Clowning for a Brighter Future in Belén, Iquitos, Peru
Written By: Rachel Sandler
November 2009

 

The children get excited once the cameras are out and insist on seeing their photograph after the image has been captured.

Three years ago, I ventured to Belén, Iquitos, Peru for the first time. Ever since I saw the film Patch Adams I wanted to be a humanistic doctor who listens to people, who is able to connect with patients through humor and understanding; I do not want to only use medications to heal. My trip to Belén was an opportunity to work in Peru with Dr. Patch Adams himself. The Belén Project is not a medical mission in the traditional sense. Healthcare volunteers do not attend only to patients with medical diseases. We do not give bottled medications or perform surgeries. Rather, Dr. Patch Adam's Gesundheit! Institute brings a group of 50 volunteers from all over the world to join with 40 volunteers from Peru to heal the Belén community through play, art, and clowning.

The new community center in Belén, Iquitos, Peru that has been sponsored through the Gesundheit Institute. Clowns are busy bringing color to the building. During the year, the building will be overseen by La Restinga, a local NGO that works with the youth in Belén.

Some volunteers are trained professional clowns or actors. Some are medical professionals or students. Some volunteers are as young as 14 and other as old as 70. But all come to bring joy, love, humor, and hope to this community. During these two weeks each year in early August, this group of 90 clowns goes to Belén to paint over 100 houses bright colors with Belén community members and to work with the children on a variety of workshops in dance, art, percussion, and juggling which come together to create a show that is featured at the end. In the larger city of Iquitos, the clowns visit hospitals, children's shelters, mental institutions, nursing homes, hospices, and prisons.

Clowning a center for children with disabilities in Iquitos, Peru. The child's mother told me that with her on-going therapy at the center she was improving.

This project has shown me many ways in which this unique approach to global outreach work can impact a community, which is why I continue to return each year. The community of Belén faces a myriad of social and environmental issues that adversely affect their health, such as domestic violence, alcoholism, malnutrition, infectious diseases, lack of access to healthcare, and lack of a decent sanitation system. As a clown, one is able to come to the Belén, walk down the street, and see in the smiles of the people of Belén that the mission has been accomplished. In a few minutes of interaction, a clown cannot completely take away these problems, but clowns can help the people experience joy amidst their troubles.

Leapfrog with children at a local children's shelter in Iquitos, Peru.

Each year the clowns' time in Belén is transient, but the efforts to improve Belén continue throughout the year. Gesundheit! Institute and the Peruvian clowning organization Bola Roja have collaborated with a number of organizations to form a coalition called the Red Por Belén (Network for Belén). This network includes the Pan-American Health Organization, the local municipality, the health authority in the Loreto province where Belén is located, local public health officials, neighborhood leaders, and other local and international NGOs. Through this network, many different aspects of social change and public health are being addressed in Belén.

This snake being carried by members of the Belén community was created by the children in a special workshop devoted to recycled art.

Each year I return to better understand the daily lives of the people and reconnect with friends I have met in years past. In Belén, one of the first things one notices is the children. Nearly 50% of the population of Belén is under the age of 13¹. One of my favorite things to do is to ask the children of Belén what they hope to be when they grow up. I am always amazed by the hope these children have for the future. Some want to be doctors, others lawyers, others artists.

Clowning at the Iquitos Regional Hospital in Iquitos, Peru. When clowning, the efforts are not just directed at the patients, but are also aimed to help bring joy to the staff and families as well.

Though the world in which they live has been described as the "hell of Peru" by one of the Peruvian health ministers, these children remain resilient to the problems they endure. The children continue to play and laugh, in spite of the horrors they face. Through the creation of the Red Por Belén, efforts continue to shape the community in which they live so that their dreams for the future can become their reality.

Clowns volunteer to lead the workshops for children in Belén, Iquitos, Peru. Each workshop prepares the children to participate in a final show.

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1. Propuesta Integral: Por Un Belén Saludable. Report from the Pan-American Health Organization. June 24, 2009.

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Rachel Sandler is a 3rd year medical student at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. This school year she will be receiving her MPH from the University of Iowa College of Public Health. As a part of her public health studies, she will return to Peru for 10 months to continue research and clinical work with the Belén Project. She can be contacted at rachel-sandler@uiowa.edu.