Monthly Update

Latest News

On the 1st of May, Sopheak joined the Starfish outreach team. During the last year Starfish has seen a large increase in client numbers and Meng’s workload has steadily grown. We are happy to have Sopheak on the Starfish team as he has proven himself to be caring, sensitive and hard working.

On the 20th of April, a village near Otres Beach was burned down and demolished by a large number of police and military men following a land dispute. 13 men were arrested, one of whom was a minor. The eviction left 107 families homeless and without means to support them selves.

Starfish has since cooperated with M’lop Tapang and LICADHO in order to provide the families with roofs, medical care, food and legal support. We have distributed plastic roofs, medicines, rice, tuna, noodles, fishing nets and mosquito nets. We have also helped sick people from the village to reach emergency health care when needed.

On the 6 of april Boun Keng’s father contacted us, his son had just been diagnosed with bone cancer in his right leg. His 14 year old son could still receive free care from Kantha Bopha so we referred him there. After 2 weeks of treatment, doctors at Kantha Bopha informed us that his leg had to be amputated and that they could not provide him with the needed chemotherapy. Starfish started researching on other hospitals providing chemotherapy; we found out that today Russian Hospital in Phnom Penh is the only medical facility that can provide such treatment. After discussing with the family we decided that the family would live in Phnom Penh for the next 2 month, making sure their son received the 2 times a day treatment the doctors in the hospital suggested. Boun Keng has been very strong and unbelievable brave through the whole treatment and is now recovering with his very supportive family in Phnom Kiew, Sihanoukville.

Next step is the introduction to Cambodia Trust for the fitting of his prosthesis, physiotherapy and training for his future. Starfish will continue to support Boun Keng and his family.

2007 Newsletter

Dear Starfish friends,

The Starfish Bakery & Café has continued to run successfully and provide much needed employment for Cambodian people with disabilities. During 2006 and early 2007, the Bakery & Café saw an enormous increase in guests, partly due to our new cooperation with package tours from TUI Sweden, Norway and Finland as well as Swedish travel agency Ving and our long term relationship with Intrepid. We have been very pleased with this successful cooperation and will be happy to receive even more tour guests in the next high season 2007/2008.

The last year has brought many new faces into the Starfish family. In August we welcomed Pary in the kitchen. Pary has a quick eye for what needs to be done and she has been fast to learn the kitchen routines.
The workload of the project has now been eased with the welcome addition of Sopheak as our new outreacher.
Sala Santapeap Massage continues to grow and has since last year been rebuilt and we welcomed Kee from Kampot as our new masseur.

With the support of Stop Exploitation Now we were able to construct a high speed internet center which has proven to be a success. We welcomed Ran as Internet Manager; he has proven to be hard working and devoted to his task. We are happy to have Ran on the team.

Cambodian handicrafts and goods shop Rajana moved in on the top floor and our cooperation has been very good. Rajana produces and sells local handicrafts, thus providing young Cambodians with a meaningful employment. Bo Prock and Kanja are doing a fantastic job decorating and taking care of the shop.

In 2007 we hope to continue to develop Starfish Café. The kitchen is in much need of reparation, so our main goal during the low season is to modernize and redecorate the café, adding more space for customers and new baking equipment for the kitchen. The staff has been listing this as their number one wish, and we must say that they are doing a great job with the limited space and tools they have had to work with for the last 6 years.

The generosity of all our donors and supporters in 2006 has enabled us to continue to follow an annual trend of increasing and expanding the size and scope of Starfish’s activities. Much has happened as Starfish has developed and grown more than ever in the past years.

Last year, Starfish was formally registered as a local non-governmental organization (NGO) operating in Cambodia. This registration enables us to apply for formal funding from various sources in order to complete projects on a larger and/or more specific scale.

During 2006 we have established a well-functioning referral system with our partner organizations in Sihanoukville, which have resulted in an ever increasing number of clients reaching us through other organizations. We have also been able to transfer some of our clients to other organizations for assistance we cannot provide. We are happy to know that this referral system enables vulnerable community members to always find the help they need.

The Starfish Project raised a total of $ 47,132.30 for the year 2006, $14,226.30 more than monies collected in 2005. This money was raised through donations from our ever-increasing range of supporters and customers and the sale of t-shirts, bags and other goods at Starfish Bakery & Café. The Starfish Bakery & Café has continued to provide for the administrative costs of the Project, ensuring that 100% of donated funds are spent on providing services to Project clients.

The money raised during the year of 2006 has enabled Starfish to assist 466 Cambodian individuals and their families as well as 24 communities in a broad range of areas, at an average cost of $96.8 per project undertaken. In 2006 Starfish provided 335 people with access to, and funding for, emergency medical assistance. The assistance provided in this area included referrals to appropriate medical institutions, the provision of food support and transport, funds for medicine and medical tests and appropriate follow-up care.

In 2006 Starfish arranged for the establishment of 33 new businesses and built 66 new homes for clients and their families. 22 water wells were constructed in numerous small villages and communities, each well providing between 35-70 families with access to clean water. Two community clean-ups have also been undertaken and three community toilets were constructed.

Thanks to our partner organization Saint Frantiers we have been able to offer micro credit loans to families; we have so far started 37 successful micro credit businesses in various communities.

The Project has also provided food and nutritional support to pregnant women and mothers in prison, vital formula and vitamin support for clients with malnourished babies, referrals to rehabilitation and physiotherapy for clients with physical disabilities and access to proper medical care for clients with HIV or other long term needs. Six students with disabilities have received school support to be able to continue their higher education. Four children have received long-term care for mental problems in Kampong Speu and Kampot.

On the 20th of April 2007, a village near Otres Beach was burned down and demolished by a large number of police and military men following a land dispute. 13 men were arrested, one of whom was a minor. The eviction left 107 families homeless and without means to support them selves.
Starfish has since cooperated with M’lop Tapang and LICADHO in order to provide the families with roofs, medical care and food. We have distributed plastic roofs, medicines, rice, tuna, noodles, fishing nets and mosquito nets. We have also helped sick people from the village to reach emergency health care when needed.

We are continuously working on improving our projects, focus this year is:
– Improving the referral systems, activities and training on prevention care for mothers with malnourished babies.
– Community clean ups, water and sanitation projects
– Micro credit loans to families for business startups.
– Cooperation and referral systems with public medical facilities in Phnom Penh, to improve the care for poor people.

None of the work carried out by Starfish would have been possible without the financial support, time and energy generously given by our donors, supporters and volunteers. A very heartfelt thank you!

A special merci to Helene who has left us after 6 months as a Starfish volunteer. We miss you and wish you all the best in the future!

We thank you once again for all your support during 2006 and look forward to working in partnership with you again in 2007.

January 2006 Newsletter

2005 Summary

The Starfish Project raised a total of $ 32,906.00 for the year 2005. This money was raised through donations from our ever-increasing range of supporters and customers and the sale of t-shirts, bags and other goods at Starfish Bakery & Café.

In addition to monetary donations we collected a range of clothing, bedding, toiletries and other goods which were distributed to Project clients throughout the year. The money raised during the year of 2005 has enabled Starfish to assist 577 Cambodian people and their families in a broad range of areas, at an average cost of $ 57.00 per client.

In 2005 Starfish provided 452 people with access to, and funding for, emergency medical assistance. The assistance provided in this area included referrals to appropriate medical institutions, the provision of food support and transport, funds for medicine and medical tests and appropriate follow-up care.

In 2005 Starfish arranged for the establishment of 27 new businesses and built 98 new homes for Project clients and their families. 16 water wells were constructed in numerous small villages and communities, each well providing between 35-70 families with access to clean water.

The Project also provided food and nutritional support to pregnant women and mothers in prison, vital formula and vitamin support for clients with malnourished babies, referrals to rehabilitation and physiotherapy for clients with physical disabilities and access to proper medical care for clients with HIV.

Major surgeries facilitated by Starfish for clients in 2005 include the repair of a cleft lip for a four month old boy; skin grafting operations for an acid burn victim and for a client suffering from severe bedsores; a heart operation for a four year old girl; four operations for clients suffering from second degree burns; a leg amputation for a forty year old man; an operation to fit an eight year old boy with a colostomy bag; and the repair of intestinal problems for a three year old girl and urinary problems for a six year old boy.

January 2005 Newsletter

Happy (Chinese) New Year to all you friends of Starfish. I hope that 2005 has got off to a good start for you all.

2004 has been our busiest year so far. Thanks to you all we received donations of $20,816.27 last year which enabled us to complete 391 projects. In other words, we have been able to make a difference to the lives of 391 people and their families, at an average project cost of $46.29. In the last year, the Starfish Project has built or repaired 62 houses, started 35 businesses and funded medical treatment for 294 clients.

A special thank you must go to our rowing hero Louis, whose awe-inspiring efforts have stirred sponsors to an equally awe-inspiring amount of money.
Thanks also to those tourists who visited as part of their Intrepid Tour and the group leaders who led you here. Your donations will make a huge difference, especially since Intrepid have so kindly matched the combined amount!
This year we’ve also been inspired by the village of Hopton in England, whose craft sales and yard sales have raised major funds for our projects, and the Santa Monica Social Concerns Committee, Moraga, California.

And of course a huge thank you to all of you who have made personal donations and bought Starfish t-shirts and supported the Project by visiting the Starfish Bakery Café.

Many of our café customers have been kindly donating toiletries collected from various hotel bathrooms across South East Asia. Thank you to all of you and also to all those hotel proprietors who literally don’t know how kind they are!

Over 180 of these tooth-brushes were recently taken for distribution at Sihanoukville prison, as part of ongoing work carried out by our fieldworker, Meng. The prison occupants currently include several pregnant ladies, who we have been supporting with vital vitamins and clothes of increasing size, as the prison regime does not provide for such needs. All prisoners were given meals of sweet porridge to raise their reportedly awfully low blood sugar levels. Meng will continue to visit the prison to work with the governor to ensure the well-being of the prisoners.

An issue that has frequently come to our attention over the last year is that of land disputes. In Cambodia there is a law which gives rights of ownership to anyone who has occupied a plot of land for a minimum of five years.

However, a number of clients have come to us having been evicted from their homes by long-absent landlords who are returning to take advantage of soaring land prices in Sihanoukville town. The current boom in development has also heavily influenced the cost of building materials locally. We carried out some research and found that for the cost of purchasing a small plot in town and building a home there, it is possible to buy a large plot in the countryside, build a house, plant the surrounding land with vegetables and still have enough left over to buy a pig! This might not seem like a ground-breaking revelation, but it has certainly been a life-changing step for those clients whom we have supported in their decision to make the move. Not only are they secure in their new home but they are so much more self-sufficient then town life could ever allow them to be.

For a long time now we have been inundated with horror stories surrounding the corruption and poor quality of care in place at the local public hospital. For this reason we have chosen to use private clinics for medical projects. Meng has become increasingly concerned that the trend of relying on private medical care will only exacerbate the problem of corruption amongst underpaid public doctors, reduce the resources available to improve quality of care in the public health service and further remove quality medical care from the reach of underprivileged Cambodians. Thanks to Meng and Erika’s determination to find some way to resolve this predicament, we have found a like-minded ‘accomplice’ working at the public hospital. We are now coming close to making a formal agreement with this Doctor to assure us of his accountability for good quality care of our clients and for formally structured pricing for their treatment.
This will be a huge breakthrough for Starfish clients. As Meng points out, how can we ever expect the public services to improve when all the good doctors are forced to go private to earn a living. Rather than giving up on the public services, it is better that we demand change. We may work on a small scale, but that is what Starfish is all about, and we are getting somewhere!

One of our main focuses in the last month has been well-building to provide healthier lives for those rapidly-expanding communities living without access to fresh water. So far this year we have built 8 wells to provide fresh water for a total of 240 households in 6 neighborhoods, at an average cost of less than $45. Just a beginning!

Last year saw some big changes in the Starfish Bakery Café. Congratulations and best wishes to Srey Tuit who was married last year and left us to focus on family life. We are very happy to welcome Sophea as our new chief brownie, cookie, scone, you-name-it maker. She has proved to be yet another diamond and we all love the fun she brings to the café.

Sala Santa Pheap, our new massage venture, has been steadily adding dedicated members to its client list. It has been a slow start but the word is starting to get around about the healing hands of Chandara and Kim Leap. Kim Leap has welcomed a new addition to his family, a beautiful little girl called Sophea. Congratulations to him and good luck to his lovely wife who is home alone while Leap further improves his massage skills with a training course in Japan!

Once again, thank you for your interest and all those kind donations of not only money and materials, but also time, energy and ideas. Starfish really can make a difference, thanks to you. Have a wonderful 2005.