The_Mirror_Foundation
The Mirror Foundation, formerly known as Mirror Art Group, is a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in northern Thailand in the Chiang Rai Province's sub-district of Mae Yao, Mueang Chiang Rai District. The organization's aim is to help hill tribe people in the area with issues such as citizenship, drug abuse, erosion of culture, and the trafficking of women and children. Founded in 1991 by Mr Sombat Boonngamanong, the foundation has for over 15 years worked to promote the rights of the hill tribes. With its bannok.com website, it has recruited local volunteers and donations to help hill tribe villages.
The organization and its website, which is among "the most popular" in Thailand according to the 2006 book Empowering Marginal Communities with Information Networking, are cited as examples of the effective use of the Internet to "facilitate indigenous peoples' access to the political arena and...raise awareness about indigenous peoples' issues at the national level."[1] The 2001 book Towards Financial Self-reliance: A Handbook on Resource Mobilization for Civil Society Organizations in the South featured Mirror Group as a case study in mobilizing resources for community development through the internet.[2]