Chief Executive Officer Barry W. Borror Resigns as Star of Hope International America's President and CEO, and Board Appoints Vice President Mark J. Presson to Post of President and CEO.

Star of Hope announces that Barry Borror has resigned from his 12-year post as president and CEO of Star of Hope International America Inc., effective October 1, 2015. Star of Hope appointed current Vice President and Secretary Mark J. Presson as its new President and CEO. In his statement, Barry Borror said "the time has come to say goodbye to all my friends and co-workers around the world. I am stepping down and leaving Star of Hope." Borror said that he has been reflecting on his 28 years of serving God through Star of Hope, and those who have been on the journey with him. "It has been my pleasure and blessing to see God accomplish much over the years," said Borror.

Star of Hope has seen many positive accomplishments during Borror's tenure as President and CEO, including: Building the St Joseph school in Trinidad with the first StarTeam, Building the first Preschool rooms in Jeanton, Haiti, overseeing a new Church Building in Rigaud, Haiti, watching how engaged the people were in the Church Building in Hesse, Haiti, Providing the Tent of Miracles in Argentina and leading several U.S. StarTeam volunteers to Trinidad, Haiti and Romania to help on several projects and delivering God's word and encouragement.
His time with Star of Hope began in Haiti partnering with his father, Ken Borror in serving the Star of Hope ministry. Together they developed the software that would be used by Star of Hope to track all the donors and the children in need of food, clothing, shelter, education and God's word. Barry also formed the Star of Hope Haiti Foundation and staffed that organization so that the services would continue when he returned to the United States. In 2003, his role changed to a development role that took Star of Hope International America, Inc. out of dormancy and began to grow the organization rapidly.
During the past 12 years, Barry led several large projects, as well as making it possible for kids to attend school and families to participate in camps and numerous evangelistic outreach events.

Barry wrote that "my day to day role as a staff member in the Star or Hope world has come to a close. I pray that God's face will shine on the work that Star of Hope continues to do and that everything you do is done to bring Glory to Him and HIs Kingdom."
Chairman Williams said that he was surprised and saddened to receive Barry's resignation. "We will miss him deeply. Barry and Linda have both devoted many years to the work of Star of Hope and I know their hearts have always been for the children," Williams also said, "I applaud Barry's commitment and foresight to let new leadership take Star of Hope to even greater heights of ministry, if God wills."

Star of Hope has appointed Vice President and Secretary Mark J. Presson as Chief Executive Officer and President. Mark J Presson has proven to be a results-orientated leader with compassion for children’s education and also for sharing God's word. Mr. Presson has been with Star of Hope more than 25 years working in Sweden, the Philippines, and the United States. Mr. Presson has served Star of Hope in many capacities, including emergency equipment supply chain manager, interim data and network administrator, development director, emergency response manager, as well as managing director.

Star of Hope's Board Chairman, Don Williams was supportive of the appointment of Mr. Presson as the new President and CEO. "As a board we are thrilled to have Mark already in place and dedicated to the work of Star of Hope and the legacy of the Eriksson family. He brings a broad range of experience and leadership to his new position and has the skills to see Star of Hope through our current transition and beyond," said Williams.

Mr. Presson said he was excited and humbled by the appointment. "I so firmly and proudly believe in the work of Star of Hope and look forward to continuing the mission of helping children lead healthy lives, impact their world and be able to hear the good news of Christ. I am honored to continue the legacy of the founder Dr. Erik Gunnar Eriksson and I ask God to guide us in this new chapter for Star of Hope and that this direction be His will," said Mr. Presson.

• Give 40 lunches for $10 Just text vanish to 41444
• Visit the campaign site to see the #hungervanish video and learn more.

September 7, 2015 - Port-au-Prince Haiti - The new school year began on September 7th but less than 10% of the children enrolled showed up! You might ask what is wrong?

In Haiti, dates and time have little meaning. Life is day by day and when the calendar says school starts, most don't recognize it until they notice other kids in their school uniforms walking to school. That means that during the first week, each days attendance will increase rapidly so that by the end of the first week almost all the kids will be in class.

As an example, pictured above is the entire student body and the teachers that were at our Jeanton school the first day. Jeanton has 380 children registered for this school year! Not that many showed up.

Imagine if only this many showed up the first day of school at your local elementary school! There would be news media everwhere! Foxnews, MSNBC and every reporter you could imagine would be live on site, asking why? Who is at fault for this failure? But not in Haiti. It is simply life.

As you can see, the few numbers did not stop the kids from getting the new year started!

The 3,000 plus children in our schools have been provided with material for their uniform, books and materials. The parents need to provide shoes, underwear and have the material sewn into the uniforms. For some kids, the reason the didn't start this first day is that their families simply could not find the money to buy shoes, underwear or pay the $9 to have someone sew their child's uniform.

The severe drought that has hit the rural areas where we work the past nine months has greatly reduced the farm crops and these families, who exist as peasant farmers, simply could not save even the limited amount needed to get their children to school.

This is one reason that our #Hungervanish project is so vital. The school lunch is in reality, a necessity.

Tony Boursiquot, Project Manager, Star of Hope in Haiti writes "the start of school is a great occasion to thank our sponsors and friends who make it possible for our kids to attend school."

September 2, 2015 - Approaching 50,000 views of #HungerVanish video is great news. As more people see it on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Youtube and share it, we can help the word spread even faster. Even better is that through the end of August more than 36,000 lunches have been provided.

The school year starts in Haiti this month so the need is great. Those 36,000 lunches are a big deal but we need another 604,000 for the year. Help spread the word by sharing the posts and if you are able, please help with $10, or more. You may donate safely online here.

Can we keep the momentum going and feed those kids? I think we can!

More importantly, I know that our God will not let them be defeated!

Barry Borror
President & CEO

Why would we believe that?

August, 2016 is just a few short weeks from the beginning of school across the northern hemisphere. In villages where Star of Hope supports schools, we know that the children are often hungry. Dads and Moms sacrifice everything they have for their children. But all too often there simply is not enough food to fill the mouths. When you are hungry not much else matters, certainly not school. Any yet, these children seek out learning and school in ways that we in the developed world cannot really understand. They don't want to be hungry and they sense that one way out of hunger is by learning.

That's why at Star of Hope schools, a nutitional lunch is an important part of the day. In fact, during the times when food shortage is the greatest in the community, the school lunch becomes the key meal of the day. Knowing that there is a hot lunch adds to excitement as the children walk to school each morning. Often, when hunger is the greatest in the community, they search eagerly for the smoke that rises from the cooking fires. Why? Simple. It means that there will be lunch that day.

For Star of Hope In Haiti, Trinidad, Ghana and other places now is also a time for prayer and ferverent fund raising to make sure that we have the resources that are needed to give thousands of children access to a quality education that otherwise would not be available. The funds for the schjool feeding proram are just as important as funds to pay teachers or buy books.

The good news, is that a school lunch in a place like Hesse, Haiti doesn't cost so much. In fact, Star of Hope in Haiti just needs 25¢ from outsiders to feed a child. That's amazing. That $10 will feed two chlidren for the 20 school days in an average month.

This year, I am sad to say, we simply don't have the resources to feed all 3,200+ children that will attend our schools, just in Haiti.

But the exciting thing that has happened is that Reza:Illusionist has partnered with Star of Hope to raise awareness of this problem. Check out his fantastic illusion video #HungerVanish. Please share the video to help spread the need and also, go ahead and sign up to feel two kids for a month. It's just $10, an amount that isn't too big for us but might as well be a million dollars to these children in Haiti.

Did you get why NO FOOD = NO SCHOOL = NO HOPE? Even the children know that their hope for a future and not having a life of perpetual hunger lies with them. They need school to learn how to live better but without food, to survive they have to skip school to look for food. It is a merry-go-round that they are desperate to get off. We can do it together. The question is will we? Check out our make hunger disappear page, and do something that is within your power.

School is closed for the summer now in Haiti and all children are enjoying their summer vacation. In the country side where Star of Hope is working in different localities, the summer vacation for children in their communities differ from those living in the city. For boys, they are living and stay outdoors almost all day, while the girls are having fun learning the responsibilities of a “woman” inside the house.

In Bois Negresse, a 10 years old girl during the summer vacation wakes up in the morning and starts her day in the outdoor kitchen; a small building covered with coconut leaves framed on the sides with palm thatch roof. She will sweep the dirt floor first and light the fire in a stove made of 3 large rocks. Like a responsible woman, she will put the coffee pot on the stove and prepare the coffee. When the coffee is ready and announced, everyone will gather around the stove and drink their hot cup of coffee with a piece of cassava bread.

After everyone is served, mother takes charge in the kitchen to prepare breakfast while the girl would step inside the house to sweep, to make the beds and to put everything in order before taking her plastic container to search for water for the household to use. Usually, during summer vacation girls go in groups to search for water. They run, play, laugh and goof around , making the task fun rather than a responsibility. When they come back home, often their food is cold on the table. It doesn’t matter much as they have fun seeing how the entire household is counting on them with their gallon of water, for a cup to drink, to prepare dinner and to do the dishes.

After breakfast mother and young brothers often go in search for more wood to prepare dinner and check the garden for things ready to consume. Meanwhile, the girls will stay home to clean the dried beans, put it on the stove to boil and wait for mother to come back to prepare dinner.

After dinner, she will collect all the dirty dishes to wash aloing with her mother. And as it starts to be dark and cooler, everyone will gather in the kitchen as it started in the morning to warm up around a cup of tea made of citronella, basil and orange leaves that the girls usually grabbed on their way home from getting water.

Oops! I just remember when I was 12 visiting my aunt from my mother side in the countryside in the South…

Myrtha Dor

Star of Hope, Haiti