Art classes are always popular among the children we support in Latvia. Here we see children in Zalite Special School during an art class.

Altogether there are over 600 children in Latvia that get support through Star of Hope. Now they are all on summer vacation until the first week of September!

Thank you for your support!

Olga and her children sat in a queue for 36 hours to get the last mile to Romania.

Vera misses her eldest son, whom she was forced to leave in Ukraine.

Yeva, Maria, and Lena had never met before, but their nine-year old’s found each other during the escape.

Meet the mothers who do everything to save their children from the horrors of war.

Just over 20 miles from the Star of Hope’s Day center in Dorohoi Romania is the border crossing Siret, which tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees have crossed since the beginning of the war. The flow continues today. Camelia Topala, who heads the center in Dorohoi, went to the border today just as she did the same day the war broke out.

"When I hugged the Ukrainian children, they felt frozen. That night I came home and just cried and cried," she says.

Since then, the Star of Hope has been in place 300 meters from the border. This is where we meet Vera with her son Emir in her arms. He is only three months old, but the siblings Dima and Nastja help to take care of him.

"We spent several nights outside our house and heard bombs falling," says Vera.

When they finally fled, her firstborn was not allowed to come with them. 18-year-old Vasia has been summoned and faces an uncertain future in the military.

The Romanian head office in Iasi, Romania, has also been redesigned to welcome refugee families. At that building, Olga sleeps with her mother Irina, children Myron and Sofia, sister-in-law Victoria and niece Alicia.

All spouses, fathers, and brothers were forced to say goodbye when they fled. When Olga tells, the tears come.

So many children have died! Others have been left alone, without parents! 6-year-old Sofia tries to comfort her mother. Olga strokes her daughter's cheek and straightens her back.

"A few weeks ago, we did not know how brave we were, she says. But now we know."

Two days later, more mothers arrive at the center in Iasi: Yeva with her son Pasha, Maria with her son Artom and Lena with her daughter Nastja. The children are nine years old, all three. They play in the dormitory and the boys laugh while wrestling for a computer tablet. For the moment, they do not have to worry about their fathers remaining in Ukraine. They look like childhood friends but have only known each other for a couple of days - and soon they will be separated, again.

Lena wants to go to Germany and Yeva has friends in Zurich. Maria, in turn, tries to get to Spain. "I have an old relative in Gibraltar," she says.

According to the plan, she would have already reached Cluj-Napoca in western Romania. "I wanted to Cluj a town in Romania but heard wrong at a transport center and took a bus to Husi instead," she says and laughs. She chats and jokes, seemingly unaffected by everything that has happened - but when someone slams a teacup behind her head, she jumps up and screams straight out. A second later, she buries her face in her hands. "Sorry!" she says, but everyone understands.

Every unexpected blow takes her back to the explosions in her hometown. The horrors of war leave traces even in those who manage to escape. Open wounds, even in the seemingly uninjured.

Help mothers in crisis!

Too many mothers are suffering severely right now. In this situation, every day is Mother’s Day, and we want to make a special effort for Mothers.

They're worth it, right?

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As we are past the second month of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia we feel more and more that action is having a rippling effect on the rest of the world.

Both Ukraine and Russia, are big producers of grain, and the cost of what normally is affordable food is now going up everywhere in the world. 

Unfortunately, the ones that are suffering the most are the poor. The ones that already find it hard to feed their children find themselves in an even harder position, again. 

According to the United Nations and echoed by USAID, at least 45 underdeveloped countries are dependent on grain, oil, tea, fruit, and fertilizer from Russia and Ukraine. Ninety-five or 95% of US fertilizer come from the same location.

Due to the war and the sanctions made on Russia the rise in the prices of the most basic of products is having a devastating effect on the poor countries in the world. Those countries have already struggled through the effects of Covid on top of their national problems and now things have quickly become incredibly worse.

Star of Hope is constantly in contact with our partners in the countries where we work, and we can tell you that unequivocally the war is influencing all of them negatively. One example is Argentina where over the last couple of months the extreme poverty percentage has gone up from 37,7% (officially) affecting the end of January around 17 million people, and today poverty has been measured at over 50%. One of the provinces most affected is where we work, in Chaco amongst the natives Toba the extreme poverty percentage lands at over 80% and rising.



A lot of the food we give out is directly affected by price increases like pasta, bread, oatmeal, and everything made from flour. And as the fuel prices also have risen this is now influencing the local produce as farmers are having to raise the prices of their products to make ends meet.

Today we are giving out more than 8000 meals of food in Kenya. Haiti and Ghana are experiencing inflation never seen before or experienced. We are giving out 700 bags of food a month to the Toba natives in Argentina.
The marginalized place we work does not share the same cost increase as in the United States where the U.S. Department of Agriculture via their economic research service says:

“Food price increases are expected compared to observations in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, the food “at home” prices are also predicted to increase, between 5.0 and 6.0 percent. Food “away-from-home” prices are predicted to increase between 5.5 and 6.5 percent. Price increases for food away from home are expected to exceed historical averages and the inflation rate in 2021”.

However, here in America, you and I depending on where we live, have seen an official inflation rate of 7.9% already in 2022. Put that together with the 15% - 30% increase in food prices quoted by the U.S Bureau of Statistics. Then throw in some “shrinkflation”, also known as the grocery, shrink ray, deflation, or package downsizing. I am paying closer to 30% more than just a year ago for so many items. I wonder if you feel the same.

All this is important, what is more, important for you to know is when we feed our 20,000 kids in thirteen countries, there are countries where the costs have soared 300% in just 2 or 3 years.
Imagine for a moment that you are in charge, of footing the bill, to feed our kids and your total salary will not cover the food. That feeling that inability is what we are talking about.

We are now reaching out to you as we need more help not only to help the victims of the war but also to help all our projects with food baskets and school lunches to help the children and their families.

As a Lunch Buddy where just 1 dollar gives 4 children food for a day, you can make a huge difference to a family by donating every month.

Click here to find out more.

Click here to give a gift.

Acts 20:35
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
Be a blessing to a child!

Isabella Zelaya (edited)

Last week Star of Hope Romania arranged a tour for 3 mothers and 5 children, they are some of the ones who stay at our shelter at our Star of Center in Iasi. They are refugees from Mikolaev and Odesa in Ukraine. The grandmother and the grandfather we have staying with us remained at the Center to rest because they have problems with their legs and health in general. One of the mothers and her boy had spent 2 nights in the hospital in Iasi to get emergency help for a severe allergy condition. She came back to our shelter today but has to get more treatment so she will go back next Monday for control.

The children were so happy that they could be outside for the very first time since escaping the war zone and outside they did not hear the alarms ringing and the bombs falling. Many still linger in a trauma state. Soon they were jumping and playing in the park. After a long walk in the city together with my colleague Dana, we invited them to the Palace Mall and offered lunch and ice cream!

So thankful to God we are because our city is still calm and peaceful! We pray for the peace in Ukraine and may God protect Romania, too! Thank you, dear friends, for supporting us to show love and care for the children of Ukraine! God bless you!

Aura Vatamaniuc

Director Star of Hope Romania

Support the work

The results from the Kenyan national school tests for eighth-graders have been announced by the Ministry of Education.

All 76 eighth graders from our schools in Mikindani and Jimba passed the exams and therefore qualified for high school.

It went very well for Sera from Jimba in the picture above. With her great results, she can now apply to the best schools. The development in the small village outside Mombasa has been outstanding since we started working there 15 years ago. Then, there was only a small preschool built of clay. Gradually we have developed the school and for the past two years, it has been offering all grades up to the final eighth grade.

We thank you for the enormous support you have shown the children in Kenya. Thanks to all individuals, organizations, and companies, we have together developed the work and achieved fantastic results. Many thanks!

We wish all graduating students good luck when they soon continue their studies.

Read more about our work in Kenya by clicking here.

John was the student at our primary school in Mikindani with the best exam results. Good luck in the future John.

To achieve the best possible results, preparations began in January with extra lessons several times a week.


Before the exams, teacher Nelson gathered eighth-graders at weekly meetings for inspirational talks.


Teacher Wende is the class teacher in grade eight. He is passionate about his job and does everything he can for the students to succeed.


Support a child's education in Kenya by clicking here.
Together we can develop the work even more!
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Dennis Thern 2022 Success Stories, Kenya, News

Please see the videos below and you are correct, not much text in this article. Please just look at some of the videos we have published over the last 6 weeks. All with the Ukrainian war in the center.

 On April 25 Mayor speaks and thanks the donors.

April 14 Video from partner in Kyiv

April 1 Refugees flowing in

 March 27 Two kids and a dog

March 23 Visit a Star of Hope center in Romania, now refugee center

 March 21 The first trucks have arrived.

March 19 On Moldavian border

March 7 on the Romanian border

HELP US HELP THEM - Your gift is needed - Click here and give now.

Dear friends, brothers, and sisters.

First of all, thank you for all your support and involvement so far. We live in tense situations these days, here on the border with Ukraine. We are only 25 km from Siret Customs. Military bases for the protection of Romania and refugee tents have been set up near our border. We pray for the peace of Ukraine and especially for our brothers who are going through difficult times. In our centers, we continue to carry out activities with children, but we have received and helped refugees from Ukraine.
Even though there is panic and fear around us, we are faithfully trying to move forward with faith in God

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Ps. 46: 1).

As you know, in addition to the daily help we offer to the 500 children with disabilities in our Star of Hope centers in Romania, we also help 200 poor children and their families.

In Dimacheni we offer daily hot meals for poor children, homework help, financial support, and guidance for families to develop work and life skills. We are recognized in the area as a quality service and we see progress in everything we do.

These days we were asked by the mayor of Dimacheni and the principal of Dimacheni school to help them build a very deep water fountain (because of the soil in Dimacheni, the fountain has to be deeper than an unusual one). In Dimăcheni the major problem is the lack of drinking water. Currently, 186 children in the school do not have drinking water, do not have toilets, and the 6 hours spent at school are in difficult conditions. The water is brought in by buckets by school staff. The water brought with the buckets is very, very dirty and undrinkable.

The water is now brought from a churchyard, from a long-distance where the fountain was built (in a small cemetery), and when they built the fountain, in the water, they found human skeletons. So the water is contaminated.
We want to build a fountain so that the 186 children and their families who come to school can have good drinking water. The specialist estimated that the cost of these is around 2000 euros.
We need your help so we can help!
"The beneficent soul shall be satisfied, and he that watereth shall be watered also" (Proverbs 11:25).

We also join our thoughts of gratitude and thankfulness for all of your prayers, and for all of your generous help!
God bless you all!

Star of Hope Romania

Donate to Dimăcheni