NEWS
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20 efhco members joined us at our
Virtual Annual General Meeting 2021!
on Friday 19 November 2021
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Monica Culen, RED NOSES Austria honored for her life’s achievement
In October 2021 Monica Culen, also a founding member of efhco and its longtime chairwoman - was honored with a special award for her life's achievements at the Award Gala of the Fundraising Verband Austria. We may remember, Rote Nasen started in Austria in 1994 with a small number of clowns and developed under Monica`s leadership ....!plus Giora Seeligers great artistic knowhow! ... to the largest healthcare clowns organization in the world.
Monica was also the honorary president of the Fundraising Verband Austria from 2004 to 2021. In this function, she played a leading role in the development to an Austrian central platform for education and training in the professional field of fundraising and Austria's largest umbrella organisation of NPOs.
Photo Ludwig Schedl
Thank you and Congratulations, Monica, for your big vision and your never ending energy
for letting grow all those impactful and meaningful organizations!
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HCIM is postponed into April 2022!
click here for an update
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Joyeux Anniversaire ‘Le Rire Médecin’ –
Congratulations for 30 successful years with a smile !
We are very happy to share, that our French founding member “Le Rire Médecin” was lately celebrating its 30th birthday! Congratulations for the whole LRM team and its 107 healthcare clowns bringing joy, fun and smile into 55 hospitals, institutions and also to home care. What a mile stone in France and for our growing community!
Plus we are very proud to share with you all, that our Vice President Caroline Simonds, founder of LRM and efhco received the French national presidential award for her life time achievement: The ’Ordre National du Mérite" on June 22, 2021. During an impressing ceremony it was pinned on Caroline by Professor Alain Fischer, former long-serving LRM president and “the French ‘Dr Fauci’”, being responsible for the vaccines in France.
"This moment speaks for all of us and the massive army of brilliant fools, elves, fairies, buffoons and clowns that have worked in our healthcare institutions for the last 3 decades+++", we cite with pleasure Caroline !
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What Do I Need? Carers Voices
In June 2021 our Scottish efhco member Hearts & Minds, an award-winning arts-in-health charity shared their new short film created with carers from Glasgow East End Community Carers who talked about their own personal experiences and thoughts of being a carer at home for a person living with dementia or chronic illness. The film was developed with carers organisations across Scotland, and with funding from the BUPA UK Foundation. The launch of this film was during the European Carers Week in June 2021.
Carers Voices have to be heard!
Hearts & Minds has programs for people living with dementia and their unpaid carers. All carers have had to face unimaginable adversity over the last year. Isolation, loneliness, lack of support and vital services as well as feelings of feeling forgotten by society have been acute during the pandemic. Through conversations with carers groups, Hearts & Minds realised that they wanted to make something to make carers feel seen and heard, for their feelings to be validated, for their resilience and playfulness in the face of extreme adversity to be celebrated, and for their huge contribution to society to be recognised.
The film is based on Hearts & Minds Play Cope Care workshops for unpaid carers and features the voices of the carers. The film will be available to carers’ organisations to share and provides 6 minutes of respite to carers who might be feeling alone, at a loss or invisible and act as a reminder they are connected to a huge network of remarkable people who know exactly what they are going through.
~ Enjoy this movie jewel ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ghTRPU4zEE
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Fondation Théodora + Hôpiclowns Genève support children during a blood test for a C-19 study @ University Hospital Geneva (HUG)
Is there immunity to Covid-19 for children? The study involves a blood test on children from 0 to 17 years old, a very distressing act for young people. The Population Epidemiology Unit (PEU) at HUG was conducting a Covid-19 seroprevalence study from November 23 to December 23, 2020 among randomly over 1.000 selected children aged 0 to 17 years and their families. This study seeks to evaluate the proportion of the population that has developed antibodies against the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and is part of the Swiss national research program ‘Corona Immunitas’.
In order to make children's waiting time before their appointment more pleasant, the UEP is calling on the clowns of the Swiss efhco members Hôpiclowns Genève and Fondation Théodora. This is an unprecedented collaboration to help these child research heroes overcome the ordeal of having their blood drawn. Their intervention was made possible thanks to the support of the Sanfilippo Foundation and the HUG Private Foundation.
Healthcare Clowns are using an integrated and sustainable approach that not only focuses on children, but also seeks to support medical staff in their daily work. Humor has the potential to create a powerful emotional connection between people, enhancing and stimulating social interactions. Humor also plays a vital role in reducing stress and anxiety, and in fostering a better working environment with beneficiaries, especially in very stressful and tense situations.
All professional Clown doctors have developed and maintained high artistic quality standards and all organisations behind the clowns are constantly investing in permanent training of its artists. Furthermore lately also in heightening the already strict hygiene protocols to ensure the health and safety of clowns doctors, patients and all healthcare workers in hospitals and care institutions.
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“Legacies for Healthcare Clown Organizations”
– efhco’s 1st virtual FundraisingXchange 2021
In February 2021 efhco’s first vFx 2021 attracted 19 participants from 12 European countries on the topic of legacies for our healthcare clown organizations – a hot topic with an excellent fundraising potential. Testamentary donations have seen a steep increase already in recent years, along with aging of our society. The lockdowns 2020 and the serious pandemic situation around the globe makes many realize their own transience. Our daily work with and for vulnerable people gives us the experience to reach out to potential donors for their final giving.
Frances, CliniClowns Nederland, a well-known specialist explained in detail how to start, how to develop a successful multiyear strategy. She shared colorful their experiences with insights, data, chances and examples. The Q&A session following her presentation was peppered with specific questions of the professional fundraisers, excited to exchange their learnings and to enforce their own action taking on legacies.
….to be continued ....
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Time for Inspiration & Fantasy
New Experiences & Curiosity
Never-ending Humour & Smilesfor ourselves and others!
Enjoy reading our annual review 2020
We are featured on EURONEWS !
December 2020: We are delighted that our European federation and members are featured on euronews TV and online! The coverage shows the exceptional creativity of our clowndoctors, working under multiple Covid-19 restrictions. Enjoy their performances, bringing humour and smiles to children and elderly in hospitals and care institutions.
https://fr.euronews.com/2020/12/14/les-clowns-a-l-hopital-impactes-par-la-covid-19
https://de.euronews.com/2020/12/14/wie-krankenhaus-clowns-covid-19-trotzen
https://es.euronews.com/2020/12/14/hacer-reir-una-terapia-muy-seria
https://hu.euronews.com/european-affairs/europai-hirek
Congratulations to our newly elected efhco board for 2020 - 2023!
Kenneth Ohrberg (Denmark) is now our chairman,
new Vice-Chairwoman is Caroline Simonds (France),
Coen Abbenhuis (The Netherlands) keeps an eye on the treasury,
Valerie van Gastel (Belgium) is our official Secretary General.
Susana Ribeiro (Portugal) is reponsible for efhco's research efforts.
Laura Fernandez (Germany) is reappointed as Artistic Advisor to the board.
We are welcoming new on board Suzie Ferguson (Scotland)
and Ivana Bacanovic (Austria).
They will strengthen our professional goals in artistic matters and in advocacy!
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Just out in November 2020, the results of our summer survey 2020, see our report
conducted by Red Noses International and efhco:
“The Impact of COVID-19 on European Healthcare Clowning Organisations”
showing the resiliency and creativity of our clowns.
Do you want know more about our work during the pandemic? Just click here.
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