Keep hope alive

Starfish Story

The adoption of the starfish as the logo of the Stay Alive program was inspired by the following story. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of HIV/AIDS deaths and AIDS orphans in Africa, but just as in this story, Stay Alive is committed to make a difference -- one life at a time.

Each morning as the tide receded, a young boy would walk along the beach picking up starfish from the drying sand. Abandoned by the water, the starfish were sure to die in the growing heat. But the boy would toss each starfish he came upon back into the cool and calming waves.

A passerby shook his head at the boy’s slow pursuit and grunted, "Don’t bother, child. there are thousands of those starfish. They go on for miles. You cannot possibly make any difference throwing them back into the ocean."

But the boy, cradling another small creature in his hand, tossed it back to the sea and simply replied, "It made a difference to that one."