My journey with Star of Hope began a late summer evening 1996 when I was introduced to a Jossi. She had recently been to the Philippines, she told me in an engaged way for hours about the country, the people and the Star of Hope good work there among the poor.

I had long wanted to support any development organization. Star of Hope felt right immediately after listening to Jossi.

A few days later Star of Hope was contacted and I became sponsor to a little girl in the poor district of Crame in the megacity Manila. More on her later, but she has now graduated college.

I had great connection with Star of Hope right away and the staff was helpful with my questions and more.

It turned out that some of my friends were on vacation to the Philippines in spring 1997. I asked Star of Hope whether it was possible to visit Star of Hope schools, and my sponsor kid. Of course the staff said. I got the contact information and faxed to the Philippines about my visit. Got an answer within a few days that I was welcome. I booked my ticket and packed my bag.

End of Part 1.
Some pictures from the Star of Hope preschool in Crame and its graduation ceremony in March this year. More pictures on Flickr.

At the moment I’m goring through the material from Ghana and especially from Bolgatanga district in Ghana's north-eastern province. Bolgatanga is the capital of the province and is one of the poorest regions of Ghana. Star of Hope has been involved in education in the area in many schools for many years.

It is seldom I take the time to have look at the entire image archive for Bolgatanga but have done it now. Have found several pictures that I might not seen since they were taken and sent to office years ago. Nice to rediscover them again.

It is nice see and feel again the joy for these children that they have a school to go to. Some children walk maybe mora than an hour to get to school. I’m extremely glad I got to see their joy at close range. They want to learn, they have dreams and hopes for the future. They want to satisfy their hunger.

Star of Hope has helped them a bit on the way to their goals.

Good, it's necessary!

As I wrote the other day it seems that the severe cholera crisis in Haiti do not budge. Nearly 250,000 people can be affected by the water-borne disease this year. 7,000 people have been killed since the fall of 2010.

Some experts expect that a proper system for water and sanitation in Haiti would cost around $ 1 billion.

Clean water is our most important social function. Clean drinking water is man's first and greatest need. The Star of Hope plan for a better Haiti is to have safe drinking water in the projects where we work. It is a very important and central point.

When the cholera outbreak began in autumn 2010, Star of Hope acted quickly. There were several short-term solutions: we treated water, we did cholera vaccination and implemented simple but effective hand wash stations, known as "Tippy Taps".

The long-term plan was and is that all projects should have access to safe drinking water through wells, cisterns and other solutions. Star of Hope has come a long way, but still several projects needs wells and more.

If you want to help with the Star of Hope's long-term plan, find out how you can help:

http://www.starofhopeusa.org/give/projects/790-water-project.html

Linda Borror, my wife and Star of Hope staff member and Sam Thier from Great Bend, Kansas left this morning on a very long journey. They will travel for some 30 hours to arrive in Saenz Pena, Chaco. It is a smaller city in northern Argentina.

While there they will walk the proposed sports complex, where Elijah has dreamed of playing soccer and building self worth. This is the site of The Wall. They will meet Elijah and the other young Toba indians who are growing into educated, healthy adults who love Jesus and care about their communities.

For Sam, it is his first visit to a Star of Project county. He is excited about seeing what God is doing and how the donor accomplishes great things through Star of Hope.

Upon their return, both hope to share with as many people the excitement that I saw already in their faces as they drove off this morning.

StarTeams do so very much. They help the children we are serving, they encourage the donors by reporting back what they see. But, perhaps more importantly they grow themselves and often change their priorities in life.

How about you? Could you see yourself on a work team or mission trip?

This is one of my favorite pictures from the preschool in Boyer, Haiti. I feel joy when I see these two happy girls eat lunch at school in November 2010.

Boyer is very near the area where severe cholera outbreak started just weeks before this picture was taken. Star of Hope, purified drinking water with Aqua Care, and vaccinated all the children in the Boyer against cholera. Later Star of Hope build a water system to secure safe drinking water to the kids and the staff.

Star of Hope has been supporting the school in Boyertown since 1993 and the current school year has more than 550 students. Children receive education and school lunches and thus help to a good start in life.

Speaking of the cholera outbreak, it seems they are more problems. Some expect that up to 250 000 people may suffer from the desease this year. 7,000 have already died since the outbreak started in autumn 2010. The bacteria may have split up into two strains, which may increase the problems. Those who have already been hit once, may be hit again by the new strain.

Many aid organizations have withdrawn from the hardest hit area around Mirebalais where it all began. Health clinics in the area are short on antibiotics and clinic staff in some areas have not been paid since January.

I hope they can get to the bottom of this. The sick and suffering people I saw in late 2010 was not a pretty sight. The authorities must get help from various area to overcome this once and for all.

9,755 people has been injured or killed by landmine in Colombia since 1990.

Of the nearly ten thousand victims of the past 22 years, more than 10% were children, while 2,044 people died from their injuries. Approximately 6,000 of the victims were members of the security forces and the rest civilians.

It is widely accepted that Colombia's two biggest rebel groups, the FARC and ELN, are most responsible for the laying of mines.

Colombia has the second highest casualty rate of landmine victims in the world, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL).

Colombia had 512 victims either maimed or killed due to landmines in 2010, putting the country second after Afghanistan with 1,211. Pakistan is third with 394 casualties.

Landmines killed 1,155 people around the world last year and wounded 2,848 --  a 5% increase from the previous year. The figures may be even higher as data from many countries is often incomplete.

Star of Hope has been working in Colombia since mid 1980’s through its partner Cirec. Cirec is one the finest institutions and grass root organizations regarding the work with physical injures regardless the cause. They have had around 40,000 patients, and many of them are landmine victims.

The pictures above shows two landmine victims that have been helped via Star of Hope and Cirec.