A SHORT DOCUMENTARY

EMPOWERING YOUNG IDPs IN UKRAINE

RED NOSES
Emergency Smile

Supporting the youth, who were affected by the Ukraine conflict, has been a main objective for RED NOSES for many years already. Partnering with the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, they seek out for these young people to provide them with psychosocial support through humour. 

RED NOSES brings positive emotions to the children, through humour, respect and empathy. The professional clowndoctors work with the children over a period of several days to create a grand circus performance. The show’s theme will be inspired by the young participants and their newfound creativity. Often, the narrative explores emotions of feeling at home or a sense of belonging. These themes often elicit strong emotional reactions from the audience and draw a large applause from family and loved ones at the show. 

After meeting the basic humanitarian needs, it is important not to forget the necessity to provide this internal displaced people with the needed psychosocial support. 

Most times these people have lost everything, witnessed and survived armed conflicts and now live in dire and stressful situations. 

On the other hand, children, very often, are too small to understand the traumatic incidences that so heavily affect their families’ lives, and consequently cannot process them adequately using words. With the artistic and interactive clown interventions, the children are given the possibility to express their feelings in a playful manner. 

The clowns can trigger a shift of focus, concentrating on the positive, the strength and the abilities of the children. The reconnection to positive feelings helps to regain resilience and hope. 

This way the clown interventions have an important impact on the emotional wellbeing of parents and other relatives, too. The families of the children feel relieved and less tense when they see that their children can laugh despite the hardship. 

Laughter is crucial in seemingly hopeless circumstances as it liberates the ability to feel emotions again. The clown succeeds in doing this without forcing to re-experience hurtful feelings.

Every year, international teams of RED NOSES clowns do several Emergency Smile missions in crisis areas in different countries to uplift people through humour sustainably.

"KASPERN GEGEN
DEN KRIEG"

"Traumatisierte Kinder in der Ukraine"

 - Eine Reportage von Till Mayer