News
Reaching out to more people in needs via Digital Clinic Clown Visits
An Erasmus+ Project focusing on professional Virtual Healthcare Clown Work
Our German Erasmus+ Partner „Humor Hilft Heilen“ (HHH) welcomed from 23 – 25 May 2023 in Bonn their clown doctor colleagues from different European countries for their next of Erasmus+ session on “ Virtual Healthcare Clown” (VHC). The Erasmus+ Program is co-funded by the European Union, and was launched in 2014, combining all EU Projects within the occupational education, youth and sports sectors.
Jointly with HHH are developing efhco members Soccorso Clown, PdO (Portugal) with Spazio Reale Formazione, supported by the Spanish digital company “Blue Room Innovations” and efhco, the European Federation of Healthcare Clown Organizations an online platform, which will be available in the future to all European Healthcare Clown organizations to learn more about concepts on digital clowning for reaching out to more people in needs staying isolated in clinics, healthcare or caring institutions, who cannot be reached so far for a good laughter.
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Happy Birthday, Fondation Théodora Switzerland for 30 years
bringing smiles, joy and laughter
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We are getting our smiles ready for our Annual Meeting
in Mechelen, Belgium from 24/25 - 27 October 2023
Sorry, this time it's for 'Members only' due to our
'boring' main topics of new statutes and internal regulations in 2023 and beyond'.
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Our Fundraisers Xchange Working Group (Fx) met
nose2nose from 21 - 23 March 2023 in Bonn, Germany,
hosted by HHH, Stiftung Humor Hilft Heilen
12 clown doctors fundraising experts from 8 efhco member organisations shared during an intense 2,5 days meeting best practices.
The array of topics discussed in-depth had been successful and lesser ones FR activities, Corporate Donorships and Storytelling.
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Mail from Ukraine in February 2023
"Dear friends, the team of Okhmatdyt Hospital sincerely thanks you for your greetings. It is very valuable for us to feel your support, especially in such a difficult time of war.
Big greetings from Ukraine!"
Enjoy here the congratulations videos of the efhco family & friends:
Our Ukrainian clown friends in Kyiv were celebrating in February 2023 their hospital's Ohmatdyt 129 years of activities. The efhco family sent congratulations messages to their hospital, to doctors, nurses and hospital staff and clowns, which are particularly now under great stress and responsibility to take care of wounded and traumatised children from all over Ukraine.
Ukraine needs still our support,
please donate via Soccorsoclown Italy to our Ukrainian Clowns.
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A year in review - our 2022 efhco newsletter is out !
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Operacao Nariz Vermelho (ONV) welcomed in Lisbon, Portugal
19 member organizations at efhco's Annual Meeting 2022!
With a 3-years delay we finally held their Annual Meeting 2022 nose-to-nose in Lisbon. Luiza Teixeira de Freitas, Chairwoman of the Portuguese member ONV and Ivana Bacanovic, chairing efhco welcomed over 40 participants from 19 professional member organisations and 15 EU countries.
Monica Culen and Giora Seeliger, from RedNoses International and co-founders of efhco, could finally address a personal farewell to all companions of our movement: they were very proud of what we have achieved since 2011. The General Assembly part finished with hearty congratulations to Eva Riepe, Artistic Director from Sweden and Margarita Galen, Innovation Lab Manager from The Netherlands, for being by-elected to the current Board of Directors. Artistic, Managerial and Research Managers met in mixed working groups to working out the 2023 goals and topics of the federation. An Interactive workshop on 'Narrative Ethics in Healthcare' by Professor Susana Magalhaes, University of Porto / PT, a presentation on the EU-funded Erasmus+ project on ‘One European curriculum for Healthcare Clowns’ and an intense solo-play on depression and suicide by Lisbon-based actress and clown Jaimie Mears rounded off these substantive meeting days.
A real delight had been ONV’s Jubilee Show ‘Clown’s Compass Small symphony for spare time’, marking the 20 years of prescribing joy in Portugal’s hospitals. This playful funny musical show, currently touring through all hospitals visited by ONV, offers ‘all, what we want to know about the secret life of clown doctors’.
Celebrating clowning arts at its best!
Obrigado & Obrigada ONV
We enjoyed every minute of your lovely hospitality !
The next Annual Meeting will be 2023 in the capital of Europe, Brussels.
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Stay tuned, our next global Online Academy will be on Spring 2023!
simply pre-rgister
UPDATE, watch the video of our 1st HCCOA session
at any time you prefer!
What an incredible start of our inaugural HCCO Academy sessions,
connecting over 35 attendees from across Europe, Canada and the US.
Our ‘Thank you very much for everything’ goes to Tsour Shriqui, Dream Doctors Israel; Perola R. Ribeiro and Tünde Gelenscer, Red Noses International for sharing their 1st hand expertise in specific clown doctoring fields.
It was more than inspiring for all of us!
Our HCCOA sessions videos will be available shortly online to watch at any time in your clown doctor life.
Stay tuned for our next HCCOA session on 16 December 2022, simply pre-register info@efhco.eu
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Fundraiser Working Group: Announcement for Autumn 2022 !
We will have a ZOOM session on Neuromarketing
best practices in our Fundraising publications.
We invite an external specialist, and we are looking to his presentation
and your specific Q&A!
Interested ?
Just contact us by email.
Hooray – Our efhco Fundraisers Xchange meeting 2022
went nose2nose in mid-June!
After 2 years meeting online, this 2022 edition in Morges, Lake Geneva was hosted by our Swiss founding member Fondation Théodora and their committed fundraising team. 32 Fundraising Experts from 15 Healthcare Clown Organizations in 13 European countries met for 2.5 days . A truly pan-European event with participants from Finland or Latvia to Croatia or Portugal, plus an interesting mix of smaller and bigger HCO’s: Everybody could bring home new ideas, discoveries and experiences!
The Fx2022 was intense, we shared a lot of different expertise in the various fields within our special HCO charity work, discussed successful calls for donations and also the lesser ones since the pandemic started.
Day 2 was filled with Digital Content Marketing and its Best practices.
Interesting side topic were the learnings about different giving cultures across Europe.
Group Dinners and a Wine Tasting & local food specialties with a view over the lake rounded up our exchange, giving lots of time and options to mix, meet and have fun with everybody.
We are looking forward to deepen this knowledge in our next virtual working group meetings.
Want to join our next Fundraising Working Group in fall 2022?
Simply register via info@efhco.eu
Let’s connect worlds, connect people and exchange ideas, visions
...was the motto of the 2022 HCIM and its inspiring program matched 100% !
Everybody enjoyed this nose2nose world clowndoctor convention, meeting & talking & sharing current and new subjects in our HC World. Topics like dementia, clowning pre- or postoperative or with refugees / other vulnerable groups of all ages were in strong demand, just like development & implementation of another humanizing healthcare system.
efhco was present during HCIM2022 - and our members also never missed an opportunity for fun!
This ‘Health Care Clown World Wide Song’ unites us all in our common goal. How beautiful!
Keep up the good work and stay connected with each other.
Thank you to our founding member Cliniclowns Nederland for hosting this wonderful world meeting 2022!
efhco. wishes to express its full support and solidarity to people, institutions and friends from Ukraine in relation to the unjustified invasion and deadly attacks directed by the Russian government. The loss of democratic integrity should not prevail and the respect of Ukraine's sovereignty must be restored.
War is never the answer to solve conflicts. We thought this was a lesson learnt since 1945, yet we find ourselves again in the presence of a war with lives loss and thousands of Ukrainians having to flee their country.
efhco. believes in peace and the respect of human rights, both core values of the European project we work and live in and we wish to maintain.
We are very concerned about the drastic effects this war brings in for the Ukrainian healthcare system, its social and cultural sector at all.
Our thoughts, wishes and support are with our Ukrainian clown friends, colleagues and their families.
efhco. wishes to express its full support and empathy to the Ukrainian people.
You are not alone!
Fresh off the press – efhco’s R&D Mission Statement
efhco’s Research & Development Working Group accomplished during 2021 their Mission Statement, stating our dedication to the importance of research within healthcare clown organizations and all their stakeholders. The R&D Working Group has identified a distinct need for greater robust scientific evidence-based knowledge, sharing the hope and expectation that this commitment will lead to an increase in research, thereby assuring enhanced understanding to support future development of our profession and our clown work in all current fields of healthcare and Keeping up efhco’s quality standards! Interested in the complete R&D Mission Statement for your clown organization? Enjoy the read here!
