Starfish Project is a non-profit with a social enterprise that cares for women and girls escaping human trafficking and exploitation. Established in 2006, Starfish Project has been actively engaging exploited women and girls, first through outreach and then by inviting them into the Starfish community. Once a part of Starfish, women participate in their Holistic Care Program and work in their social enterprise jewelry business.
Purpose
At Starfish Project, they help exploited women and girls experience freedom, establish independence and develop careers and our vision is to see every woman valued.
From the beginning, they have had the mission of helping women escape a life of exploitation by training them to develop meaningful and healthy careers making jewelry, doing administration, photography, accounting and graphic design. They make and sell their products solely so that they can continue to provide a safe, healthy and honoring livelihood for all of the women who they currently employ, while also seeking to reach greater numbers of women and expand to other locations.
People
At Starfish Project, all of the women in our programs are former victims of trafficking who have joined Starfish to find freedom. Most of their artisans come from rural areas, where families often lack value for young girls. Normally they do not receive proper education due to poor rural schools or having to go to work for their families at a very young age. For financial reasons, they have been forced to work at brothels, sometimes as a result of being cheated or tricked by their relatives. In contrast to the challenges faced because of this, at Starfish Project these women have the opportunity to experience freedom from exploitation, establish their independence and develop fruitful careers, creating generational life transformation.
Planet
Starfish Project takes special care when selecting their raw material suppliers, intentionally checking that they abide by local environmental laws and have undertaken certifications such as recycling and production safety. They also pay close attention to their production practices both for environmental sustainability and the safety of their staff. In the past they have turned down partnerships because of their unsafe and unsustainable plating practices, instead choosing to ensure that all of their jewelry uses ionic plating which is better both for the individuals working with it and the environment. They recycle as much as possible, and are increasingly using recycled cards for their packaging.
