ISF - Indochina Starfish Foundation Australia

The Indochina Starfish Foundation (ISF) helps some of the poorest, most disadvantaged children in Cambodia.

ISF believes that Cambodian children living in extreme poverty can build a brighter, more sustainable future when they have access to quality education, healthcare and sport.

We offer a fast-track education programme to almost 700 disadvantaged students living in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, who have either never been to school or who have had to drop out due to extreme poverty. Our programme condenses two years of education into one year to enable students to ‘catch up’ to the correct grade for their age and enter state school after completion. Once enrolled in state school, we offer students ongoing support to complete their primary and secondary education.

We also believe that valuable life lessons and opportunities can be found outside the classroom and currently run Cambodia’s largest grassroots community football programme. Opportunities to play sport competitively are limited for the majority of Cambodian children and opportunities for children with disabilities to play sport in Cambodia are almost non-existent.
Our inclusive football programme comprises almost 4,000 young players of all abilities We offer weekly training sessions and integrate social impact training, covering topics such as substance abuse, gender equality, children’s rights and many more relevant issues related to the communities where we work. In addition, we run a number of annual tournaments, festivals and a youth league.