Oranjestad – Aruba’s clown doctors, Jamilla, Hilde, Ellen, Lenie & Susanne who regularly entertain ailing children at the Dr. Horacio Oduber Hospital in Aruba traveled to Antwerp, Belgium recently to participate in a week-long workshop graciously offered by the Belgian Clinic Clowns.
The Aruban Clown Doctors were guests of the Hilton in Antwerp during their stay and while the week included visits to local children’s hospitals and oncology clinics it also offered quality down-time and entertainment.
Peter Ballière and Heleen Bongers, both founders of the not-for-profit Clown Doctors foundation here, escorted the humor-specialists on their trip and saw to it that the program featured equal amounts of learning & fun.
Valerie van Gastel & Jacques Peustjens, the Belgian Clinic Clown coordinators, put together a busy agenda with daily workshops teaching movement and mime, also covering all aspects of psychological hardship suffered by hospitalized children.
Workshop time was also devoted to acting and playing with children with serious multiple handicaps to try and relax their contact with the outside world. The clowns will find what they learned helpful when they conduct their weekly visits here at the local special school, Bibito Pin, in collaboration with SVGA, Stichting voor Verstandelijk Gehandicapten Aruba.
Some time was also dedicated to the needs of the elderly.
In the past few months, the Clown Doctors started visiting elderly people with psycho-geriatric disorders, institutionalized in the Aruban homes for the elderly.
Ballière explains that while the clowns take children’s minds off pain and difficulty, they also help them overcome fear and anxiety.
In the case of the elderly, Ballière adds, the clowns provide simple human contact, a visit, a smile, a warm word, alleviating the isolation and loneliness felt by residents of government institutions.
When you see a box with the Clown Doctor's logo on it, at the airport for example, please contribute, they are doing a great job for the community and deserve support . . .
Pictured here the Clown Doctors in Antwerp, enjoying the sites of the fantastic old city and the friendship of the Belgian Clinic Clowns and their coordinator Valerie van Gastel.
For more information about the Aruban Clown Doctors go to: www.clowndoctorsaruba.com
For more information about the Belgian clinic Clowns go to www.clinicclowns.be
