Burma has been largely cut off from the western world for decades. Dictatorship, poverty, and disease have had devastating effects on the southeast Asian country.  Four years ago, Christian and Ilse Runge, a German couple from the state of Saarland, began helping children in Burma. They have been trying to get them off the streets and back to school to help them get vocational training. In their native Saarbrücken the Runges founded a non-profit organization 'Förderverein Myanmar e.V.' They've since acquired over 100 sponsors for Burmese children and used their own money to build schools and wells under the motto 'Help for self-help.'

A camera team accompanied a delegation of the organization in late 2004  on a two week long tour which took them to Mandalay, Bagan, Rangoon, and the Indian Ocean. They were able to document the committment and success of the Saarland initiative.

The film shows the cordial reception the group received as well as the gratitude of the foster-children, whose lives have been changed dramatically by the aid from Germany. The organization has more plans, such as helping to enlarge a convent school. But this charitable work is often difficult, highlighting underlying cultural and religious tensions. It is not easy to bring the aid where it is needed without disturbing the century-old local social structures.

Due to the current political conditions in Burma it was impossible to get official permission for the shooting of the film. In spite of that an intimate portrait of people in a largely unknown country -- a country of beautiful landscapes and priceless monuments, temples and pagodas -- has been made.

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