Tallabaya, Lebanon 28 February 2017

Clowns without Borders

Tallabaya - Syrian Camp

CWB Lebanon 2017, Page �1

Tallabaya, Lebanon 28 February 2017

Clowns Without Borders Taalabaya - Syrian Camp

Today's camp was situated in the Becqa Valley, about 1.5hours north of Beirut, close to the Syrian border. The camp is home to Syrian refugees who have fled the war in Syria.

The camp is a series of plasterboard huts, covered with plastic sheeting to protect them from the elements. We visited two different settlements close by to each other. The first was where we were supposed to do the show, however a woman had died a few hours before we arrived so we performed in a different section of the camp where there was 12 cabins, that were set up as classrooms for the children.

The space was small, so we adapted the show and performed three shorter shows to be able to accommodate the most number of children.

The shows went extremely well... having smaller groups meant we were able to connect with the kids in a more intimate way. They were full of joy and laughter. Daniel also treated the kids to an incredible slow motion parade after the show!!

In total we played to 240 children. 182 were children from the school, 50 were non school going kids, and 8 teachers.

All in it was interesting to see the conditions that these refugees live in... the camp was neat and well organised, and even had a playground area with a swimming pool. However it was raining when we arrived and the dirt roads were muddy and space at a premium.

CWB Lebanon 2017, Page �2