How you can help provide education
Starfish Asia
32 Beck Lane
Beckenham
Kent BR3 4RE
UK
Telephone
+44 (0)20 8402 1914
Email
mike@starfishasia.com
Schools for the poor
"Pakistan offers worse conditions for children than any other country in South Asia... About 23 million children in Pakistan have never been to school..." UNESCO paints an equally grim picture. "Official statistics released by the Federal Education Ministry of Pakistan give a desperate picture of education for all, especially for girls... Independent sources and educational experts place the overall literacy rate at 26 per cent and the rate for girls and women at 12 per cent."
The UK Sunday Telegraph (7 May 2006) highlighted: "No power, no water, no lavatories and no teachers -- the disaster of Pakistan's schools."
Starfish Asia is committed to help children gain a Christian-based High School education. We fund some schools in full and provide subsidies for other private schools that struggle with resources. We believe that no child should be deprived of education -- the key to hope and personal dignity. Our greatest concern is for the children of Christian familes, but Muslim and Hindu children also attend some of the schools that we support -- we care for them too!
We cannot give details of all the schools we are supporting. This is a just a sample of the 25 schools to which we are currently (June 2009) providing some financial help. There are now more than 6,000 children studying in schools supported by Starfish Asia in Pakistan.
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According to the The Lahore Christian High School
Read the special 2009 FOC newsletter. Click on the image.
The Miracle School
With help from Starfish Asia, they hired staff and opened the Miracle School -- now housed in a large rented building and giving a future to 350 poor children from the community. Sadaye-Aman, Sargodha Tariq Iqbal from Sargodha developed a deep concern for a drug-ridden community of poor Christians living in the centre of Sargodha. In May 2006, with help from Starfish Asia, Tariq opened a small Primary School with 40 students. He called it the Call of Peace (Sadaye-Aman) School. From those early beginnings the school has grown to more than 120, and is now a registered Middle School with its own building provided by the generosity of Starfish Asia donors. It is a ray of light and hope for a community that has lived too long in the shadow of despair. In 2011 Tariq and his wife Kanwal opened a Home for girls from disadvantaed families, which they call 'My Home'. Tariq also visits Christians in the local Prison and has many more dreams of helping people in need in his society. "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me." Matthew 18:5 . |
Ghauri Wisdom High School In 2003 Starfish Asia started to help 60 children
from the Christian colony of Youhannabad
(Lahore) to attend school. One of the schools
chosen was the Ghauri Wisdom High School,
a private Christian school run by a former
Government teacher, Mr. Salamat Ghauri. We
have since helped Mr. Ghauri to upgrade the
standard of his school, enabling the school to
move to better premises, giving help Holy Shepherd Grammar School, Karachi In the north of Karachi is Mianwali Colony, where a community of poor Christians live and labour. The dusty alleys are the playground for hundreds of children. Opened by a Pakistani couple with a concern for the poor, the Holy Shepherd Grammar School is now led by Anser Javed and his wife Kashi and brings fresh hope to this needy community. Starfish Asia is fully committed to the future of this school, which now serves 650 chidlren.
CAP (Lahore) Professor Kaleem Dean directs CAP, the Community Advance Programme in Lahore -- a multi-school project providing an education to more than 1,000 Christian chidlren. Starfish Asia provides support for five schools and a school for disabled children, known as the Mercy Mission. Three schools serve the huge Christian community of Youhannabad, a suburb of Lahore, and two schools servve rural brick kiln communities of the very poor Christians.
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The Lahore
Christian High
School was the
first school to
which we
provided full
running costs.
The school now
gives low-cost
quality education to more than 400 children
and has a fine record of academic excellence.
Many graduates (including the girl in the
picture above) have gone on to careers in
nursing or to higher studies. The school is part
of the ministry of the 
Angela Michael and
Rubina Ramzan opened
a small school in their
own home to cater for the
very poorest in their
Christian community in
Lahore. They provided not only schooling but
also some food and medical attention. 
towards
the purchase of
school furniture
and subsidizing
the cost of
running the
school, so that
children from poor
homes can
receive their
education free of cost.
