Le Rire Médecin

Mission & Vision

Le Rire Médecin uses specially-trained clowns to put on performances for hospitalized children and their families. The lighthearted performances restore the carefree nature and joy of childhood that hospitalized children are robbed of. Improvised performances bring them play, imagination, and fantasy, and help them laugh again. As a result, children can better endure the difficulties of hospitalization and be more receptive to treatment. Today, 135 professional clown actors visit around 90,000 children every year in 70 pediatric units. To learn more about how Le Rire Médecin makes a difference, read this post. 

Actions Led

Le Rire Medecin has created a new program called HAD which brings visits by professional clown actors for babies, children, and teenagers who are hospitalized at home, some in palliative care.

A close-knit collaboration between the artists and the healthcare teams, the H.A.D program enables talented clown actors to visit children in their homes alongside doctors, nurses, and specialists. The program aims to deliver the same distraction and moments of happiness and joy to children and their families moved to home hospitalization.

Projects that U.S. Donors Can Support

Support from donors can help fund the props, training, and performances of these specially trained clown actors. Doing so can:

• Help the children’s stay in the hospital become more bearable and help their parents see that their child can still play and smile.
• Support the hospital staff with moments of joy and relaxation, and accompany invasive and painful medical procedures to children when needed.
• Plus, perform for children ‘hospitalized at home’ and support the whole family, especially for palliative care.
• Interact with abused children coming to hospitals, to facilitate their interactions with healthcare professionals and police.
• Help fragile mothers and their newborns create attachment when needed, through music and light comedy.

Learn more through our blog article published on May 16th, 2022.

(c) Adrien Daste, Sylvie Biscioni et Géraldine Aresteanu