My father, Ken Borror, turned 86 on Oct 23, 2012. He is active and engaged in all aspects of life. Living in Colorado with my mother Violet, he still volunteers many hours a day to Star of Hope.

He retired from IBM and has brought all that education and experience to Star of Hope as a volunteer. He does computer programming not only for our USA office but also our field offices around the world.

His tireless energy is a true inspiration!

Keep it up, Dad!

Love, Your son

Barry

Star of Hope has for many years distributing parcels before Christmas and Mother's Day to the needy in several countries, including Latvia, Romania, Belarus, Haiti and the Philippines. It is always appreciated by the recipients. They are so grateful for their package that includes food, candy, and clothing.

Donors come from several different countries. Some donate money so the products can be purchased in place in the countries. Other pack their own pacels and send them.

An important contribution is made ??by the Star of Hope's employees in the different countries. In Latvia, the Liana and Ivars handles it all. Below some pictures of Liana in the well-stocked warehouse before the pacels are handed out and at a dividend.

It has been a pleasure for me to see this of commerce at close range. Firstly, the joy of Star of Hope's staff works hard with the distribution, and secondly the joy of the poor and vulnerable beneficiaries.

A few years ago I was on a Mother's Day celebration in Latvia. Organizer and participants were a support group for mothers whose children have disabilities. The event was very successful. There was singing, dancing, food, and of course Mother's Day gifts to all mothers. In addition, there came a clown with balloons and entertainment. Participants were all happy and satisfied.

Star of Hope started this support group in the 90's and it has evolved a lot since then. In the beginning the mothers were all shy and embarrassed for their children. But the Star of Hope, along with the group changed attitudes and took down barriers. Today, this group is completely self-sustaining with lots of activities.

It was really fun to go there and see how everyone really appreciated this group's activities and the Star of Hope's employees, who have worked hard to improve the living conditions of these families. Such an event would really like to experience again.

I met Iverson for the first time at Star of Hope's school in Taytay, Philippines two years ago. A lively happy boy with a twinkle in his eye. He is a good student with several prestigious awards despite his young age. He lives simply with his family in a slum but they make the best of it. Even so, he has made ??a good start in life, thanks to Star of Hope.

A young boy with ambitions goals in the short and long term. I hope to keep in touch with him to see how it goes in the future. Some pictures below of him plus a video that I made 2010.

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dsvgzeS-ro&

I was thinking about our sponsors today and this quote came across my twitter feed.

"If you think you are too small to make a difference, try spending the night in a closed room with a mosquito" -Unknown

It is a great reminder for all of us that even small things can make a real difference. Your sponsorship gift is like that mosquito, it just makes itself known all the time. You cannot get away from its presence and neither can your sponsor child.

Every child that has access to better education because of a sponsor won't forget it.

You shouldn't either.

Barry Borror

President & CEO

In 2002, World Leaders committed to the eight Millennium Development Goals, Goal 7 of which is “to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people with sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation”. The world is on track to meet the drinking water target, but at current levels of progress will miss the sanitation target by 700 million people. 

The sanitation and health story is usually told in numbers, and most of the news is not good. 884 million people – about half of who live in Asia – still rely on drinking water from unimproved sources such as ponds, streams, irrigation canals and unprotected dug wells. 2.5 billion (two in five) lack access to safe sanitation. 3.6 million people die each year from water-related diseases, 43 per cent of which are due to diarrhea. Most, 98 percent, are from developing countries and 3 million of which are children under fourteen. 5 000 children under age 5 are killed every day by diarrhea alone.

Star of Hope has improved the water issues at various projects around the world. In one of the poorest countries in the world, Haiti, Star of Hope has dug wells, built water reservoirs, and so on to improve the water security level for some 3 000 sponsored kids and their families. But we want to do more. More has to be done and we all have to it together.