When it became clear that they would be able to raise substantial amounts of money through the event, Christopher and Charles chose two charities that they felt very passionate about. The Cystic Fibrosis Trust works tirelessly to raise funds for research into CF, one of the UK’s most common life-threatening diseases – around 1 in 25 people in the UK bear the risk of being affected by CF. Although medicine exists to delay the effects of this debilitating disease, there is no known cure yet. The Trust hopes to find that cure for the millions that suffer and the families of those who have suffered, including Charles’ godsister. The Joshua Hellmann Foundation for Orphan Disease, set up in memory of Christopher’s childhood friend, is an organization that works towards providing information and support to orphan disease patients and medical specialists. An orphan disease is one that has been “orphaned” by the medical and pharmaceutical industries in terms of diagnosis, research and development of treatments due to its rarity, leaving patients of such diseases, their families and their friends in darkness. Christopher and Charles successfully raised £3500 (around HK$40 000) for each charity. The key force behind Walking With A Purpose that makes it so viable is that Christopher and Charles, through their feats of endurance, have found a way to show how much they really do care about these causes, showing a passion that inspires others to contribute to them as well.

With the success of the Land’s End to Pangbourne journey, the duo decided to take the idea and make it something bigger than just the two of them. They set up Walking With A Purpose, a foundation through which they could carry out similar events to fund charities, and to let other like-minded youth realize their potential in support of good causes. Some such future events are already in planning stages. Christopher is also working with students and staff member Dave McCracken in LPC to create a 24-hour race involving several schools from around Hong Kong, as well as a possible UWC Fair to follow that event.

In 2010, Christopher and Charles are bringing Walking With a Purpose to Hong Kong in the form of the 2010 Hong Kong Challenge. They plan to cover 150 kilometres, from the college campus to Stanley at the southern tip of Hong Kong Island by ocean rowing, open-water swimming and running – all within 24 hours. The event will start on Friday, 9 April, at the LPC campus, where they will begin with a two-kilometre swim across the sea, then joining the Wilson trail where they will head south towards Hong Kong Island. Upon reaching Victoria Harbour, they will row to Pok Fu Lam, and then run the entire Hong Kong Trail. The last stage of the event will be a swim from Stanley to Middle Island. A route map to this article can be found here (ADD LINK). The duo is also looking for people who are keen to join them in certain stages of the race. Once again, the money raised from this event will go the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and the Joshua Hellmann Foundation.

With Walking With A Purpose, Christopher and Charles are doing what they do best for causes that need their support. They show us that each and every one of us can do our part in our own way to help out in the bigger picture – in their case, it is by pushing mental boundaries and breaking physical limits.

Information on how to get involved and how to participate in future Walking With A Purpose events including the Hong Kong 2010 Challenge can be found at http://www.christopherandcharles.com/.

WWAP_poster

A gallery of 72 photographs showing Challenge Day 2010 can be seen at http://web.mac.com/scodrington/Site/Challenge_10.html.

Asim Butt (LPC UWC ‘93-’95) passed away on 15 January.  He was an activist and artist in Pakistan.

Piyawan Isley, his Art teacher, who knew him well, writes the following:

Asim was a larger than life character who exploded into our world with infectious, cackling laughter and demanded to be noticed!

His quick-fire wit and grasp of language (both ‘common & ‘intellectual’) often tired us lesser mortals…

If you would like to find out more about Asim, or add to his memorial pages, please visit:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=260914120078&ref=mf#/group.php?gid=260914120078&ref=ts (LPC UWC Remembers Asim Butt)

and/or

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=260914120078&ref=mf#/group.php?gid=402765265315&ref=mf (In Loving Memory of Asim Butt, 1978-2010)

We are working to document and catalogue Asim’s work and require the help of his friends and all those who communicated with, loved and respected him. Please share whatever you can about him and his work, specifically communication you had with him including letters and emails no matter how trivial, pictures, notes, description of his work which you own, and any other information which would help us in putting together a comprehensive account of his life and work. We realise many might not feel comfortable sharing personal communications if they contain personal references, but any such correspondence is not for publication or dissemination and will only be used, if necessary, to derive an idea of the thinking which went into the making of his art. To ensure Asim is accorded his rightful place in the pantheon of Pakistani artists, and to show just how much we all loved him, please help us in preserving his memory for posterity.

Ali Dayan Hasan
ali.asimicus@gmail.com

Arif Pervaiz
arifpervaiz@gmail.com

A panel of independent guest judges met with all the teams before the Race, and (as we understand word of mouth) voted the LPCUWC team for Second Place (out of 52 teams) in the most-coveted award, namely the Joyce Smith Founder’s Trophy for the “Team Best Capturing the Spirit of the Event” (for a combination of team effort, chair decoration, team spirit and fund-raising initiative).

There is still the opportunity of securing a fund-raising trophy as the 2009 “School that Raises the Most Funds” (by 7 December 2009). This award is presented in March 2010 at the official cheque presentation ceremony, during which traditionally HK$3-4 Million raised through the Annual Sedan Chair Race and Bazaar, is handed out to over 30 deserving, often lesser-known, local charities supporting the those in need in all corners of Hong Kong.

School teams are asked to raise a least HK$10,000. To put things into perspective, last year’s top corporate fund-raising team was HSBC with over HK$750,000 in sponsorship!

Habitat Property Limited generously stepped foward to Sponsor the 2009 LPCUWC Sedan Chair Race Team (see photo) by donating all of the minimum HK$10,000, “sponsorship commitment” that every practipating school takes on.  Hopefully this motivtes and inspires the 2009 LPCUWC Team – with the help of other College students and staff – to raise some more sponsorship (by 7 December 2009), for the Sedan Chair Race Charities Fund.

http://www.sedanchairace.org/racebackground.htm

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Here at LPC on Friday the 16th the first year Geography class organized our ’stand up’ during the morning break. ‘Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now!’, has since been certified by Guinness World Records as the a new world record and remains the largest mobilization of human beings in recorded history.

The success of this scheme will be judged on the production of a viable and sustainable IT Development Plan that has broad staff support and which is ready for Board endorsement, as well as the effective enhancement of IT literacy skills throughout the teaching staff.  A longer term objective will be the improvement of IT provision in the College.

This Capacity Enhancement Grant proposal has been approved by the Management Committee of the College, and we are grateful to the Hong Kong Government for its continuing support through the provision of the Grant.

In line with proposal made to the Education Bureau, the CEG funds received for the school year 2008-09 were used to employ a part-time teacher of English B.  A reassignment of teaching duties within the Languages Department to allow an English teacher, who also has training in Music, to offer Music as a curriculum subject for the first time was implemented as a trial in 2007-08.  This trial was successful and a very encouraging initial enrolment took up the option to study Music.  Using the funds from this CEG, the Music program therefore entered its second year in 2008-09, enabling the pioneer group of Music students at the College to complete the course satisfactorily and sit for their IB Diploma examinations.  This development provided an excellent foundation for a thorough evaluation of the College’s Music programme, with some necessary changes planned for the following year.