7 clowns, 2 weeks, 8 shows, 1880 children and families, over 2000 km traveled from Guayaquil to Esmeraldas, Tulcán, Ibarra, and innumerable smiles—Clowns without Borders USA had the joy to partner with UNHCR/ACNUR, CDH, and Narices Rojas and share smiles with some of Ecuador’s 56,000 refugees. The mission of Clowns without Borders is simple, to share smiles with children and families living in zones of crisis around the world. We work to partner with organizations embedded in crisis zones and local artists to develop clown shows, theatre spectacles and workshops. Our recent project with UNHCR was successful on many levels. The most poignant being that we were able to mobilize shows to remote regions of Ecuador, proving that laughter and the arts can be non-discriminatory based on location, nationality or background.
Read on in the updates below for our accounts and insights on this memorable expedition. And even if you don’t speak Spanish, this video by UNHCR/ACNUR is worth watching just to get a sense of how clowns perform without depending on language:
Photos from the field:
