Indochina Starfish Foundation is hosting a series of thought leadership dinners in Sydney. The first event is in May, if you’re interested to join us please contact Dani Shannon.
Join us at the inaugural Indochina Starfish Foundation Thought Leadership event, for an evening of lively discussion on:

Australia’s ‘Asian Century’ aspirations – perspectives from Asia

Tuesday 14 May 2013
6pm for a 6:30pm start
Please note the new venue details:
SukJai Restaurant
415 Pitt [...]

Mekong University’s football pitch was the venue for this year’s tournament. There were 29 teams, including 2 teams from UWC East, Singapore and teams from Kampot, Banteay Meanchey, Battambang and Sihanoukville. 25 teams contested the U13 trophy while 4 teams worked each other over in the U10s tournament.
ISF is committed to children and young adults with disabilities. This year’s tournament had 2 deaf teams integrated and playing [...]

To try and avoid the hot weather, the girls tournament was brought forward to 23 February.
On a beautiful sunny morning, 25 teams descended on the Mekong University’s football pitch, with a big contingency of supporters from ISF’s two communities plus the local schools now participating in the football program. Two deaf and impaired hearing teams, Krousar Thmey BB (The Blue Dragons) and Krousar Thmey PP (The Hunters) participated in [...]

Thanks to Jo and Ian Brennan and a group of their friends, ten more children in Phnom Penh will be going to State School this year. Jo and Ian decided they’d make a difference, so they organised a fundraising dinner at their home in Sydney to support ISF’s Education Program.

Magnificent food and wine were served to 25 guests in the Brennan’s equally magnificent home on the evening of [...]

ISF has been very fortunate to have formed a great working partnership with United World College South East Asia. The benefits to ISF and the children we work with have been significant and the relationship we have with UWC goes beyond just financial giving. The advice, technical support and guidance we receive has made the relationship an invaluable asset to ISF.
This March the UWC East Parents Association will host ‘The [...]

Supporters of the Indochina Starfish Foundation (ISF) once again participated in the Angkor Wat Half Marathon and 10k races in December to raise funds for ISF’s wonderful education and football programmes for the needy children of Cambodia.
This year Leslie Brogan, Lou and Neil Cutler formed TEAM AUSTRALIA with the specific aim of funding ISF’s football programme for disabled children. Our pain was definitely the kids’ gain. In [...]

Sydney turned on a glorious day for the inaugural ISF Polo in the City Fundraising Event held in Centennial Park. Over 60 supporters of ISF attended the Marquee to raise funds for ISF’s work in Cambodia. Most of the supporters were new to Polo but not new to having a good time and so a fabulous day was had by all.

ISF regularly publishes Education Newsletters to keep sponsors abreast with the latest results and developments in our Education Programme. The latest issue is available on the “Education” tab of this website where you can also subscribe to the Newsletter to make sure you’re in touch.
Click here for the latest issue
Here’s some of the stories you can read more about in the Newsletter:
• ISF’s New School in the Chbar Ampov [...]

ISF was proud to hold it’s third football tournament for deaf players on Sunday 7 October. In spite of the typhoon that threatened to cancel the games, only light rain came for part of the day and they certainly didn’t dampen the players spirits.

ISF’s Boys Tournament for deaf players semi finals
The round robin stages of the competition saw Krousar Thmey PP 1 team battle against Krousar Thmey PP 3 team [...]

ISF opened its second Education Centre in September. Located in the Chbar Ampov district, it will use the programme so successfully developed by ISF at our Stung Meanchay Centre. Initially the Chbar Ampov Centre will serve 50 children from the local community but this will grow to 250 by 2016.

Chairman Peter Slater said “this is another amazing day for the ISF. Well done to (Country Manager) Kate Griffin, [...]

A group of Year 11 students from Sydney Girls High School in Australia recently had a “bake sale” in aid of ISF. The girls baked an impressive array of cakes and tarts for sale during a school recess. The quality was obviously top notch as almost everything was sold out in only 25 minutes! Over $800 was raised on the day and will be used to purchase educational [...]

Late last year our country manager Kate was told about a simple process that was being used in the slums of the Philippines to provide light to community housing during the day. It is a combination of water and ammonia mixed together in a clear bottle. The mixture, exposed to sunlight radiates a bright light.
ISF did a pilot last month at the Steng Meanchey community. Two of the fathers [...]

Fletcher Davies, an up and coming athlete in Sydney, decided that achieving his dream of competing in the world paddleboard championships was not enough: he wanted to raise money for the ISF children in Phnom Penh as well.

Earlier this year, his school was visited by some people from the Indochina Starfish Foundation (ISF). When one of them spoke on the lifestyle of all the kids there, he decided he really [...]

Leo Brogan reports on a recent visit to Kampot
Five Coaches, Samedy, Vatana and I set off for Kampot in southern Cambodia; we are visiting Chumkriel Language School (CLS). The aim of the football session is to introduce the CLS teacher/coach to ISF coaches, agree on a timetable for developing the CLS football program and having some fun with the children.
We did not expect to see the football fields under a [...]

Stuart Davy reports the ISF April Tour to Bangkok
This year, for the first time, ISF received an invitation to send a team to the Bangkok International Youth Football Festival, held annually at the end of the football season. The event is organized by the Bangkok Soccer league (BSL ) and was held at the sports fields of Bangkok Patana School on March 31 / April 1.

The event is mainly [...]

ISF regularly publishes a Football Newsletter to keep sponsors abreast with the latest results and developments in our Football Program. The latest issue is available on the “Football” tab of this website where you can also subscribe to the Newsletter to make sure you’re in touch.
Here’s some of the stories you can read more about in the Newsletter
The 2011/12 Football season ended with a flourish in March with our [...]

The Asia Business Council has donated US$3000 to ISF to be used for educational activities. These are royalties from a book that is about young Asians so the Council’s Trustees felt it was quite appropriate to donate the money to an organization like ISF that is designed to give some of Asia’s most vulnerable youth increased educational opportunities. Many of the contributors to the book pointed to education for the [...]

Helen Boycott, a friend of ISF Chairman Peter Slater, wanted to continue her support of ISF after she moved to Australia from the UK. So she organised a charity lawn bowls day in Sydney. Helen reports that it went very well on the day – the weather turned out to be fantastic, everyone had a great time and lots of people learnt more about what ISF does in Cambodia. [...]

A report from Leo Brogan
Saturday 11 February 2012 was a very exciting day for two of our longest serving teachers.
United World College East Campus, through the invitation from Mario Saez (UWC teacher), were to host Tith Prachnhary and Heng Sokkheng for a week. Ms Prachnhary was to spend five days in the UWC library learning systems, while Sokkheng was participating in Year 1, 2 and 3 class activities. [...]

The bus pulls up outside the hotel at 5.30am; it’s still dark but you hear the excitement of the ISF staff on board. It’s OK for them, they are only doing the 10klm run! Even in the dark you can see various ISF trustees silently questioning why they are doing the 21klm AGAIN!
The trip out to Angkor Wat is magic; a steady line of tuk tuks, buses, trucks, mottos [...]

Sunday 27 November 2011, it’s the start of the Barclays Capital League. What a glorious day!
I had the opportunity to be in Phnom Penh the week leading up to the League; what an amazing job Samedy, Vattana and the coaches did in organising the event, gear, teams, transport and weather!
The opening day is designed to be a fun day. It is a round robin so teams can clean the [...]

ISF held another highly successful and highly enjoyable fundraising dinner in November – this year to help finance the construction of our new Education Centre in Phnom Penh. One of our Trustees, Martin Cubbon, reports on the night:

Why change the winning formula? Nobody could think of a reason so we didn’t. This year’s party at East on 5 November followed the “fun, feasting and fund raising” formula [...]

The 3rd Barclays Capital ISF Youth League kicks off in Phnom Penh on Sunday 27 November. This season will see the addition of a second girls division and the introduction of a competition for U10 boys, bringing the total number of participating teams to 46. However the biggest change will come with the integration of deaf players into our weekly matches.

Following the success of the tournament for deaf players hosted [...]

The extraordinary success of ISF’s catch-up education program in the short period since its inception can be easy to overlook. A recent email report to Trustees from our equally extraordinary Country Manager Kate Griffin highlights the success of our school as well the enthusiasm and dedication of our wonderful staff. Well done Kate, Vicheka and all our school staff!
“So here we are 3 years since we sent our [...]

Over 140 ISF supporters raised over £30,000 last month at a gala dinner held at the imposing surroundings of Inner Temple, one of the four Inns of Court in Central London. Praising the extraordinary work of the organisers, ISF Chairman Peter Slater said “From start to finish it was a perfect ISF evening, fully reflecting our philosophy of making as big a difference to as many children as possible [...]

In June we brought you the story of Andrew Broomhead who celebrated his 50th Birthday by completing the “3 Peaks Challenge” in the United Kingdom. He used his achievement to raise funds for ISF’s children. Since then funds have continued to be received and in September, Andrew presented ISF’s Country Manager, Kate Griffin, with a cheque for a phenomenal US$72,000 towards our new school project!
In [...]

In August team members from our corporate supporter “The Cavalry” participated in the Sydney Pub2Pub Fun Run to raise money in support of ISF’s activities in Cambodia. Sturt Mclennan of The Cavalry said “Everyone is a little sore but spirits are high. Our team really felt like we were making a significant contribution for people in need. It’s great for us as a team, as individuals and for [...]

Yet again, the ISF children achieved the number one status at the local State School. Their high attendance rate, and study within the class enabled them to maintain ISF’s top position at the State School three years running!
Although all of these children were proud of themselves, more important was the discussions on how they wanted to celebrate their achievement. After lengthy debates, a unanimous decisions by all was that that [...]

In July ISF staff attended a Football Festival in Siounokville for over 400 disadvantaged children from M’lop Tapang, an NGO established in 1993 to help street children in the southern port of Cambodia. ISF recently developed a relationship with M’lop Tapang and provides technical support for their football programme.

ISF Football Manager Samedy and 5 of our coaches helped organise this three day event which gave them valuable experience in [...]

Recently, ISF football coaches attended a two-day course with Ragamuffin to better understand and manage difficult behaviours expressed by some children. Ragamuffin (a child protection training organisation) and ISF have been working together since December of last year and already many of our staff have been involved with their Art Therapy induction training.
Ragamuffin has developed Arts Therapy as a tool to reach out and heal the emotional and physiological [...]

Many children in Cambodia don’t have the opportunity to enjoy the activities that are taken for granted elsewhere in the world. ISF wants its children to have a childhood filled with great memories of fun activities – like visiting the Zoo. Here’s a report from Volunteer Alex Hammer about ISF’s recent trip to the Zoo.
After weeks of anticipation, it was finally the day all the ISF kids got [...]

Our thanks go to one of our supporters, Andrew Broomhead, who celebrated his 50th Birthday in June by completing the “3 Peaks Challenge” in the United Kingdom and used his achievement to raise funds for ISF’s children. Here’s a report on Andrew’s accomplishment.
What did he do?
Between Saturday 11 June and Sunday 12 June Andrew climbed three of United Kingdom’s major Peaks:
• Ben Nevis near Fort William in Scotland, (from [...]

ISF is delighted to have School Partners from around the world including the British International School Shanghai. Through these partnerships students learn about the challenges that children in Cambodia face and also how they can help our ISF children meet these challenges. A group of students from British International School Shanghai are currently visiting Phnom Penh – here’s the latest of their daily reports back home. Thanks [...]

Sam Schweingruber from SALT Academy will be taking 22 girls to Vietnam (8-15 June) to play in the Asian Football Confederation’s tournament, to be held in Ho Chi Minh City. The team will include 16 girls from the ISF/SALT football programme, with ISF’s own Song Channa, included in the team. At 11 years of age, Song Channa is entrenching herself in the National Team; last year travelling to [...]

Sunday 22 May saw the finals of the last two divisions of the Barclays Capital ISF Youth League 2010/11 season battle it out for their placement in the U17 and U14 divisions.
In the U14’s match, Maruhan Japan Bank (MJB) team met with the PKR team with a 3-6 result to PKR. PKR dominated the first half and finished it 4 goals up. This did not deter the MJB team who [...]

Our annual fundraiser, as part of the 16th Angkor Wat International Half Marathon, will start in front of Angkor Wat on Sunday, 4 December 2011.
This is a great ISF community event for everyone who supports or is a working part of the Foundation. We want 2011 to be even more successful than 2010.
The 2010 Half Marathon was held on Sunday 5 December 2010 and ISF had a record [...]

On 26 March, 22 U14 girls teams assembled at the Army Stadium to take part in the third such tournament, and the second sponsored by Barclays Capital. Besides teams from 6 Cambodian provinces, United World College, East Campus Singapore, sent 7 players over to Phnom Penh to play in the tournament. The balance of the UWC team was made up of girls from Andong Relocation Village; it was [...]

There were 25 U13 boys teams assembled on 19 March at the Olympic Stadium, 2 teams from UWC East Campus, Singapore, as well as teams from Siounakville, Siem Reap, Battambang, Kendal and Phnom Penh.

The format was 4 pools of round robin competition on quarter fields, 7 aside, 20 minute games which meant non-stop action. Everyone who attended the day were amazed at the skills displayed by these youngsters and [...]

The presence of two teams from United World College (UWC) East Campus Singapore, at the PricewaterhouseCoopers Cup on 19th March and 7 girls from UWC participating in the Barclays Capital Cup on 26th March gave the tournament an international flavour.
The boys arrived on the morning of the 18th, laden with “excess baggage”, being all the gear collected over the last few months by UWC teachers, parents and students. The [...]

Susan Edwards and Anthony Skillicorn led a 50 plus contingent of UWC students to ISF’s school on the afternoon of 24 March. The UWC students took over the school and ran art classes for everyone; ISF teachers, truck drivers and cleaners joined our children. The ISF Chairman, Peter Slater, could not believe how quiet the school was as everyone concentrated on t-shirt designs and arts and craft. [...]

After 4 months preparation which in itself was a logistical exercise for ISF/SALT, 22 young ladies were ready to embark on the trip of a lifetime, 7 days of football and social interactions in Singapore. None of this could have happened without fantastic support from sponsors:
Margot Marks, Craig Coutts, Mario Saeg and all the staff, parents and children of UWC East, Singapore who
provided accommodation, food, social activities, fundraising, transport, chaperones [...]

On Sunday, 7 November, the National Football Centre was host to the opening of the second Phnom Penh Youth League.
Early in the day, the laughter and smiles of around 700 young football players welcomed Kevin Burke, Managing Director Head of Distribution, Asia Pacific, representing Barclays Capital to open the new season with his speech. Also attending the day were team sponsors, Stuart Davy (Andong Community) from Singapore and Dubai [...]

ISF was recently successful in obtaining an Australian Sports Outreach Program (ASOP) Grant from the Australian Sports Commission. In addition to this, we received funding through the Direct Aid Funding (DAP) from the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh for the second year running.
The ASOP grant will be used to build the capacity of the staff and coaches who deliver our football training program (in partnership with the Football Federation [...]

The Human Rights Day is celebrated all over the world on 10 December. This year SALT Academy chose this occasion to celebrate a one day football festival in Banan Province, 24 klms from Battambang city.
Around 20 young female budding coaches organised the festival with the help of SALT coaches. For the girls it was the first time to schedule and plan such an event. Therefore everyone was [...]

February 2010 saw the expansion of our work to help the Stung Meanchey community. Realising that we would get better results with the children if we could assist the whole family, we commenced a pilot Adult Literacy Programme which we offered to the parents of the children attending our school.
There were initially 21 people (16 female and 5 male) registered to participate but only 11 actually commenced the course on [...]

20 August 2010, a football team selection of girls from ISF, SOS, PSE and CCOLT in Phnom Penh (PP) met at the Football Federation of Cambodia’s (FFC) ground to play an U18’s team from Kendal. The winner would qualify to play in the Womens National Championship organised by the FFC, which will be used as the selection vehicle for the U16 Cambodian team to tour Singapore, commencing on 21 November. [...]

In May 2010, Nick Stokes and the Ruby Murrays football team (Hong Kong) visited Cambodia to partake in their annual tournament. Each year this occurs in a country in South East Asia.
Their aim this year was not only to catch up with old friends and enjoy the game of football in a different country but also to make a difference while doing that – and what a difference they [...]

ISF is very proud to be part of a programme that is not only supporting the participation of females in playing football but also in coaching. In 2008, Leng Chanthy (affectionately known as Srey Mau) was promoted from her cleaning position with ISF to our coaching programme. This resulted from the passion she’s shown in working with the children and her interest in football. ISF supported her participation in the [...]

Realising the platform our Football Programme gives us to impart a powerful message to the children who participate and after careful research, we decided to introduce a programme to address one of Cambodia’s rising problems; Addictive Behaviours. Many of the youths here are becoming addicted to gambling, drugs, alcohol and other vices. These addictions have the potential to destroy any opportunity for them in the future.
ISF in partnership with SALT [...]

Sponsorship of a Football Team
The children and their teams who are now a part of the ISF programme have come from various places. We have partnered with a variety of non governmental organisations (NGO’s), particularly those involved in helping some of Cambodia’s most disadvantaged children. In addition we have built good relationships with various orphanages and schools. For each of these groups we have provided our football coaching programme free [...]

ISF are hoping to be able to help the parents and older siblings of the children we serve as well as other members of the community through an Adult Literacy Programme we are piloting in February 2010. The programme will run for 3 months with 20 participants from the community ISF works with. After this time we will assess the programme in if successful we hope to roll it out [...]

In January 2010 we were informed by the children in Grade 6 who we sponsor through Public School that they need to pass a sewing test at the end of July in order to pass the grade! The request was a timely one as Mrs Myra Markland (ISF Trustee) had raised $1,000 for us in December which we used to create a sewing room! We now have 6 sewing machine [...]

ISF have the plans to provide Computer Classes to all the children we serve through our Education Programme. At the moment we are building their English skills so that the computers classes will be easier to learn. We are hoping that we will be able to introduce this programme towards the end of 2010.

With the Football and Education Programmes expanding as fast as they are, ISF wants to ensure that everything we provide to the children here is done so in a safe environment. We have recognized the need for all our coaching and some of our school staff to have training in First Aid. Thanks to the very generous sponsorship of Mr Kevin Burke, we will be in a position to provide [...]

On 17th January 2010 the official Barclays Capital / ISF Youth League commenced in Phnom Penh. Thirty three teams are currently battling it out to win one of trophies awarded to the winners of each of the four divisions. Of the 33 teams, 28 are sponsored through the ISF Football Programme. We invited an additional 5 teams who are not sponsored by ISF but who do not have the opportunity [...]

Preparations are well underway for the Barclays Capital / ISF Girls Tournament which will be held on 13th March and the PricewaterhouseCoopers / ISF Boys Tournament on the 20th March.
This is ISF’s second year running a girls tournament and the third running the boys. This year both competitions have grown and we will have over twenty teams at each tournament. Teams will travel from Siem Reap, Battambong, Prey Veng and [...]