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CWB returns to Haiti with four clowns (Selena McMahan, Marykristñ Simoneau, Bénédicte Monnaux and Jeff Seal) to work with War Child Canada for teacher training and performances in Port au Prince and Jacmel.

CWB has completed a most wonderful collaboration with Terre Des Hommes this spring!

We offered a 5 week training in Les Cayes and Grand Goave, bringing in 7 artists! We collaborated with Terre des Hommes for the second time, building on a project started in September 2010. Our volunteer artists taught (and played with) the same group of community leaders and children to continue the training in circus skills, physical comedy and the psycho-social relief.

Scrolling down this page you will find:
Project Description and Goals
Photos
Journals.

CWB USA and PSF Spain are working together again with Plan International. Kristi Hughes, Michael Oneill and Erin Crites will join Spanish clown, Pedro Izquierda to perform and provide workshops for children in Jacmel and Croix des Bouquets, Haiti.

This October, three CWB volunteers will go to Haiti to visit temporary camps run by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Port-au-Prince.

During the project, the clowns will hold 8-12 performances reaching 4,000-5,000 children and the broader community, a number of circus/theatre workshops with children and hold two half day training sessions for IRC educators in teaching circus and theatre games to build capacity for play activities to continue throughout the year.

Since Sept 4th Clowns Without Borders USA has been in the field working with Terre des Hommes, a child protection organization based in Port au Prince, Haiti and with field posts in Grand Goave (the epicenter of the January earthquake) and Les Cayes. We’ve been invited to do “a training of the teachers” work in clown, acrobatics, juggling and psychosocial support as it relates to play. For two weeks we’ve taught workshops in the mornings to child educators and then each afternoon we’ve worked with a group of 20 children, developing circus routines and playing games. The children we’ve been teaching have been featured guests in each of our performances.

In 2010 we were planning four projects in Haiti. These projects would have focused on performances for large and small audiences, workshops for street children in and around Port Au Prince, peer educators who go into their own communities to bring awareness to HIV and AIDS and local performing artists with hopes for empowering Haitians through physical theatre, clown and social circus. After the earthquakes that devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010, our focus shifted. We are now working with our international partners and local NGOs working in Haiti to bring small moments of relief to those affected by the trauma of the earthquakes.

Following the aftermath of the earthquakes of January 12, 2010, Clowns Without Borders international was approached by many organizations working on relief efforts in Haiti. Payasos Sin Fronteras (CWB-Spain) and Clowns San Frontieres (CWB-Canada) immediately sent groups to Haiti in mid-February. In March CWB USA in collaboration with PSF, Plan International, Handicap International and SOS Villages, sent two teams of artists to the work with children and adults whose lives have been devastated by the earthquakes.

A massive, 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti near the capital of Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, January 12th. The area has since felt many aftershocks making the effects of this disaster hard to fathom. We are doing our best to keep informed and provide assistance as needed. While smiles and laughter are important, at the moment medical aid, shelter, food and water take utmost priority. We hope that with your support we can raise awareness about the gravity of this disaster and mobilize people to support emergency relief efforts. After the earthquakes that devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010, our focus shifted. We are now working with our international partners and local NGOs working in Haiti to bring small moments of relief to those affected by the trauma of the earthquakes.

Sarah, Tim and Suzanne, along with Dianna and two filmmakers, are now in Cap-Haitien for one week and then off to Port Au Prince for the second week. The project will consist of performances and workshops. Sarah and Tim are thrilled to be returning to Haiti, this will be their first trip back since December 2007. This will be Suzanne’s first project with CWB.

Still in awe of the harsh living conditions that most in Haiti live in, Deven’s blog of Clowns Without Borders project to the poorest country in the western hemisphere attempts to capture some of the experience.