For Ilse Beckers, director of CliniClowns, these are exactly the moments that matter. \u201cWe can't make someone better,\u201d she says. \u201cBut we can improve the experience of care with the lightness our clowns bring.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCliniClowns is a wonderful charity,\u201d says Ilse. \u201cWe work with 103 professionally-trained actors who have fully mastered the clown profession. The clown is a very old archetype. We have translated that to the care environment, where tension, anxiety and stress are often high. With humour, play and contact, we try to counter that.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Ilse, it is not about entertainment, but something deeper. \u201cWe call it the power of laughter. If you are a child in hospital, it can be very exciting. We can help make that hospital experience more bearable. Through play and contact, we let children be children again for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
CliniClowns usually work in pairs. This is deliberately set up that way. \u201cA child in a hospital bed doesn't always feel like a clown right away,\u201d Ilse explains. \u201cThat's why our clowns first create play with each other. That feels safe. Meanwhile, they see what the child wants and where there is room for contact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beforehand, the clowns coordinate with healthcare professionals on what they need to know. \u201cIf a child is nauseous, just coming out of an operation or has to undergo one, they know that. With that information, they go into the ward and see room by room what is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sometimes play arises from something very small. \u201cA small movement, a look or a gesture from a child can be all the beginning. The clowns build on that. Then sometimes you really see a transformation in the room. A child who was anxious at first suddenly dares to join in. It can be as simple as blowing bubbles and popping them together. But it can also grow into a whole musical chaos in a room where it was quiet and tense before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only children are visited. CliniClowns also visit people with dementia. \u201cThat requires a different way of playing,\u201d says Ilse. \u201cOur clowns learn a lot about the target group before they work there.\u201d<\/p>\n
She recalls a moment that particularly touched her. \u201cElderly people were sitting in a living room and these residents were mostly introverted. A clown sat down next to an elderly lady. She lifted her hand, and the clown imitated that. This created a game with their hands. It was very small, but you could see her eyes light up again. There was a connection and that moved me immensely.\u201d<\/p>\n
CliniClowns receives no subsidy and relies entirely on donations. \u201cWe have a lot of people who support our organisation very faithfully. They are the foundation under our organisation,\u201d Ilse explains. \u201cBut business partners are also hugely important. Donations like Xolv's are substantial and make it possible to develop new projects and continue our work.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The hospital room is quiet. A little boy sits on his iPad, his father beside him. Everything feels heavy. Then two CliniClowns enter. They don't make direct contact yet, but create play with each other. Cautiously, probing. They see what is possible in the room. Slowly, space is created. The little boy doesn't have to do anything. The clowns involve his father in their play, and what starts small grows into something bigger. The father puts on a red clown nose and gets carried away. The little boy looks up, starts laughing, louder and louder. What started as a quiet, tense room turns into a place full of lightness and energy.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":8827,"template":"","onderwerp":[20],"class_list":["post-8826","nieuwsitem","type-nieuwsitem","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","onderwerp-algemeen-economie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xolv.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nieuwsitem\/8826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xolv.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nieuwsitem"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xolv.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/nieuwsitem"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xolv.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xolv.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"onderwerp","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xolv.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/onderwerp?post=8826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}