For 13 years, Doctor Clown Dnipro has been making sick children laugh in Ukraine's largest children's hospital. Now they perform in bomb shelters, in basements turned into wards, and in shelters for displaced families. War took the children's homes - but it won't take their childhood. Help us keep the clowns working.
In Dnipro, Ukraine - 70 km from the front line - children with cancer, burns, and war injuries are wheeled into hospital basements during air raids several times a day. Our shelter has hosted 1,600+ displaced families, many with kids traumatized into silence. Doctors heal bodies, but the fear, anxiety, and stolen childhood war creates require psychological first aid. Without it, an entire generation of Ukrainian children faces long-term PTSD and developmental harm.
Doctor Clown Dnipro - trained medical clowns operating since 2012, recognized by Italy's Soccorso Clown association - visits the Regional Children's Hospital, our IDP shelter, and humanitarian hub 4-5 days a week. Through clowning, music, art-therapy, face-painting, and magic, they reduce kids' stress hormones, ease pain, and help traumatized children speak and play again. Two teams reach ~800 children a month. Funds cover stipends, supplies, transport, and the Clown School for new volunteers.
Childhood happens once. Children who endure war without play, color, or laughter carry that loss into adulthood. Medical clowning is proven to reduce PTSD symptoms, speed medical recovery, and improve long-term mental health. We are building permanent psychosocial first-aid capacity in Ukraine - a trained team, a training school, hospital partnerships, and 13 years of methodology. When the war ends, our team will be one of the first lines of psychological recovery for an entire generation of Ukr
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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