Volunteers from both home and abroad intend to walk the route of the Red Army's Long March of the 1930s, a distance of 8,038 kilometers, starting in October to collect donations for rural education in the International Walkathon for Education.
Participants to the event, which is being sponsored by China Youth Development Foundation and Hong Kong-based Sowers Action, so far include a couple aged over 60 as well as four other residents from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region among others from home and abroad.
Different from other charity programs, the walkathon requires each participant not only to cover their own travel expenses, but also collect 100,000 yuan (US$12,000) in donations.
Johnny Leung, 47, and his wife both plan to quit their jobs to participate in the walkathon.
"My wife and I are eager to make the long journey for charity, even though it will cost us 10 months of our time and money," said Leung. "We hope our participation will attract the country's attention to the problem of poor education in the western regions."
The volunteers will start from Jiangxi Province in East China on October 17, walk through Guangdong Province, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Hunan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan and Gansu provinces, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and finish in Shaanxi Province in Northwest China on August 23, 2004, according to Gu Xiaojin, secretary of China Youth Development Foundation.
For people who are not able to go for the total 10 month period, the program has been broken into 11 smaller parts and volunteers are welcome to participate in one of these week-long trips, but each has to collect 5,000 yuan (US$600) in donations and cover their own expenses as well.
The sponsors aim to collect at least 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million) to build 100 primary schools in 100 counties along the way, Gu said, at yesterday's press conference in Beijing.
(China Daily April 10, 2003)
