The Dubai-based husband and wife comedy duo Mina Liccione and Ali Al Sayed have stocked their suitcases with art supplies, clown costumes and footballs for their next gig in Jordan this weekend. The co-founders of Dubomedy, a resident comedy arts school, will be leading a team of 12 artists and volunteers in an outreach programme – Operation Joy to Sahab – for Syrian refugee children in Jordan.
Clowns Who Care
Liccione, an American who studied clown therapy at the Clown Conservatory in San Francisco in 2011, created the Clowns Who Care programme soon after she and Al Sayed, an Emirati, founded Dubomedy five years ago. Liccione then created a troupe and a slapstick clown routine for kids and began performing at special-needs centres, including the Dubai Autism Center, the Al Noor centre and hospitals in Abu Dhabi.
The Clowns Who Care troupe are excited about their trip to Jordan, where they will host a two-day variety workshop at Sahab refugee camp.
“My husband and I have been wanting to work at one of the Syrian refugee camps for over a year now,” says Liccione. “Some friends had visited before and they connected us with some groups there to make this happen this year.”
The newly created tented camp in Sahab houses about 300 families. The community is an hour’s drive from Amman and has two schools. Liccione expects about 250 children to turn up for their gatherings: “The residents of this camp haven’t had too many visitors yet, so we thought it would be a good place to start.”
The group of performers, most of them former students of Dubomedy, will be conducting a specially designed programme for the children.
“We are comedians at the end of the day, says Liccione. “All we want to do is bring joy, laughter and hope, even if it is for just a few days.”
Hands-on fun
With the help of the global aid agency Mercy Corps, the Dubomedy team has organised two full days of music, drama, comedy and visual arts sessions for kindergarten children and teenagers at the camp. The first day will include workshops for 125 girls. The next day will be dedicated to physical activities for the boys.
“We will have yoga, physical activity, comedy and performing arts,” says Liccione. “We will also take a lot of snacks and fruits with us. They don’t get to have that often.”
The team will also conduct music classes, including body percussion and hip-hop dance sessions.
“I am used to making music from everyday objects and the camps have a lot of donated products,” adds Liccione. “One of the performing arts workshops will teach them how to make music out of those objects.
“In the visual arts projects we will be making paper hearts and airplanes. We will also make paper gardens, which they can take home. We will also be taking a lot of balls – the boys love football.”
Stocking up on supplies
The troupe will also purchase essentials and food products to distribute among families in the camp.
“We all chipped in to raise money and purchase some of the basic products families in the camp need for daily use,” says Liccione. “We will be buying most of it from Jordan because we would like to support Jordan’s economy as well.”
The money raised will be used to purchase baby products, such as formula, fortified milk and nappies.
“Those were the top three things we were told that were needed by the families,” says Liccione. “As Ramadan is coming up, we will also be taking fruits and dates for them.” The troupe will also donate art supplies.
• For more information about Clowns Who Care, email LOL@dubomedy.com or visit www.facebook.com/clownswhocare
