Starfysh

“Officer reviews and updates any projects that have begun in the past year. Also reviews projects that are ongoing and makes any necessary updates to that information.”

“No documents available to the public”

“Starfysh has determined to focus on one of the world's most desperate geographic locales and people groups: that of the island of la gonave, haiti. It is both our purpose and our expectation that we will be able to reverse the cycle of poverty there through the addressing of essential infrastructural needs (water, agriculture, health) while developing a model for sustaining those improvements (education and economic development). While working toward these goals, we will not ignore the opportunities for demonstrating christian compassion in times of urgent, immediate, and desperate need.”

“Will take care of all their on-field logistics. This model also defrays the cost of the yearly lease of the starfysh guesthouse/base of operations here on the island. This model of receiving guests works well: we have received high marks from all the teams we have hosted.”

“Future income stream which can make the demonstration farm self- sustainable. Our short-term goal is to quickly develop the current property to the point where, within one year, we can start conducting agriculture teaching conferences for island farmers. Our long term vision is to establish satellite campuses where we can work on unique and challenging growing situations (e.g., slopes, erosion, seaside, etc.).”

“Villages where the need is greatest.”

“Guesthouse expenses/base of operations key to starfysh's effectiveness on the ground is our base of operations in haiti from which all projects are planned and carried out. Establishing this base was an important, strategic first step as we build in-field capacity for carrying out our mission in the years to come. The starfysh base is located in the village of anse-a-galets, on the island of la gonave, some 12 miles offshore of mainland haiti. We chose anse-a- galets as a good temporary base, as it is the only village on the island that has both an airstrip and a boat port. Our base consists of a small house that we currently lease on a year-to-year basis. We consider it as a temporary base that we will maintain until we can build our own base of operations up in the geographic center of the island of la gonave. The house is simple, furnished in a very utilitarian way. It has a small kitchen and can sleep up to twelve workers at a time. Electricity is provided by generators. Water for showers , sinks, and toilets is gravity fed by an onroof water cistern. The house is gated and guarded, allowing for us to use the yard as a staging area for project equipment and supplies. We have two heavy duty 4-wheel drive trucks and two 4-wheel atv's without which navigation in the la gonave mountains would be impossible. Education education continues to be a strong focus of starfysh's energies on the island. Our first school, currently in its third year, continues to thrive. One hundred twenty six children, pre-k through 5th grade, are currently enrolled. Eight teachers and one principal are employed. We continue to pour resources and energy into training teachers. Our model of creole-based learning has been embraced and has proven successful. Students, who otherwise would not likely eat every day, are fed a nutritious meal as a part of their school day. The school has outgrown its tiny building and must, if it is to continue to grow, find a bigger facility. During the past year, starfysh facilitated the village's purchase of a nearby parcel of land and we have recently completed plans to build a modest-sized school on the property. We hope to begin building in the upcoming year. In a pilot effort this past year, we also invested in thirty computer tablets for use at the school, tablets downloaded with thousands of creole resources, resources either unavailable or too costly in print form. We continue to write and publish elementary-level, creole-language readers in print form. With our now-proven model and a bit of success under our belt, we are now looking to create a school in another village. General fund/where needed most to provide for overhead costs to run organization, allow starfysh to designate funds to projects that need a bit of extra funds. Economic development if the island of la gonave is ever to truly rise out of desperate poverty, it will be her people that do the raising. One day, her people must carry on the work which we have started. In order for that to happen, an economy must rise up that can support and sustain and grow the project efforts starfysh helps to initiate. Imbedded in all our project efforts are ideas and plans for economic self-sustainability. Starfysh values the importance of helping qualified and promising individuals to establish businesses. In a pilot effort this past year, we conducted business training for twelve individuals. At the completion of their training they were each granted startup micro-loans. We also assisted two other individuals in expanding their small businesses. We have determined that for the upcoming year, until we can provide closer oversight and mentoring to new entrepreneurs, we will likely not fund new business startups. Church/village partnership one of the starfysh models for project development is to bring in sponsoring partners who will adopt and underwrite the project. One such example, and our first large-scale example of this is the partnership we have created between a”

“Education 16,165 0 0 medical treatment 14,080 0 0 berkley/mar kochon 12,886 0 0 missionary support 6,000 0 0 haiti general expenses 4,671 0 0 economic development 4,511 0 0 latrines 2,500 0 0 orphanage 700 0 0”