Starfish Greathearts Foundation

Specialties

Starfish Greathearts Foundation is an international non-​governmental organisation formed in response to the tragedy of children orphaned or left vulnerable by the HIV/​AIDS pandemic in South Africa. Its mission is to help make a difference to the lives of these children through community based organisations working at grassroots level. This enables individual communities to develop their own solutions to the challenges they face. In the United Kingdom, Starfish aims to fund-​raise for their projects through sporting & entertainment events catered towards the public.

History

Established in 2001.

The Starfish story — This is the inspirational story that gave Starfish its name!

An old man had a habit of early morning walks on the beach.

One day, as he looked along the shore, he saw a human figure moving like a dancer. As he came closer he saw that it was a

young woman and she was not dancing but was reaching down to the sand, picking up starfish and very gently throwing them

into the ocean.

«Young lady,» he asked, «Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?»

«The sun is up, and the tide is going out, and if I do not throw them in they will die.»

«But young lady, do you not realise that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it? You cannot possibly

make a difference.»

The young woman listened politely, paused and then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the

breaking waves, saying:

«It made a big difference to that one.»