Arts and Culture Lebanon Project #51599

Relief through art and laughter in Lebanon

by Awrad Association

Relief through art and laughter in Lebanon

Dec 8, 2022

Ending the year on a positive note!

By Yara Zalzal - Fundraiser

Greetings, dear friends and supporters!

We are overly joyed to share how your support helped us draw smiles on people’s faces recently!

Several shows were in the books during the past few months, and our clowns Sabine, Samer, Riwa, Dima, Hisham, Youmna, Ramy, Jana and Steph strolled the streets of several villages around the country, especially focusing on the Beqaa this time, including the towns of Riyyak, Zahle, Anjar and Ghadir. We performed at the premises of several local CSOs including SOS Children’s Villages, Mouvement Social, Amel Association, Kayany Foundation, among others, and were able to reach more than 1000 children and 500 adults.

We have some beautiful and remarkable stories to tell you about how our performances had a positive impact on the people of those towns.

In one of the shows, we had to perform late at night and there was no electricity. The, the most beautiful thing happened: people lit the place with their phones because they were so eager to watch it and it was so emotional. It hit they to the core. People, including children and their parents, expressed that they really needed this drive away from reality.

There was this performance that we did as part of a memorial for a girl who had passed away in Qatar a while ago. She used to be with the scouts and loved clown shows, so they asked us to perform in her honor. It was so touching and meaningful. Also, the fact that she had passed away during a bus accident and that the first scene of the show portrayed a bus, was rather poignant because we tried to transform the sadness and mourning into something positive through our show. People were hopeful and largely appreciated the performance.

We shed some tears, they shed some tears.

We laughed, they laughed.

We danced, they danced.

We made each other feel alive.

That’s not all! We also started rehearsing for our upcoming shows taking place in Tunisia in December, to end our year on a positive note! Yes, you hear that right! We will be performing as part of the 35^th Neapolis Festival and started getting ready.

That’s about it!

How a small gesture can make the world a better place for people is truly incredible!

With supporters like you in our corner, it goes without saying that we will always keep spreading laughter to more and more people who truly need us. Together, we can make magic happen!

We pride ourselves to have supporters like you!

Thank you for your constant support!

We love you!

Links:

More on clown shows!

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Aug 10, 2022

Many shows and a tour with Clowns Without Borders in lebanon

By Clown Me In - Project Leader

Hello supporters

What a joy to send you this update about how we used your support lately.

We did offer many shows here and there in Lebanon and the highlight was a tour with Clowns Without Borders where Sabine, Stephanie, Ramy and Riwa from our team joined Naomi from CWB USA and toured for 4 days - we offered 9 shows, some were in public spaces with more than a thousand people watching and some were in orphanages and smaller centers. We reached a total of 3045 people and we got sooooo many laughs.

here's one diary enry from Sabouny:

"Have you ever played this game where you scroll your hand up ur face and your face becomes a “happy one” then you scroll it down and it becomes a “sad face”?

Parading in the small streets of Mina, following the scout group who were playing music, passing by the old houses and buildings that are barely still standing, pitch dark inside, poverty and sadness of a town that was once way happier than today… We met old and young people on the way.

So many super short encounters gave me goosebumps. That smile and happy breath of the old man with green tired eyes in front of his shop. The welcoming of the three men playing cards. The woman behind me shouting “she’s totally crazy this girl”, then laughing hysterically and just dancing like me. The many families who followed us with their kids and put them on their shoulders to be able to see the show. The loud laughters, oh how I wish I could just freeze the time on these moments and keep everyone in this happy place.

Today we did two shows, one for 1400 kids and adults and another for 350. And I felt We were this hand going up so many faces.

Ohhh the faces,

the joy,

the laughter

despite everything

makes my heart melt.

Thank you for your support

Please keep spreading the word about our work and keep supporting us when you can and however you can.

we love you
you too melt our hearts

Links:

Laughter

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Apr 14, 2022

Shows and shows and shows

By Clown me In - The clowns

We can't thank you enough for supporting us to keep doing what we do best; Spread laughter and joy in different communties.

With your support we were able to offer more than 10 performances lately to different communities around the country. With the econimic situation getting worse by the day, people are in desperate need for laughter and for free events they could go to.

Last week, we had the most brilliant performance. Two new clowns started their journey with us. The energy was fantastic, the level of play was beyond and the kids of SOS village were the most adorable, fun, playful kids ever. They danced, they hooped, they sang, they laughed out loud non stop and most of all they were just as silly if not sillier than us. Kids of the SOS village are from Syria and lebanon, most of them have been orphaned because one of those endless wars we’ve been enduring in the Middle East for the past xxx number of years.

And that day was yet another reminder that war is horrible. No matter who you are and where you are, the repercussions of war are more horrible that war itself.

Always thankful to be able to do what we do. and always thankful for your support

thank you.

Please tell your family and friends about us. Every penny helps :)

lots of love

the clown team

Links:

about our clown shows

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Dec 10, 2021

End of an amazing tour with Payasos Sin Fronteras

By Clown Me In - project leader

Two of our clowns ( Sabine and Ghalya ) along with two clowns from Barcelona ( Denguito and Moi) have had an amazing time touring the South of Lebanon reaching more than 2000 kids and adults.

Big laughs, some tears and a lot of joy were part of the experience.

In the words of our clown boss

"We did three shows today. The whole day felt like an explosion of happiness. I was performing with clowns I love, we performed for kids and adults who’s laughter, happiness, engagement and amazement transported me to this dream-like world. I just didn’t know what to do with it all. I wanted to hug and thank each person, thank them for the happiness and love they gave me. Hug them tight so we could double and triple these wholly feelings. Because why not? We all deserve this.

But I had to keep it small obviously and instead I came home, hugged my little daughter for a very very very long time before she went to bed.

Thank you world. Sometimes you’re very kind"

And in the words of an old woman in an old people's house they visited:

“You brought us back to life“

We are doing a lot more thanks to your support and we love you for that.

This month we are offering a free show for every show bought.

Please spread the word, tell people about our work and have wonderful and happy holidays.

Links:

Pay it forward

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Aug 11, 2021

Report Relief through art and laughter in Lebanon

By Sabine Choucair - President

Comic Relief Tour 2021

A short report to thank you again and again for your support!

As you know, this year, Lebanon has been the spotlight for the third biggest economic crisis in the world. The scars of the Beirut blast still fresh, the Lebanese Lira in a free fall since 2019, a blind-eye turned on the people, laughter, art and play is needed now more than ever, and the demand for collective safe spaces is increasing exponentially by the day.

Thanks to you and other supporters and funders, we have been able to keep doing what we do best, spreading laughter and working on the streets with different communities. We even increased our work on the ground.

CAPE 2020

Our Creative Arts for Peace and Equality comprises 20 workshops, each one targeting 10 participants from vulnerable and disadvantaged communities, and sharing with them arts and social therapy based tools, offering them a safe space to express themselves, vent, and a medium to “speak up”. This workshop allows them to become trainers for young people in their local communities, helping them change and deal with their harsh realities, through the medium of art.

We worked with 188 beneficiaries, 12 local artists and 3 international artists

Comic Relief Tour

Clown Me In performed 81 times in areas affected by the blast, reaching more than 5,550 people, and offering smiles of relief to people whose loved-ones, homes and mental health were destroyed by the explosion.

The tours were the most challenging, for the need for art and laughter had never been higher.

Our favorite story is that among the audience, in Sin El-Fil, there was a little girl who completely stopped talking after the explosion. After watching the show, she ran back to her house and told her dad all about it. She talked!

We worked with 12 artists, did 81 shows, and reached an audience of5529 people.

We love you and are thankful for your support. Please keep spreading the word about our work, and follow our news on our social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and visit our website!)

We have more shows planned for the commemoration of the 4th of August, more workshops with more members of the community and we would love to be able to keep spreading joy in this dim situation!

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