Twenty five, 25 students will soon be graduating from a Star of Hope sewing class in Hesse Haiti. They are young boys and girls, parents and adults that decided to attend the sewing school. The school is supported by Star of Hope Haiti. Now for the first time these courageous students will have a profession and will be able to make their own living after graduation. What a fantastic result.

Some of them plan to go find work that requires their new skill set, others have dreamt to open their own small business working as a professional seamstress to earn an income. For now none of them has a job yet but soon they will graduate and start their new adventure.

If Star of hope had not offered this class, for free, the students would not have had the opportunity to attend sewing class as it simply would have been out of reach economically, to become a seamstress or tailor would be very expensive for a normal Haitian. The tuition is one aspect but then you have the issue of being able to buy material to do the sewing practice in class and as homework.

As Star of hope provides free fabrics to the students they are able make as many samples of dresses after each lesson. Usually Star of Hope purchases the fabric yet sometimes we receive donations of pieces of fabric that we give to the students. The last time star of Hope received donated fabrics for the class was in March this year, it was bags full of different pieces of fabrics that was very welcome and useful. For practice all pieces count no matter how small. Not only are students making dresses for they also practice the economy of the raw materials as to save the precious fabric; any small piece of different color can easily be used to make collars, pockets, leaves, belt and so on.

It is to say that all donated fabric pieces that we received from the family of SallyLou La Pierre have been used and have been greatly appreciated by the 25 students. They are so grateful for the donation that they join star of Hope Haiti staff to greet warmly Karen and the family to thank them for this great donation that means so much to them. The pictures attached prove the students appreciation for the donated fabric.

Blessings
Tony B Star of Hope, Haiti

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School’s produce graduates, children and youth better equipped to succeed. It might be a step for them to the next grade or a job; it could even be a stepping stone to a degree or advanced degree. Whatever the grade level the individual has completed more education will generally give a better collection of education and tools for that person to succeed more in life than without an education; a generalization yes, but for the most part absolutely a truism.

In the developed areas like the USA it is a given, kids go to school and get an education through high school. However in many places in the world access to free K-12 educational the desired state. In the developing countries many see education as a luxury or even a dream. I think it’s a small percentage of our kids here in the USA that dream about school.

Of course as it remains a fact that in some places ‘even today’ on this blue marble, education is not a right it is a privilege. Unfortunately education in the US is a hot current topic, what class size, what schedule, what core groups, Christian or non-Christian, block schedule or period schedule.

Sometimes you hear people say “if we could get everyone educated then poverty would disappear.” There are many ideas on poverty and many opinions about why some people who continue to live by choice or not. In economically deprived or war torn areas where education is still in the local common people’s reality an item, “for the others.” This is a huge topic and I will not open the door further on it however I will say that a child in the US with a solid quality K-12 education should be poised to make much better life decisions for themselves than a non-educated person. My point being that our kids have education through the local school as a right not a privilege. What happens with this right is not a definable outcome however it is generally a more positive outcome than without government funded education.

What do you do if there is no school, where there are no laws that guarantee children’s rights to education?  Well; sometimes it is an easy fix; motivated teachers in Africa sometimes teach under a tree, in Timor teachers volunteered and taught in ruins with no roof, in the Philippines school is “free” but school fees are required for the most part and this excludes the poor. Others might use a church or assembly hall to teach. Sometimes though there needs to be a physical school, perhaps for more than educations sake perhaps to help build up a community.

It is my opinion that a Church or a school is a great place to start if you must anchor a community for development;  with the right partners and the right local community eventually a school is on the menu because it will produce graduates; it’s is not a necessity but adds to the institutions and the local community’s legitimacy.

So how is a school born where no government can assist but the need is real? In Infanta Quezon, the Philippines we had one such case. About a week before the huge Indonesian tsunami,  Infanta Quezon was devistated by one of the worst mudslides in history; then it was the center of the world news and over 180 international organizations were on site. Star of Hope had been in the area for a long time previously and we ended up building about 400 houses and apartments (Philippine style) and one area that received houses was Infanta. Of course we have built many schools and churches since then but this one was special to me as it helped develop the community and gave birth to micro business and citizens’ rights and much more as the community was well on the way to being a developing community.

The condensed version of how and why is this, after we built the housing complex we had many preschoolers who had no school and many of the older kids had to walk miles through mud and farm land to get to the nearest school if they could afford school that is. 

The Manager for the Philippines Gani Corunia and for Quezon pastor Ben Mergano told Star of Hope, of the problem and wanted to build a school on site to give quality education in a close proximity. It was a go on all fronts and we decided to build the school a bit at a time, in sections, starting with preschoolers and then first grade rooms would be built and so on. The donors of Star of Hope are lucky to be able to say; "we did this", and we have changed lives!

Call 1 (866) 653-0321 to be a sponsor!

One of our board members recently traveled to Indonesia on a Mission Trip with Grace Community Church; although Star of Hope no longer works in Indonesia we thought to share the article as a blog. Some text changes have been made for the protection of individuals home and abroad.

So our guest blogger is D & J Williams.

THE INDONESIA TIMES
Tuesday May 1, 2013

Great Bend, KS. Grace Community Church mission team returned to central Kansas late Tuesday evening, the 23rd of April to cold temperatures and snow on the ground after experiencing hot, tropical weather on the big island of Sumatra, Indonesia for eight days. Culture shock and weather shock were evident on all their faces!

Team members commented on their exhaustion after spending close to 40 hrs in transit from their hotel in Pekanbaru to their homes in Kansas. The transit included flights from Indonesia to Singapore, Singapore to Tokyo, Tokyo to Minneapolis/St. Paul, and from there to Kansas City, culminating in a four hour van ride home to Great Bend.

 Team members.

The in-country time was exhilarating, humbling, and eye-opening! As with many third-world countries, Indonesia is a country of contrasts with abject poverty side by side with wealth and affluence. For the most part, the team saw the poverty and spiritual darkness of the country, the largest Muslim country of the world. Many of the people are Muslim because they were given that distinction at birth and their religion is a mixture of Islam, animism, and superstition. The goal of the short-term mission team was to observe the work being done. Also the team was able to participate in some of the "platforms" or on-going activities, the work is slow and tedious, and requires much patience.

Team member JW stands to the side of one of the Reading Posts which are placed in schools and homes. Local missionary team members, like Maya, visit these posts weekly and read to the students. This develops the relationships from which faith discussions will hopefully follow.

After visiting four Reading Posts and an English school which also had a Reading Post, for the first part of the trip, the team was able to travel to West Sumatra to experience the culture of the Minangkabau people group. The team stayed in Bukittinggni, Indonesia where they visited local tourist attractions and markets. The goal there was to engage locals in conversations during which discussions of faith might be confronted.
The three-fold aim was to learn to "live out loud" as a Christian in a Muslim world, learn how to start spiritual conversations with a Muslim, and learn how to point them to the glorious Christ!

A row of shops outside a tourist attraction.

One day the team spent in the local shops and markets of Bukittinggni, seen above and below, and the next day was spent at lake Maninjau, a nearby crater lake in the mouth of an extinct volcano. Rice production and fish farming are the local means of income here in West Sumatra, while in Pekanbaru the economy revolves around petroleum oil and palm oil production.

A typical market scene. Here a woman is roasting bananas over a charcoal fire.

Team members J & D stop for a breather while on a hike through the jungle to a waterfall. Yu Chung, a local team member from New York, looks on from behind.

Rice production and fish farming are two of the local industries in West Sumatra. Here the rice paddies can be seen in front and the fish farming "pens" in the waters of a crater lake just beyond the trees.

DW teaching a lesson on good eating
habits and nutrition with help from Jonathan on the flannel graph and Maya as the interpreter.

JW reading a book about a little cloud and his imagination showing the children that their imaginations while reading a book can take them anywhere. Maya interprets the English for the children.

This river water was used as the local bathroom, water for dishes, drinking, and laundry and only 20 yards from one of the Reading Posts we visited.

Team members J, M, D and J doing the motions of mimicking a rain shower after Jan had read the book about a cloud.

We thank all of you, our supporters, for both the financial support given to allow us to take this trip and also for the abundant prayer support. We truly felt the presence of your prayers while we were traveling and in Indonesia. For Jan and me, we were kept from sickness and any harm while on hiking trails, traveling on the roads, and sampling the local cuisine. We are convinced this was due to the many prayers being offered on our behalf. Our continued prayer request is for you to pray for the Unreached People Groups (UPGs) of Indonesia and for the national church planters and their families as well as for the missionary families that team with them to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to these people living in a spiritually dark country.

Morning egg delivery. Note the jumble of cars, motorcycles, and pedestrians.

Water, just plain old water and yet life giving. So easily we take for granted our clean fresh water, yet not even in the Midwest especially Kansas are we completely spared from water troubles, just think about the fields the last few years, an entire section of the USA is currently affected and the outcome for more farmers than ever is up to chance alone. Right now there is a bit more than the last 3 years however some US farmers have used up their allotment for the year!

Even if not historically groundbreaking, an unwelcome sight in the Midwest.

Of course for us who live here we are solaced by the fact that the water faucet just needs a small turn and the life giving liquid will flow, almost never do we give it a second thought; faucet on-water flows. In many places where we work, people live constantly under the exact opposite condition. We have children in some of our schools that may spend several hours each day to get water, and then there is still no guarantee that the water is clean, in fact in many places where the water is not clean one would fib about that fact as life is just easier that way. Can dirty water be better than no water, I wonder.

More than 1.1 billion of the world's 7 billion people lack access to clean water. Last year over 1.5 million children died in diseases related to dirty water and poor hygiene. Many of the diseases that plague people in developing countries today would not exist if there was access to clean water and good sanitation was the norm. The international consensus states that if current trends continue it is estimated two-thirds of the world's population lack access to clean water by 2025. Let’s just break that down in a different syntax; only one in three on earth will have clean water in the future, come on it’s just water!

Not a normal situation across the globe.

Humans can survive without food for up to three weeks, but without water we will die in less than 3 days. I fear that the lack of water will lead to more conflict and deteriorating living conditions for the worlds already vulnerable. Even when it comes to something as obvious as water, it is the poor who take the biggest and hardest hit. They cannot afford to buy bottled drinking water, they do not have city water nor can they buy the water treatment products needed to make the water drinkable. They do not even have the ability to protect the natural springs, rivers, streams where some for centuries they have obtained water. Extreme poverty and ignorance makes it difficult for people to take responsibility for the future of natural resources. But our Western lifestyle has also led to an over use of water and in that context, even we with our good access to water are complicit in belittling water availability.

Did you know that it takes 1 and 1/3 pound of chemicals and 3000 gallons of water to produce a pair of jeans? Many of the clothes we wear right here in the USA are manufactured in countries that already have a shortage of water and some of the manufacturing processes do not help the water situation with illegal dumping and leakages.

Think instead that for many, all the time spent to get water or time in sickness due to bad water , could actually be used for something more productive, such as work, school, or why not rest or play. I think our world would look different. Of course there is no shortage of methods to solve the world's water problems, but we need to take joint responsibility for the water. Cultivation, supply, respect and hygiene can be realized only if people have access to the resources and knowledge needed to be a steward of the resource.

Large schools need large amounts of water.

Sometime we have to go deep!

I feel Star of Hope has an important function; in our schools and in the projects where we work, we want to provide knowledge about the importance of water. In several places we work we have water because water systems have been built; dams, wells, irrigation canals or made rainwater capture a workable technology of course sometimes we have to run ½ inch pvc water pipe for long stretches. We teach children and their parent’s hygiene and the importance of sanitation; we give them the tools to fight for their rights - and of course the right to clean water something that without a doubt is worth fighting for and something that must be respected.

The finished product, right thing at right place.

That's what it's all about, sweet water!

When you sponsor a child through Star of Hope we make sure water is also a deliverable to that child’s school or community and that is a good thing my friends!

Mark Presson
Star of Hope

If you would like sponsor a Child Today, click here to get started.

GUEST BLOG - Mikael Good, social reporter, documentary photographer, philanthropist, graphic designer, communicator, social commentator and artist. Location Huskvarna,Sweden

Places like Jayer in St. Petersburg are dark places that make far too early graves for young people who never stood a real chance in life. Even if the situation is tough for young adults who´s graduated from institutions in Russia there are some oasis of Grace to be found in the darkness.

When orphans turn 18 they are dropped from the institutions where they grew up. One day they where kids and the other day they were grownups who don´t know how to live in the real world on their own. The problem is that they have not learned to deal with the various problems of life that they now encounter. They are completely left alone and don´t have any parents, siblings, grandparent or other persons who care about them and can help them in this new situation. They often lack the everyday knowledge that others children learn in their families, such as washing clothes, cooking, managing household cash. They often feel lonely and left out, and in reality, they really are.

The statistics for orphans who graduate from institutions in Russia is very dark. Only 10% of them can adopt to a normal life in the society after graduation. The other 90% are doomed to a life in misery which often puts them in far too early graves. Some of them are lured into prostitution and criminality, some of them becomes alcohol or drug addicts. some of them end up as homeless or couch surfers and some of them take their lifes.

Jayer is street talk for a girl who is willing to do any kind of sexual act with everybody she meets. It´s also the name of a unfinished hospital in S:t Petersburg. Jayer is a house of death were young prostitutes sell their bodies for drug money and they spread HIV to customers who often refuses to use condoms. It´s a place where heroin addicts injects slow death into their veins, most of them are HIV-positive and when they share their needles they also share the deadly disease. Jayer is also a place were homeless people live and young hipsters get together to have Squat Parties in the weekends. Those who come to Jayer are exposed for GHB and heroin and many of them end up as addicts.

Nearly 70% of all heroin addicts in Russia are young people and you can find places like Jayer all over the country. It´s estimated that between 1.5 to 3 million out of 142 millions Russians are heroin addicts. The Russian authorities are not powerless before the big drug problem in the country. In recent years, the authorities have invested a lot of money on drug prevention among young people. And they try to limit the supply roads of heroin and other drugs flowing in from Afghanistan. 21% of the heroin produced in Afghanistan goes to Russia.

Even if the future for former orphans are very dark. There are some oasis of Grace to be found in Russia. One such oasis are Grace Family Center which is located in a Russian Orthodox monastery in St. Petersburg. The work at Grace is very successful and according to Valentina who is the volunteer director at Grace 90% of the orphans who have received help and support at Grace after their graduation have been able to adapt to a normal life. For orphans who has never had a family of they own, places like Grace Family Center must be worth one's weight in gold.

At Grace Family Center, orphans meet and spend time with adults who give them support and encouragement and help them develop into independent people with strong self-worth. The staff, at the project, prepare an individual plan for each young person who comes to it. The work is based on Christian principles. They live and work in an environment where they can meet and know the saving grace of Jesus. Even if the work at Grace Family Center is very successful. They are in a desperate need of money so that they can continue with their important job.

Maybe it's you who read this article that shall provide an economic miracle so that Grace Family Center can continue with their important work among the least of our brothers and sisters.

You can support Grace Family Center and donate money to them via Star of Hope, USA. 

"Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done". - Proverbs 19:17

"We can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have eyes to see. Everywhere, wherever you go, you find people who are unwanted, unloved, uncared for, just rejected by the society - completely forgotten, completely left alone. That is the greatest poverty of the rich countries." - Mother Teresa

Click the following link if you want to see the pictures in the slide-show on your cell phone or on your pad: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasid68/sets/72157633493146234/

Text and Photo © Mikael Good, All Rights Reserved
Note from Star of Hope, we do not currently prioritize or report about this project as we concentrate our efforts on different countries, however if you wish to donate we will be happy to funnel your gift to Grace.

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One-third of all food produced for humans is lost or destroyed annually. This is equivalent to 1.3 billion tonnes. The cost for this is 680 billion dollars a year, among the developed countries, and a further half the cost in developing countries.

This corresponds to 95-115 kilos of food per person in Europe and the U.S. The food that is thrown away in Europe could give food to an additional 200 million people. The food that is thrown away and lost in production in poor countries could provide food for another 300 million people.

Sad but true!

This girl, eating well at a Star of Hope project in Brazil

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