The Starfish Project

who we are

Making a difference to each individual

A Buddhist monk was on the beach with his apprentice the day after a fierce storm. Thousands of starfish had been washed up and were stranded on the shore. Stooping down, the monk carefully lifted a creature and returned it to the sea. His young disciple wondered aloud why his master bothered to do this when it made little difference to the mass of helpless creatures. As they walked along, the monk picked up another single starfish and gently replied, "It makes a difference to this one," as he returned it to the sea.

With this motto, the Starfish project was born.

what we do

The Starfish Project, founded in Sihanoukville in 2000, is a community-based humanitarian organization. We focus on facilitating disadvantaged Cambodians with access to existing social services and when such assistance is not available, providing them ourselves. Starfish’s activities include medical care, housing projects, business start-ups and community workshops.

Starfish also provides employment opportunities for disabled Cambodians. All of our outreach workers and bakery/café and massage employees suffer from some form of physical disability, making it difficult for them to obtain meaningful employment elsewhere.

The profits from the Starfish Bakery & Café cover administrative overhead, so donations are used solely to help disadvantaged people. In addition, the café provides a relaxing environment where tourists can learn about our projects while enjoying fresh, delicious food such as home-baked bread, good coffee and our famous brownies and cookies. In 2004, we opened Sala Santepeap Massage Centre and in 2006, the Starfish Wireless Internet Centre.