- Title: SYRIA: Exiled Iraqi clowns entertain Iraqi refugee children in Syria
- Date: 4th March 2008
- Summary: (MER-1) DAMASCUS, SYRIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF 'HAPPY FAMILY CLOWNS' PERFORMING AT COMMUNITY CENTRE, DANCING AND SINGING FOR THE CHILDREN
- Embargoed: 19th March 2008 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Lifestyle
- Reuters ID: LVAC04KW2N5O3W9F9Y8LBGMYKR7H
- Story Text: At a community centre in the al-Sayedah Zeinab suburb in Damascus, one of the areas in the Syrian capital most populated with Iraqi refugees, the Happy Family Clowns group performs for Iraqi refugee children living in Syria.
The group, made up of Seif, Rahman and Ali, aim is to entertain children who are all too familiar with war and violence.
Seif, one of the clowns, said the group's main concern was to reach Iraqi refugee children who carry with them the psychological scars of war.
"We try to focus on areas with which the Iraqi child can identify, because the Iraqi child comes from an environment of war and we try and remove that from inside the child and give them other things so that they can move forward along with their father and mother," said Seif.
Established in 2004, Happy Family Clowns was set up in Iraq with the hope of providing some of the war-torn country's children with a measure of relief from the violence that had become part of daily life in Iraq.
The group began to receive death threats, warning them against continuing with their work in Iraq. They ignored the warnings and continued working in Iraq until a member of the group was killed. What was initially a four-man group became a three-man group, prompting the Happy Family Clowns to flee from Iraq.
The group travelled to Jordan first but then moved on to Syria, where many Iraqis have found refuge from the war over the past few years. The clowns refused to give their family names for fear members of their families in Iraq would be harmed.
On reaching Syria, the three men went to the UN refugee agency UNHCR to register. It was not long before the group started working with UNHCR to entertain refugee children, and became involved in the the 'Back to School' campaign the UNHCR launched to encourage Iraqi refugee parents to send their children back to school in the host countries.
Sporting red noses, brightly coloured clothes and huge painted-on smiles, the clowns now perform in UNHCR centres across Syria in the hope of bringing some happiness to the lives of Iraqi children suffering from the difficulties of a refugee life.
Happy Family Clowns can only volunteer, because, as refugees, they are not allowed to work legally in Syria.
According to Israa, an Iraq refugee and mother whose child has seen the group perform several times, Happy Family Clowns have had a positive impact on refugee children.
"It makes them feel better and it's a change of scene for them," said Israa.
"When they go home you can see that they are relieved, they laugh, play and remember what the clowns said so they imitate them," she continued.
UNICEF says Iraqi children often bear the brunt of the harsh realities of refugee life, estimating that 10 percent of Iraqi refugee children work, mostly illegally, for a daily wage of one U.S. dollar or less, and that 80 percent of the children do not attend school.
Syria hosts more than one million Iraq refugees, many of whom live in the al-Sayedah Zeinab suburb in Damascus. According to UNHCR reports, the number of Iraqis fleeing their country remains high, despite an improvement in the security situation in Iraq in recent months. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: Audio restrictions: please see Business Notes for more information.