why trafficking exists is poverty. Poverty perpetuates vulnerability to trafficking. So if we can alleviate poverty, then we can reduce the risk of someone saying yes to a risky job opportunity that turns out to be a case of trafficking and slavery. Currently The Pong is funding prevention programs northern Thailand and northern Vietnam.

A significant focus for the Pong is to fund programs that provide a new beginning to those that have been trafficked. Our partners will sometimes be involved with the rescue of children as young as 6 years old. Often these children have nowhere to go or the care that they may receive could lead them to further instances of abuse. Our partners work with governments and other NGOs to provide long-term holistic and supportive care for these children, sometimes for up to 15-20 years. Since working with these partners and funding these programs, we have seen kids go on to graduate to become dentists and teachers.

For adults that have been rescued, our partners run training academies across a number of different disciplines including hairdressing and culinary studies, to enable survivors the best chance at a new life. Our partners also provide access to trauma-informed counselling, health care and legal services, should they be needed. Currently The Pong provides aftercare programs in Melbourne Australia (yes, trafficking and slavery happen here too!), North Thailand, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, and North Vietnam.

One of the greatest tools we have to fight Modern Day Slavery are good enforced laws, to stop perpetrators from conducting the trafficking in the first place. We therefore work with a number of partners that engage and lobby the top levels of governments to see such laws get passed. We also see that often good precedent within specific cases will be what creates deterrents for potential offenders, therefore The Pong provides funding to represent victims of human trafficking in high profile cases, to ensure perpetrators are convicted with lengthy sentences. Currently The Pong funds legal work in Thailand and Cambodia.