I personally know some people involved with them and donating their time to help out with shows in very risky areas of the world.

After hearing some of their stories I got a deep appreciation for the work they do, it might sound silly or borderline stupid to some people but to me it's such a beautiful social experience, to go into conflict areas, extremely poor regions of the world afflicted by disease and bring something that is pure joy to an audience that doesn't have access to that. There are some extremely beautiful souls volunteering for CWB, knowing their work won't solve any parts of their audiences' social situation but trying to give them inspiration to keep dreaming, I definitely feel something deep inside my soul was touched after meeting some of them.

Funny to see CWB here. I ran into CWB's founder Moshe Cohen[1] at FOO Camp back in the 2006[2]. His performance there was sweet and funny. I had a coffee with him post-FOO too.

IMHO there are few nobler acts than going into high-conflict areas to help people reconnect with the inherent humanity in shared experience and laughter. The work CWB is doing is beautiful.

1- https://moshecohen.net/about-2/

2- https://www.flickr.com/photos/dionh/226434543/in/photostream...

I used to work in the humanitarian sector, which is frankly a complete shit-show.

I once was drinking with our local EU humanitarian representative, a grizzled veteran of many missions. It's his job to oversee projects running on EU money, which is one of the largest chunks of any response. I really respected the guy, one of the smartest and capable people I met in the business.

He'd been in Haiti, which is famously one of the worst of the worst, and I asked him what the best piece of work he saw there was.

Without hesitation, he said it was these guys. Refugee camps can be bleak and miserable places, and he said that when CWB were doing their thing, the whole atmosphere lifted.

When we think about aid, we think about food and water and shelter, but we're dealing with normal people who've often been severely traumatised. It's hard to understate the value of work like this. Particularly when most of the aid-workers you encounter just wander around doing surveys asking the same questions the last lot did.

This took a solid ten minutes or so for my cynicism to die down, but I'm glad I took the time to read the comments because it is a deceptively good idea for people without a lot of hope or material benefits coming their way.

I wish them luck, this is probably a very difficult thing for volunteers to go and do

Finally a place where me and my fellow spring boot developers can call home

FWIW, they don't yet have a rating from Charity Navigator (note that this doesn't indicate anything negative, only that the org hasn't yet been evaluated):

https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/204102508

That said, I do hope they get vetted soon, this is such a worthy cause and absolutely warms my heart.

Friends of mine also went to Nepal with Clowns without Borders. They even did a documentary :-)

https://anita.bertolami.net/project.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74qK0n8kA-w

I just donated a small amount via paypal - their successful payment UX is just delightful. Feels unfair to call it a donation! :)

Neat. I've heard of celebrities doing USO performances for troops during wartime, but don't recall any organized effort to entertain people, say, facing disasters.

Thought this was going to be a picture of my executive team. Glad to see it is a much more worthy cause!

See also the Birthday Clown Consortium Price Guide: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-birthday-clown-conso...

I don't like clowns, but this is really nice for that people. great project I'm sharing it and donating something.

Anyway, is there somewhere, something like IT without Borders? To donate time or effort, our hands to build infraestructure for places wothout it?

To me clowns are just like kindergarden teachers, they make me cringe beyond belief even though I understand their target audience is successfully being taken care of. I am happy for their work but I never want to see one in action again

Between DWB and CWD, I feel like there would have been a huge opportunity here for Robin Williams, RIP.

this is so good its not funny.

Another similar concept I’m aware of is magicians without borders

Weren't these guys just in Davos?

I'm waiting for someone to mention how buying bed nets would be better but, in the mean time: their work is emotionally impactful and it's a great project.

just so long as it is not mime artists

So clownworld is real?

As someone afraid of clowns, this is a catastrophic failure of clown containment.

I figured the title referred to the US government or the board of Meta.

Why clowns?? Just setup some nintendos or something. ... The worst / funniest thing about clowns is the dunning kruger effect they all seem to have about their efficaciousness. Like the clown doctor in the 'childrens hospital' adult swim show.

Nice to see the World Economic Forum branching out with new branding.