What is the Great Starfish Trail?
In many places around the world, distance to a school can prove a critical factor in whether a child receives a full education or not. This is also the situation in Pakistan. On average, children in rural Punjab travel 2-3kms per day to attend school, often through undesirable surroundings (ASER report 2021). Over the course of a week that equates to 20km. For longer distances they would need to take expensive private transport. This is why it’s so vital to support local schools within easy reach of children’s homes.
For this year’s Great Starfish Trail, we’re inviting you to cover a suggested 20KM for a child’s education. Could you commit to doing a sponsored walk/run/cycle/swim to raise much-needed funds? We are all aware of the cost-of-living crisis here, but in Pakistan this is an even bigger issue. Funds raised through The Great Starfish Trail 2024 would be used to tackle the effects of this crisis by enabling us to increase teacher salaries (the majority still earn less than £2 a day) and to provide investment into school infrastructure like water coolers, fans and furniture. Our target for this combined venture is £30,000.
FOR SUPPORTERS IN THE UK
Join us on 29th September!
For any runners in the Southeast, our CEO Rob and Administrator Liz will be completing their distances at an organised event in Tonbridge on Sunday 29th September. Why not come along along and join the team? You can choose 5k, 10k or half-marathon. If you’d like to join us please email liz@starfishasia.com OR book your place here: https://www.letsdothis.com/gb/e/run-kent-tonbridge-half-marathon-10k-and-5k-194072
FOR SUPPOTERS IN CANADA
Come join us at 9am on Saturdays 14th and 21st September for the parkrun events in Victoria Park, Kitchener, ON.
Jason Erb
Jason has worked since 2001 with Youth Unlimited at Waterloo-Oxford DSS, at several local churches, and now as ministry director. His passion is to coach and support youth through their turbulent teenage years, and to help them reach their full potential as they discover the depths of God’s great love for them. Jason will be running 20km to support Starfish Asia as part of The Great Starfish Trail.
Colleen Dotzert
Between 14th-29th September, Colleen plans to walk 20km for the teachers and students in the Starfish Asia schools in Pakistan. Please support Colleen’s unlikely and intrepid venture into being ‘physically active’!
Canadian supporters can sponsor us via the ICCM webpage using the following instructions:
- Click on the ‘Sponsor Us Now‘ button below (or click on the appropriate picture icon)
- Select PAKISTAN Starfish Asia from the drop-down “Give to” list
- Please leave a note in the Comments field at the bottom of the payment screen to identify who you are sponsoring
- SPONSOR US NOW
