Arts and Culture Lebanon Project #51599

Relief through art and laughter in Lebanon

by Awrad Association

Relief through art and laughter in Lebanon

Project Report | Apr 6, 2023
Post earthquake

By Sabine Choucair | Clown Chief

Hello friends,

Here's a quick update to thank you for supporting us. Thanks to you we managed to perform in the North and in Beirut a week after the earthquake. Lebanon was not badly hit, there was no distruction but everyone felt it. People in the North ran out of their homes and spent their night outside. Many in Beirut did the same as well. There was a lot of anxiety and fear in that following week.

Clown Me In team felt the need to intervene quite quickly and thanks to your support we were able to send two teams, we did a total of 16 shows, reached 3000+ persons in Beirut and Tripoli.

few quotes from the tours

"You made people happy. God bless you and keep you in good health! And may you always have this great energy. I only saw the ending of your show and I feel happy and thankful. I wonder what it would be like if I saw the whole show?! I will go fetch my daughter and grandchildren to meet you at the Mina. I want them to be as happy as everyone who saw you here. " (87 years old Ali on his 87 years old bicycle)

Links:

the report Al-Jazeera made about our tour in Tripoli

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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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