Get involved

All of our income goes towards helping the children in Pakistan through the schools and projects we support. We minimise our overhead costs. Around 85% of our received income goes directly to our partners in Pakistan and the projects they run among the poor.

We maintain regular and close contact with our national partners in Pakistan and the senior staff visit all our projects annually. Most of our partners’ projects are locally registered under Pakistani law, with their own independent Boards of Trustees.

We have thirty years’ experience of working in Pakistan and have close and strong relationships with community leaders in Pakistan. Since 2003, Starfish Asia has continued to grow and now supports around 50 homes and schools providing help and education to more than 8,300 children and their families per year.

Pakistan is often in the headlines for bad news. We bring good news to this beleaguered nation — hope and not despair. We focus on education for the marginalised minority children of Pakistan and support our partners in building Christian values into the lives of the children.

We invest in national partners who are already involved in bringing hope to their own communities. Many have made a considerable personal sacrifice to work with the poor and do so often under severe threat and difficult working conditions.

You will have the satisfaction of knowing that your support will enable children to escape from poverty and make a contribution to their world.  Without your help many might lose hope and spend their lives in bonded labour in brick kilns, sweeping the road, cleaning sewage, or cleaning the houses of the rich. Worse still, many might return to the streets without work, drawn to drugs and cheap sex or waste their lives as petty thieves and beggars. You can make a difference.

We acknowledge all gifts with gratitude and welcome supporters as members of the Starfish Asia family (unless you choose otherwise). We will keep you informed about how your money is spent and the difference you are making to some of Pakistan’s poorest children.

Fundraisers make a huge contribution to Starfish Asia by giving freely of their time, talents, skills, energy, enthusiasm and experience to help raise necessary funds for impoverished children in Pakistan.

We are a non-profit organisation. We cannot hire enough paid expertise to fully achieve the aims and goals of the mission and vision statement. Therefore we rely on a family of volunteers and fundraisers.

It is important to select one that suits your skills and abilities. If you don’t have a lot of time we suggest one that fits your lifestyle. See our A-Z for some ideas and the section, Organizing your own fund-raising event.

Ideally we would like to know what you have in mind and like to talk with our fundraisers. Contact us by email or phone.

We may be limited in the amount we can help physically, as we are a very small full-time team. However, we can definitely help by providing publicity materials and copies of the Starfish Asia Newsletters. And we can pray for you and your event. We like to be in touch and will help as much as possible.

That is entirely up to you. Some fundraisers arrange a number of events throughout the year or get sponsored regularly. Others do one-offs. The time you give is your choice.

Yes, of course. We understand that you may have work, family, church and other commitments. You can give us as much or as little time as you choose.

Yes. Each donor who is a UK tax payer can increase their gift by 25% by signing a Gift Aid form which can be provided by us or downloaded from the website, or completed online.

We take the absolute minimum to cover our low overhead costs. Currently about 85% of all our income goes directly to Pakistan. This represents excellent value for money. If you are raising funds for a chosen school or project, we will send 100% of your gift to the project.

Yes, you can choose any school or project that we are currently supporting. Otherwise we are happy to advise or use the funds raised wherever they are needed most. We cannot use funds for projects that we are not ourselves already committed to.

The money goes to Starfish Asia’s bank account and is sent to Pakistan, usually on the next transfer.

No. Every contribution is valuable – it only costs about £5 or $6.50 to support a Pakistani child in school for a month, so small is very beautiful. However it is good to set a target, as this will provide motivation to raise more funds.

You can make cheques payable to Starfish Asia or you can pay through internet banking. Just contact us for our account details.

Check the Contact Us page for contact details.

As the role is voluntary we do not normally cover out of pocket expenses but do talk to us if that is a difficulty preventing you from fundraising, and we will see what we can do.

You may fundraise for Starfish Asia if you are under 18, provided you have written permission from a parent or legal guardian.

Absolutely. We see no reason why you should not raise funds wherever you live.

Please get in touch with a Starfish Asia office and we will advise – we have many friends across the world who might be able to help.

Check the Contact Us page for contact details.

Please do! We value the time and energy you give, and want to listen and learn.