The Starfish Project
By Doug Mendel |
The following article was actually written by friends of mine who run and operate the Starfish Project in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. The project is dear to my heart.
A Buddhist monk was on the beach with his apprentice the day after a fierce storm. Thousands of starfish had been washed up and stranded on the shore. Stooping down, the monk carefully lifted a single creature and returned it to the sea. His young apprentice wondered aloud why his master bothered to do this when it made little difference to the mass of helpless creatures. As they walked along, the monk picked up another single starfish and replied, "it makes a difference to this one."
The Starfish Project began with this parable in mind. The object of the project is to provide direct person-to-person assistance to Cambodians who are stranded outside the bounds of government and non-government assistance. We came together as a group of interested volunteers to help a village man whose situation was outside the criteria of local aid organizations. We put 100% of the donations we received towards the assistance of this man and his family. Our projects all have an end in sight when we undertake them.
The injured fisherman mentioned above had spent two years sitting on the floor of his house because his leg had been badly broken in an auto accident and had never been repaired or healed. He did not even have crutches and was unable to feed his family or repair the fallen roof on his house. His fractured leg needed to be amputated and a prosthetic leg fitted. We asked people in Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh to help.
The donations received supported this man and his family during surgery and rehabilitation, put a roof on his house and bought him a new fishing boat. He has now received a free prosthetic leg from the Cambodia Trust and is back fishing in his new boat. With the help of a mere $200, he and his family are again supporting themselves. In addition to helping himself and his family, he is now the leader of a self-help organization for disabled people in his village. We have helped over three hundred people from the community with health care, housing and small business projects like this one since our beginning in December of 2000. On average, projects cost less than $100.
We are able to put 100% of donated money to actual projects because the Starfish Bakery Cafe funds the necessary administrative and overhead costs of the project. This includes rent, utilities, projects staff salaries, and vehicle maintenances, among other things. All the permanent cafe staff members are disabled people from the community, as is our field worker. Other people you may see working around the cafe are volunteers and interns. Many local businesses support the Starfish Project by getting involved with projects, helping with fund raising initiatives, or they use products in their cafes , bars and restaurants.
New situations needing person-to-person assistance appear daily. All of our projects are funded by small donations from individuals. We would greatly appreciate the support of anyone who can offer money or expertise to make the difference to people in vulnerable situations in our community.
For information www.starfishcambodia.org
info@starfishcambodia.org |
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