As promised in the description section of one of our last strips, I made a large donation to the German division of the Italian charity Help without Frontiers (Helfen ohne Grenzen) today. Despite its somewhat generic name, the charity’s sole mission is to help Burmese refugees in Thailand who have been forced to flee Burma/Myanmar by the tyrannic military regime.
As their main project, Help without Frontiers funds schools for around 6,400 students in the border region, and provides meals for the students. On top of that, they sponsor a clinic and a sewing workshop which provides employment opportunites for some of the adult refugees.
If you have a look at their financial reports you can see that they are very careful with their limited financial resources (the total income of the charity in 2009 was 669,672 €, and they spend 473,740 € for projects) and that their administrative costs are usually around 10% (the net costs for administration in 2009 were 56,602 €, in 2008 they were only 31,277 €, but they had to hire a full-time employee) which is a very good number for a charity of any size.
If you want to support Help without Frontiers yourself, you can find the relevant information on these pages:
- Information for donators in Germany
- Information for donators in Austria, Switzerland and Trentino-Alto Adige
- Information for donators in other countries
Here is a list of all our Burma related strips.
![[0249] Crash](/comics_archive/2011-02-28-0249-crash.png "Click for full size.")
“Why, Ms. Sparkle? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep helping your friends? Do you believe you’re getting something in return? More than a thank-you? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it apples? Or good weather? Perhaps dresses? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Illusions, Ms. Sparkle. Vagaries of pony-ception. The temporary constructs of a feeble pony intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without sadness or despair. And all of them as artificial as the Maretrix itself, although only a pony mind could invent something as heartwarming as love. You must be able to see it, Ms. Sparkle. You must know it by now. You can’t win. It’s pointless to keep helping your friends. Why, Ms. Sparkle? Why? Why do you persist?”![[0250] Savior](/comics_archive/2011-03-03-0250-savior.png "Click for full size.")
