For Immediate Release
News from the 24 Hour Race, a Hong Kong registered charity.
October 24th, 2017
The 24 Hour Race (Primary Contact)
Christopher Schrader (Founder & Board Member)
The Exodus Road
Jeanne Honsaker (VP of Advancement)
(Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur) - The 24 Hour Race will partner with The Exodus Road to remove over 240 people, both victims and traffickers, from the human trafficking world. The program, dubbed "Operation 24", will support 24,000 hours of investigation at 2,400 locations across the globe and train 24 national and local law enforcement officers who will rescue survivors and arrest traffickers.
24 Hour Race student participants and volunteers will work together to spearhead Operation 24 through a series of advocacy and fundraising campaigns surrounding our events in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in early December. Their goal is to raise USD 100,000 and advocate the fight against Human Trafficking to over 10,000 students across Asia. With advocacy support and funds, The Exodus Road will commence Operation 24 working to support national law enforcement to identify and investigate human trafficking, rescue victims, and arrest traffickers.
"It's amazing that as a movement started by students in one corner of Asia, we are able to partner with The Exodus Road to support global efforts to figth Human Trafficking, one of the worst forms of modern slavery" says Christopher Schrader, founder of the 24 Hour Race. "By combining the willpower of thousands of motivated students with The Exodus Road's technical and operational expertise, we believe Operation 24 can deal a swift blow to Human Trafficking".
Since 2010, thousands of students from hundreds of schools across Asia take part in what is now Asia’s largest student-led abolitionist movement, The 24 Hour Race. The race is a continuous 24 hour relay event, organized and ran by students and requires physical and mental perseverance. Runners are fully aware that with each stride they take one step in the direction towards the end of modern slavery.
The Exodus Road is a Colorado-based nonprofit that fights human trafficking by partnering with local law enforcement to find and free slaves. They use advanced technology and trained operatives on the ground to locate victims and traffickers, and conduct raids with local police. Their social workers walk with survivors as they take their first steps into freedom. To date, the Exodus Road has supported more than 850 rescues and 320 arrests of traffickers.
"We're thrilled to be partnering with the 24 Hour Race in the fight against human trafficking. Young people are the chief demographic affected by trafficking, so a student-led movement against slavery is exactly what we need. We can't wait to see what Operation 24 will accomplish for freedom." — Laura Parker, Co-founder and VP of Communications, The Exodus Road.
Operation 24 is the first step in the 24 Hour Race's global ambition to end modern slavery. We have the energy and thirst for justice, but depend on technical partners, such as The Exodus Road, to maximize the positive change we can make to the lives of those who suffer in slavery.