Back to What we do...   How to give                          The Starfish Asia Fund 32 Beck Lane Beckenham Kent BR3 4RE UK Telephone +44 (0)20 8402 1914 Email mike@starfishasia.com	Allow us to dream If only... If only the funds were available. In a world where ... 4 121 million children (28 million in Pakistan) have no opportunity to attend primary school     (UNICEF) 4 Two-thirds of the world's 799 million illiterate adults aged 15 and over are women 4 More than 20,000 people die every day as a result of extreme poverty (THE END OF POVERTY -      Jeffrey Sachs) 4 Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day (Anup Shah) 4 Sales of pet food and pet care products in UK were £2,357 million in 2004 (Euromonitor)     ... surely funds are available to bring hope to the poor!     Korangi 2½ We have been moved by the needs of this run-down industrial area of eastern Karachi for some time. Korangi has been a dream. George Thomas is a pastor of the Full Gospel Assemblies in this area. His wife, Fehmida, was a teacher. Could they together run a small primary school and give hope to at least some of the Christian children in this very poor slum? We hope to start this school in January 2008. Please dream the dream of faith with us.   Tariq Iqbal, who has opened a Junior School in the Noori Gate colony in Sargodha, which is supported by the Starfish Asia fund, also visits Sargodha Jail every day to take a class with the prisoners. He has already placed a library in the Jail for use by the prisoners, and has now been asked by the jail authorities to build a classroom and start a regular school for the prisoners. Tariq has asked the Starfish Asia fund to help.   We continue to dream...  However... these dreams came true in 2007 Twenty miles east of Lahore, close to the India border, there is a small community of Christians, working in a bamboo plantation. A family has taken the responsibility to start a small Primary School for the children of the community -- few of whom would otherwise receive an education. As the school grows beyond two classes, they will need to provide extra classrooms, hire teachers, invest in some equipment. The Government is not giving help. They have approached the Starfish Asia fund.   [In February 2007 we gave the school a grant sufficient to build new classrooms -- a dream come true]  The family that runs the Miracle School have a passion to help a colony of very poor Christians working on a brick kiln at the eastern edge of Lahore. The community has no church, no pastor, no school and the children play in the dirt with no future beyond a life of making bricks in the hot sun. Angela and Rubina go there each week to take a Sunday School class, but their desire is to open a Primary School to give the next generation hope for a better future. They have asked the Starfish Asia fund for help. [The School opened in January 2007 and now serves 150 children of brick kiln workers -- a dream coming true for 150 children!] Ashraf and Wilma live in a Christian colony in Lahore. Out of a personal concern for orphans and the poor in their community, they launched the Orphans Care Organization -- collecting money, clothing and food from their community and providing practical and spiritual help to children and widows in need. They have approached the Starfish Asia fund for contributions, as the needs far outstrip their resources. [In March 2007 we started to support Ashraf and Wilma. They rented a new house and by August had 15 needy children in their care -- their dream coming true!]   We know can't help them all -- but we surely must help some!