SubscribeTraveling opens one’s eyes – not only for the beauty of this world, but also for its inequalities and injustices. This was also the experience of Corinna-Rosa Hacker when she traveled through India in 2008. Fascinated by the colours of the country, but disturbed by poverty and the lack of opportunities for socially disadvantages children, she realised that everyone could contribute to the fight for equal opportunities for children all over the world. Within a couple of months, she gathered an agile community of young professionals from business, public administration, academia, arts and cultural affairs and set up the non-profit organisation “Stella*Finance” in Munich, Germany. They all share a vision that education is the basis for a life in independence. Meanwhile, Stella*Finance has developed into much more than a local endeavour; its network of members and active supporters stretches to Frankfurt, Berlin, Vienna, Zurich, Paris, New York, Delhi …
Street children in Delhi
The idea of Stella*Finance is rather simple: to provide a direct link between supporters and institutions offering basic education for those in need. As a registered charity, it raises money at various fundraising events, such as charity auctions and concerts, as well as by collecting in-kind and financial contributions and promoting and administering an individual child sponsorship scheme.
Due to the close personal relationship between its individual members and staff of the supported institutions – which Stella*Finance considers essential for securing the proper administration of funds provided –, there is also the possibility for volunteers to work on-site. In all its activities, Stella*Finance takes care to ensure the sustainability of the projects it supports; it restricts its activities to help to people to help themselves: Only locally run projects are supported.
The first project supported by Stella was the Delhi “Udayan Care” education centre for street children – orphans, kids that have been abused, abandoned. The centre does not only provide them with primary education, it also wants to enable them to live in a family-like environment by drawing on volunteer mentor parents. Its long-term objective is to reintegrate those kids into society. Udayan Care is currently taking care of more than 130 children, most of them girls, in nine different places.
Jamyang boarding school
Stella also supports the Jamyang boarding school in Leh, Kashmir (India), which is located in the Himalaya´s Ladakh region. The teaching staff comprises four teachers, two supervisors and one monk. In 2008, schooling started with 54 kids from most remote areas of the mountains; a new class of similar size has started in 2009.
The children have been selected in view of their needs: from the poorest families, often with parents not capable of raising their children properly, and not having any other chances to get primary education. The school supports in particular girls which are at risk of not being supported by their families at all.
Addis Ababa
Most recently Stella*Finance accepted to support a project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a vocational training school providing professional education to young girls coming from local orphanages. The project, initiated by the local NGO “New Life Community” and supported by other international partners, offers a three-years course for future administrative assistants, thereby giving the orphan girls a much better chance on the job market.
There are more projects currently under evaluation in accordance with Stella’s fundamental principles and its Code of Ethics, notably an educational programme for refugee kids in Munich, Germany, and an orphanage in Hanoi, Vietnam. And the team of Stella*Finance is eager to expand its help even more in providing education to children in need. Because, as the saying goes: “If you educate a child, you will educate an entire village.”
For updates see www.stella-finance.org