Starfysh

Programs: Education starfysh continues to make good strides in the area of childhood education. Our elementary school in the village of makochon continues to thrive: the school's teachers continue to be highly engaged in the teacher training conferences conducted by starfysh several times yearly. The village parents and leadership have embraced our vision for moving the school toward self-sustainability. The school's students continue to earn high scores in national standardized testing. Our graduated 6th graders are performing at the top of their classes in their secondary schools. The school's students continue to receive a nutritious meal (from 100% locally-grown food) every school day. Starfysh completed construction on phase-one on makochon's new school. The 3rd through 6th graders in our elementary school in makochon moved into their new facility. The pre-k through 2nd graders remained in their original school building and we began to raise funds toward the second building where they will hopefully move into next year. We continued to invest in our teachers through training seminars conducted by teachers visiting from the states.

agriculture life garden, starfysh's agriculture and demonstration farm, continued to see improvements as we move toward an eventual public opening. What just two years ago was a 3-acre brush field is developing into a beautiful campus of hundreds of trees, walking paths and learning stations. During the year we erected our first shade structure where we began nurturing tree seedling of various varieties and erected more rainwater catchment cisterns. We continued to distribute young moringa and almond trees to island farmers. Also during the year we took possession of yet another 3- acre parcel in the mountains where we will be able to mass propagate tree seedlings.

clean water water filters were installed in approximately 325 homes during the year, which represents an average pace of nearly one household per day receiving the gift of clean water. Follow up monitoring on these homes continues to prove high rate of compliance in each household's faithful use of their filter.

health our community health education (che) efforts continue to be a strong and effective model for touching the lives of families in the very remote villages on the island. Each month, our agents travel dangerous roads across long distances to personally visit people who would never be able to come to us. During these visits, people receive education on important principles in health, sanitation, hygiene, gardening and agriculture, clean water, and christian faith.