“When we started our application, we wondered, would the embassy even take our work seriously? We are delighted that they recognized the importance of play in education. Children learn through play. Especially for children who have experienced trauma or live with high levels of stress, play is essential.” — Naomi Shafer, CWB
Clowns Without Borders & Corporación Humor Y Vida awarded grant from US Embassy, Quito
Clowns Without Borders was recently awarded $39,925 of grant funding by the Public Affairs Section,U.S. Embassy Quito, Ecuador to support a joint program with Corporación Humor Y Vida. This program has two main objectives. The first is a cultural exchange between Clowns Without Borders and Corporación Humor Y Vida. CWB will provide artist training and capacity building to the Ecuadorian-based organization. Together, the organizations will create an original performance about the Rights of The Child, which they will tour throughout Ecuador.
Clowns Without Borders has 30+ years experience producing over 150 tours in 40 countries bringing experiential learning and psychosocial interventions to post-conflict zones throughout the world.
Clowns and Public Affairs
“We are thrilled to receive this grant and to strengthen our partnership with Corporación Humor y Vida,” says Naomi Shafer, Clowns Without Borders Executive Director. “The two organizations share a vision of using art to leverage social change, this grant allows us to hire and train artists in both countries to develop a program to teach about the Rights of The Child.
“It is easy to dismiss our work as a joke,” Shafer continues. “When we started our application, we wondered, would the embassy even take our work seriously? We are delighted that they recognized the importance of play in education. Children learn through play. Especially for children who have experienced trauma or live with high levels of stress, play is essential.”
Corporación Humor y Vida
For the past ten years, Ecuadoran NGO Corporación Humor y Vida (CHV) has utilized alternative education methods of theater, circus, clown, puppetry and other art forms to deliver human rights education to at-risk communities. Simultaneously they have supported democracy and security in border communities by working closely with local governments and providing alternatives to youth recruited by armed groups. Lastly, they have offered psychosocial opportunities for play and creative expression bringing performance and workshops to communities which have never received these types of opportunities from other sources.
“As “Humor y Vida” Corporation we are very happy and grateful to be able to count on the support of the CWB and the United States Embassy in Ecuador for being able to carry out our XII Edition of the Festival Revuelta a la Mitad del Mundo Por Una Cultura de Peace and build bridges of dialogue and cultural exchange between Artists from the United States and Ecuador with tools that contribute to educational processes and cultural integration between the Ecuadorian population and the population in a situation of mobility and the Ecuadorian population
COVID in Ecuador
COVID-19 has struck hard in Ecuador exacerbating existing inequalities in access to education while increasing instances of human rights violations, especially gender–and-family-based violence. Vulnerable populations – in particular immigrants and refugees from Venezuela and Colombia – have been hit hardest.
