Posted by Shelby G
on April 28, 2020
Thank you Starfish Project community. Thank you for reaching out, sending care packages, playing bingo, and reminding us that we have community all around the world. Thank you for supporting the women and work of Starfish Project with each purchase during a season we know is also uncertain for you. Your unwavering support has allowed us to encourage many of the women of Starfish Project who have been battling old voices of fear and hopelessness during this time. For that we thank you.
This week our Riverside Branch Director sat down to counsel a woman who recently escaped a life of exploitation and joined Starfish Project. Just months ago she left the only life she had ever known and stepped into freedom. Throughout that process she battled, really fought, with fears that she couldn’t learn, fears that she would just end up back where she began, yet she bravely decided to hope anyways. As COVID-19 hit Asia our offices were required to close for our own “shelter in place” orders and her fears seemed to ring true.
Even now as our offices have reopened we are only allowed to have half our staff working at any given time due to local virus prevention requirements. The uncertainty of this situation has understandably triggered fears once again for a number of our women. They fear that in the face of a pandemic they will be lost once again. Each purchase is a seed of hope for the women of Starfish Project. Thank you for being heroes of hope to all of us at Starfish Project during this time. Thank you for restoring hope.
Author: Shelby Gleadow
Shelby is the Asia Director of Sales & Marketing Development at Starfish Project. She believes stories have the power to bridge people around the world and connect us to something bigger than ourselves. Having called Asia home for more than 20 years after growing up in Austin, Texas, she loves connecting people with the women and artisans behind every Starfish Project piece. When she's not working, she's raising her two energetic boys alongside her artist husband, traveling, or chasing the next adventure—hello, Enneagram 7!
