Clowns in South Africa tap into the healing power of happiness

Record ID: 1354452

  • Title: Clowns in South Africa tap into the healing power of happiness
  • Date: 31st August 2018
  • Summary: FEET OF CLOWNS VARIOUS OF CLOWNS SINGING
  • Embargoed: 14th September 2018 16:36
  • Keywords: medical clown clown doctor laughter patients hospital
  • Location: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
  • City: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Health/Medicine
  • Reuters ID: LVA0028VIQE6V
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: This group of clowns is spending the afternoon with children at a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa.
    The troupe wants to amuse and entertain the sick and lift patients' spirits.
    The clowns visited various hospitals in the city as part of training in medical clowning, a skill that promotes use of laughter as part of therapy for patients.
    "When the clowns are here they start playing around like forgetting that they have pains and everything. I like that," said Portia Molokomme, a parent at the hospital.
    The students all have a background in theatre arts and have been attending a 10-day workshop by Dr. Amnon Raviv, the first person to ever earn a doctorate in medical clowning in the world.
    Raviv works as a clown doctor in Israel and was in South Africa in August to help a newly launched NGO, Dr. Heartbeat, set up its medical-clown training program.
    "We give here the training's, the fundamentals of the work, then they should take it you know and because the clowns here are from South Africa then we know how to adapt it in a better way to the environment of the hospitals here. But here in the training we have ten days training, is just the fundamentals that are everywhere," said Raviv.
    "I am setting up a profession of medical clowning because I believe South Africa has a multitude of talents in this country. We have a lot of unemployed youth who we are targeting to train. We hope to create jobs opportunities for those people who are unemployed," said Adi Shachar, founder of Dr. Heartbeat.
    The performers learnt various tricks, games, songs, jokes and how to use props and make-up to present funny episodes to patients.
    There is very little research into the connection between laughter and disease remission but some clinical studies have shown that it raises oxygen levels in the lungs, lowers blood pressure and reduces the stress hormone, cortisol.
    Laughter is generally seen as a natural anti-stress mechanism.
    "I see myself using medical clowning to just lighting up the process for the sick and those medical staff, not just the sick but the medical staff, because they need a lot to laugh about because there is always this tension, they always working hard," said student, Sizwe Vilakazi.
    "We are going there to make them feel better, not going to heal them like to be in the good they don't know that, we know that the pain is there but we are not going to take the pain, but we are going to remove their mind there where they are knowing that it was stuck in this. So it's going to be a good thing," said student, Hezyl Mashao.
    Clown care has long been used at medical centres in Israel, the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia, usually in children's hospitals.
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