After wrapping a couple of performances in Washington DC for the CWB Washington DC Inner City Project, the CWB clowns are now in Sudan!
Elisa and Gwen took a two day flight to Nairobi where they met Gavin (from CWB South Africa) before making their way to Sudan. While in Nairobi they held two performances at Kibera (the largest slum in Africa) and Mathare slums for a total of 800 children.
In Sudan, the clowns will be holding performances and workshops for two weeks in Juba and Aweil in a wide variety of venues including orphanages, schools, hospitals, a juvenile prison and IDP communities.
In addition, the clowns will also be giving workshops to local educators and social workers from nongovernmental and governmental organizations to integrate play and laughter in their work.
Thanks to all of you who have participated in supporting us. We reached our budget in large part thanks to the April Fools Extravaganza.
We have already been receiving good feedback from this project. Below is an email we received from the facilitator of one of our performances while in Nairobi:
Dear Clowns Without Borders,
We had a wonderful experience today, I have not seen smiles on childrens
faces like today, and not just that, there was a lot to learn from the
experience. The attendace was much bigger than we had planned at such short notice: with number getting closer to 600, with students age between 4 and 19 years coming from the neighbourhoods of Kibera and other local schools on the Langata…. Liz, Kenya (Facilitator in Nairobi, May 17 2009)
A huge thank you goes to the International Rescue Committee which is facilitating much of the project in Sudan by providing accommodation and transport in both cities as well as organizing many of our performances. In particular, Lisa DiPangrazio, from IRC’s Child Protection and Youth Livelihood Program. Also, to Cathy Groenendijck-Nabukwasi, Director of Confident Children out of Conflict, a Sudanese child protection NGO, for organizing performances in Juba.
