How we started
Starfish Asia (SG) was started in 2011 by two OM missionaries who had returned from the field. One of them visited Pakistan while she was on the LOGOS ship in the 1970s and the other was based in Pakistan from the 1980s to 1991. After a visit to Pakistan in 2010 and seeing the good work that Starfish Asia was doing for the disadvantaged Christian children, the two ladies were challenged to help provide finances and resources for teachers’ salaries and training. They then started Starfish Asia (SG) to raise awareness and resources for the needs in Pakistan. Today, the work continues with a team of Singaporean Christians who share the same vision of educating Pakistani Christian children and teaching them Kingdom values so that these children will be strengthened with hope and a future. Currently, Starfish Asia (SG) supports six Starfish schools in Pakistan.
How We Help
Johore Town, Lahore
Zafar Daniel worked with the Sunday School ministry. Together with his wife Amna he developed a special concern for a poor Christian community living at the heart of a new upper middle-class development known as Johore Town in Lahore. When the Roman Catholic Church closed their school, Zafar pleaded with the Priest to allow him to use the church building to re-open it for poor Christians. Classes were spread all over the church sanctuary. Starfish Asia began to provide funds in 2013 to rent a more suitable building, install furniture and pay acceptable salaries to the teachers. The school grew and funds were provided to construct a purpose-built new school building in March 2019. It is now a full high school.
Youhannabad, Lahore
The Assemblies of God Church in Youhannabad ran this School for about three years from their own premises. Unable to collect fees or continue to subsidise the school, it was on the point of closure. Starfish Asia rescued the school in 2012, renovating the building and providing furniture and teachers’ salary subsidies. It serves low-income Christian families in Pakistan’s largest Christian colony. In 2020 Starfish Pakistan provided funds to build more classrooms on the roof. The project is led by the wife of the former pastor of the Church, Mrs Zenobia Stephen.
St.James Middle School, Nasirabad, Lahore
Starfish Asia was introduced to Salomi Tehla in 2008 through OM team. She lived with her Christian family in a predominantly Christian colony in Lahore, and the family opened their home to local children with no schooling. With only personal and family resources, which were clearly inadequate, she had 9 classes and about 150 children crowded into her home. The school was named after Salomi’s brother, James. In 2013 Starfish Asia purchased and renovated a building nearby to provide more space. Though still inadequately crowded, it has benefitted hugely from a donor’s personal interest and training of Salomi and her staff.
St.Peter’s School (1 & 2), Burj Klan, Kasur & Harrihar, Kasur
Burj Klan is a village serving a bamboo plantation near the India border. The small Christian community of workers on the plantation was served by a Primary School started by the initiative and in the family home of William John and his wife Ruth. Starfish Asia began to support the school in in 2007. Extra classrooms were added and the building fully renovated. Starfish Asia (Singapore) provided a school bus that collected children from nearby villages, but this was replaced by the opening of another School, St.Peter’s in Harrihar village in 2020.
Dhaya More, Sheikhupura
Mumtaz had a background in Micro finance, as Area head in a micro finance bank. When her brother, Tahir, was murdered in a botched robbery in 2011, she determined to devote herself to his passion, which was to open a school for the children of Christian brick kiln workers in her village near Sheikhupura. Starting in a simple and utterly inadequate brick building, Starfish Asia enabled the school to move to a better property in 2014. Sadly, Mumtaz died in 2020 and the management of the school was taken over by her brother.
Word of Life Church, Shahpur Kanjara, Lahore
Asif Feroze has been for many years pastor of a congregation of very poor Christian labourers living in a mixed community on the outskirts of Lahore. When Starfish Pakistan first came to know him, he had opened a small primary school in one brick built room and the open air. With no outside help, the community built a beautiful church and then opened the school. Their facilities were very basic and teachers’ salaries very low until Starfish Asia began to provide support in late 2012. His wife Rose and talented daughter Tamsil oversaw the growth of the school in a large rented building.
How you can help
There are a number of ways that you can help:
1) Pray for Starfish ministry.
2) Go for trips to visit the Starfish schools.
3) Provide training for the locals.
4) Introduce friends who may be interested in supporting the work.
5) Give financially to support a Starfish school – please click on the Donate button below.
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