One of the things I love to do here at the Topher project is to bring attention to people that are making a difference, actually doing something.

It’s so easy for us all to say, “Well, someone should do something.” But it takes a special kind of person to say, “Well, I’ll be that someone and I’ll do something.” And not everyone’s out there to change the world. Some people, in fact, I think the best people are just out there to change the world for as many people as they can, recognizing they can’t save the world from itself, but they can make the world a better place for other people if they work hard and try. And my guest is Craig Stevens. He is one such person who is changing the worlds of some individuals in a very unique and interesting way. He joins me now on the Topher project. Craig, thank you so much for joining me.

[From video] Thank you, Topher. [End video]

Now, before I I haven’t given away what it is that you’re doing, and I wanted to hear it from your mouth because it on the face of it, it sounds crazy, but basically you are rescuing human slaves by playing ping-pong. Can you join the dots for me?

[From video]

Okay. Well, what we do is we have a 24-hour marathon. Um, every pong event varies a little bit, but basically that’s the that’s how it works. [End video]

Sorry to interrupt this interview with Craig Stevens. We’ll get back to that very shortly. My name is Topher Field. This is the Topher project, and I love doing videos like this, talking to people who are making a difference in whatever way that means for them. So, can I really urge you, there is a link in the description where you’ll be able to financially support Craig Stevens and his whole team there doing this Pong fundraiser, helping to end human slavery. Perhaps not end the practice of human slavery, but at least end it for some individuals as they support various groups that find ways to go and rescue those people out of slavery. And we’re going to talk a bit more about how that works a little bit later in the interview.

But also, if you appreciate having an Australian outlet like the Topher Project, where I bring you stories like this, and I shine my little spotlight onto people who are making a difference as often as I possibly can, then please consider also supporting the Topher project. You can do that by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. And you can also do that by checking out my books, my DVDs, and my merch at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com. There’s my books on civil disobedience, the the excuse me, the theology of civil disobedience, uh, as well as my doc DVD documentary, Battleground Melbourne, t-shirts, hoodies, and a whole bunch more. All available at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com. And everything you buy will help me to keep the Topher project going so that I can keep bringing you stories like this one about Craig and his church in Coorong and how they’re using ping-pong to save lives and save people out of slavery around the world. Let’s get back to that interview.

[From video]

And um a group. Well, we we participate. We do ours on a Friday and Saturday and uh yeah, just get a hoop and you get sponsors to sponsor you through and we’ve our group has actually been blessed by an anonymous sponsor that’s given us or donor, sorry, that’s been there since year dot and has encouraged us. Yeah. So, yeah, but the ping pong is you just play ping pong together um for a 24-hour period. Some don’t. Um, I’ve done it for the last three years and it, yes, it’s a good sleep some Saturday night. [End video]

So, I’m mindful of things that I used to do as a kid. There was the 40-hour famine, there was the MS Readathon, there were these various events and I used to go and knock on doors and ask people to sponsor me for each book that I read or to sponsor me for for each hour of the fast and these sorts of things. Are people sponsoring you for each hit of a ping-pong ball? How does how does kind of the sponsorship model and the support model work?

[From video]

That would be a good option. I think a dollar a hit. That would be great. But um most of the people that sponsor you uh sponsor you for the period, they’ll say, “I’ve got 20 bucks, 100 bucks, 200 bucks.” I think the best one we’ve had is 2 and a half th000 or 3,000 as as a donation. So it’s it’s a thing if it grabs your heart and you know what you’re doing it for. Yeah. It it might sound quirky hitting a ping-pong ball, but it does um hits a note with people. So, it’s they’ve raised a lot of money over the time. We’ve raised 62,000 in the 10 years that we were doing for a small small church and small community. [End video]

Yeah. So, tell us a little bit about what the money is for. You mentioned there, you know, if it grabs your heart, what’s your heart in all of this and where does this money go? How does it make a difference and who is it making a difference for?

[From video]

Well, it’s it’s uh in um South Asia countries. Uh there’s we’ve got about you got me on a hop. There’s about eight partners, but you can check the website for that. Um eight partners that we sponsor and there’s and there’s one in Australia as well um called Her space, which is you know it there is slavery in Australia. So um that sort of does shock people when they hear that. But yeah, but what happens, we raise the money, it goes to uh what would you call it? Pong Central, I suppose. Um and and they support the groups that that we um help Hard Places Cafe, they help them by ma buying uh restaurants and training them, getting them uh listed for male prostitutes that they move them through. So change change what they can do to make a living. Yeah. Because in most countries they it’s a from birth to death slave situation. The parents need to get an income somehow and their children are the are some of the ways that they can figure out that they can get out. Um. [End video]

There it is quite shocking and and according to people that study these things uh they believe that there are more slaves in the world today than there have been at any other time in history. And we have this idea that slavery has been abolished because we can’t see the slave trade anymore. It doesn’t happen in London and in in America and and so forth. But unfortunately it does happen and it happens on quite literally an industrial scale. Human trafficking and slavery.

So there is no pathway out for these slaves. So how is it that these charities are able to kind of give these people a a pathway out? How do you do that when from a a legal perspective and a cultural perspective in a lot of these countries, it’s a done deal? There is not supposed to be a way out for these people.

[From video]

That’s true. Uh they the people on the ground befriend them uh while they’re in their job and then they can they once they realize that they’re being a friend they give they can explain that there are other options and then that’s the way. Sometimes I think they have bought them out of the slavery and then they go into an education program where that it’s not just bang bang and off you go it’s educate them so that they own their life again basically. Um, there was a story I was going to share with you, but I can’t remember it now. But yeah, so sorry. [End video]

There’s the physical slavery that they have obviously of how they’re being treated, but there’s also the slavery of the mind. If if this is the only life that these people have known since they were very, very young. There is a real there’s a halfway house that’s needed. There’s there’s years really of life skills and perspective and attitudes and and agency that they need to learn. I’m often, you know, as I look at the world and as I try and make a difference, you meet various people and they have certain opinions of themselves about who they would have been in various historical contexts. Most people believe that if they’d been in in Europe during World War II, they would have been against the Nazis. If they’d have been in the South during the American Civil War, they would have been helping the slaves to escape, etc. And my challenge to everyone watching this is if that’s your self-perception and it ought to be it should be that you would have been on the right side of history at those moments uh you have the opportunity to be on the right side of history right now because unfortunately those problems, that kind of oppression and that kind of slavery is very much with us here today.

Craig, how can people get behind you guys? How do they sponsor you? How do they find out more about the event?

[From video]

Uh well um when well sorry the majority of the money believe it or not is raised in that 24-hour period of ping pong. Um you you do get a bit of a a lead in and that’s always a bonus but during the 24 hours people know that you’re doing it and it’ll pop up. You’ll you the score will the score which is the the total will be very low and next thing you’re up at 5,000 and you Yeah. You know, it’s we just we’re just really grateful that uh people do support us. But we’ve got a there’s a website pingpongathon and uh depending on the event you want to which is Coorong for us. You type in Coorong and then you can choose you can either give it to a group that’s um participating in areas. Um I think we got the midnight madness or midnight warriors or something like that. So, it’s uh there’s some good conversations that happen there because you you’re a bit sleep-deprived and so you just don’t know where where you end up. Yeah. But um yeah, there’s normally a store board of six or eight people there. [End video]

I’ll be putting the link to that website in the description of this video. So, anyone that wants to support and I really encourage you to do so, even just a small amount of money. Um, just I I love people that do something to make a difference and I I really it’s so important that people get behind even if it’s only a small thing. Uh, please get behind Craig and and all these people up at Coorong that are doing this. Uh, and I’ll put the link to the website like I said so that you can find him.

One last thing before I let you go, Craig. Uh, you’ve found a bit of a creative way to try and spread the word and and get the word out about this. I’m led to believe that that is unofficially the largest ping pong paddle in the world sitting there on a trailer being towed by what I presume is your ute.

[From video]

Correct. Yes. Um we got the specs for the largest ping pong bat and yes we’re bigger but we’re not going to pay the uh Guinness Book of Records for for the right to have that. But um it was just come up as an idea and we just thought why not we why not do it? And as if you’ve met my wife, you know she’s a bit of a fire brand and if you have an idea it’s going to happen. So there was four or five BS got together on an afternoon and we put this together and it’s out the front of our church. Um and it’s really just signifies what a small community can do. And that we’re just really I’m just really blessed by the church community that has um got back and supported us year in year out. and um and and the Coorong community itself as a whole. [End video]

Look, I think it’s fantastic. I think this this ping-pong paddle is the very embodiment of go big or go home. You really took that to heart. You certainly went big. Uh you’ve gone big in terms of your fundraising. $62,000 over the journey so far uh with more to come this year and making a very real difference in the lives of people that don’t have a lot of friends out there. There’s not a lot of people out there really trying to reach these people and perhaps give them a better future. But uh the people that you’re supporting and fundraising for are doing exactly that.

I wish you all the very best, Craig, in this fundraiser. I will put the links in the description of this video. I encourage everyone watching to get behind you, Craig. And thank you so much for coming on the Topher project.

[From video] Well, thank you for having me, Topher. It’s a pleasure. [End video]

Thank you so much for watching my interview with Craig Stevens. Do please check out the link in the description of this video and support him and his crew as they continue to raise money for this very, very important cause. And also, please consider supporting the Topher project because this is what I do, bringing you stories, news, and perspective, and helping you to understand what’s happening in the world as it changes around you. So, if you’d like to support me and help me to keep doing what I do, then please do that by heading over to topherfield.net and buying me a coffee via the button that you’ll find there. And also, head over to goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com. Grab a copy of my books, grab a DVD, and grab some merch, some hoodies, and some t-shirts, some long sleeve tees as well while you’re there. And everything you buy will be helping me to keep the Topher project going.

Thank you so much for watching all the way to the end. The algorithm loves you and so do I. Please like, comment, subscribe, share so that more people find out about this fundraiser and this pingpongathon and therefore we can help them to make that really successful this year.

And as always, think free.