The SAPPIN Families Indaba saw a host of delegates descending upon Community House, Salt River. This event brought policymakers, government, businesses, civil society organisations, researchers, and funders together to bring about innovative change in Parenting Programmes in South Africa. The overarching theme of the 2023 SAPPIN Families Indaba was “How support for families can inspire […]

by Suzan Eriksson | Feb 5, 2021 ‘Having experienced the tail end of Cyclone Eloise here in Eswatini, I have even more compassion for the communities we worked with in Mozambique. Getting knocked down again even though they were still finding their feet after Idai. In the space of 24 hours, the river by our house turned from a 3m […]

By Kufre Okop, Catherine L Ward, Lucie Cluver and Suzan Eriksson Parenting is tough enough at the best of times – after all, children don’t come with instruction manuals – but how much tougher during a pandemic lockdown? When neither parents nor children can get out of the house, it’s a difficult situation for everyone. This […]

Paula Luckhoff Suzan Eriksson (CWB SA) talks about using laughter and play to help the children and communities who need it most.“Our motto is Children Being Children again” The non-profit Clowns Without Borders South Africa (CWB SA) is part of a global network providing emotional relief for kids in crisis through laughter and play. They […]

by Suzan Eriksson | Sep 11, 2020 5 artists will be recording Parenting for Lifelong tips for 14 SABC https://www.sabc.co.za/sabc/radio/ radio stations and 40 community radio stations. The tips have been developed by the collaborative emergency response  COVID 19 parenting programme https://www.covid19parenting.com/#/home that CWBSA has been involved in over the last 4 months. This will be the first opportunity to reach out […]

by Suzan Eriksson | Sep 11, 2020 The work at Clowns Without Borders South Africa has advanced in leaps and bounds throughout 2020, even though many projects and all travel came to a standstill in March. We experienced a similar COVID19 lockdown as many other countries around the world and put in place procedures and policies to ensure […]

09 March 2020 Children learn best when they are happy. This is why Nal’ibali, South Africa’s reading-for-enjoyment-campaign, and Clowns Without Borders South Africa (CWBSA) have partnered for the second year in a row to tour their libraries roadshow aimed at building literacy bridges between schools and libraries. The tour includes a theatre performance based on […]

by Suzan Eriksson | Dec 12, 2019   We spent 3 weeks in Mozambique performing and facilitating workshops for children, animators, and community members with CWB UK and Companhia De Artes Makwerhu. Our partners, PLAN International and AJOGA showed us around Buzi District where we met with children, parents and caregivers in 9 child-friendly spaces.This was one of […]

by Suzan Eriksson | Nov 13, 2019   Dear Friends, Clowns Without Borders South Africa (CWBSA) is excited to announce a leadership transition for our organisation. After 15 years of successfully leading CWBSA, Jamie Lachman has decided to step down as executive director to pursue his academic career at the University of Oxford on a full-time basis. We […]

Feedback From A Facilitator! By Eugenie Probst A partner of CWBSA implementing the Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) Teens programme in Cape Town is the Manenberg People´s Centre (MPC). The Centre offers different programmes for the community. On a daily basis, the community feeding reaches over 200 people plus 68 people who are part of […]

Promoting Peace through Play By Jayne Batzofin An’na yawu ini – We are here Arriving in Juba, South Sudan, for the first time, I immediately noticed the smell in the air – a sweet smell of red earth perfuming the area. The next noticeable feature were the broad smiles from officials welcoming us to Juba, […]

by Suzan Eriksson | Oct 30, 2019 Winds of more than 200 kilometres an hour hit Zimbabwe on 15 of March 2019, bringing tonnes of water to the Manicaland Province. Cyclone Idai was the strongest recorded cyclone in the Southern Hemisphere. The storm wiped out roads, bridges, and dams as it swept through Southeast Africa.  More than 100,000 […]

Promoting Peace through Play By Jayne Batzofin | Oct 30, 2019   An’na yawu ini – We are here Arriving in Juba, South Sudan, for the first time, I immediately noticed the smell in the air – a sweet smell of red earth perfuming the area. The next noticeable feature were the broad smiles from […]

by Suzan Eriksson | Aug 16, 2019   It has been an inspirational two weeks in Cape Town. CWBSA has combined its artistic interventions and Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) for the first time. We continue our PLH work with local non-profit organisations, as well as welcoming two new organisations into the family, thanks to our partnership with […]

by Suzan Eriksson | Jun 28, 2019   CWBSA organised a successful workshop for new PLH trainers in Durban, June 2019. After assessments are completed, 2 participants will be invited to join the team. Please find feedback from two of the participants: “We are Ricky and Mhinti Pato, founders of the Sakhisizwe Youth Development Programme with many years […]

by Suzan Eriksson | Jun 19, 2019   After Cyclones Idai and Kenneth hit Southern Africa in March 2019, more than 3 million people need humanitarian assistance, mainly children and women. The recent UN mission concluded that psychosocial support to address trauma is a key priority. https://reliefweb.int/report/mozambique/deputy-humanitarian-chief-concludes-visit-countries-affected-cyclone-idai-and Clowns Without Borders South Africa’s unique approach of humanitarian clowning, physical theatre […]

by Suzan Eriksson | Apr 9, 2019   Executive Director, Jamie Lachman, was at the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark, this week for the annual LEGO® ideas conference. The theme for this year’s conference was ‘Unlocking the Power of Parenting’ and Jamie was invited to contribute to the closing ‘playnary’ along with Ziauddin Yousafzi from the Malala Fund. […]

15 March 2019 By Jayne Batzofin and Suzan Eriksson The performing arts have always had a difficult time proving their value in an education system that prioritises maths and science. Too few studies have been done to prove their benefits, such as building children’s imaginations, vocabularies and language skills. When Clowns Without Borders South Africa — an artist-led […]

by Suzan Eriksson |  Mar 12, 2019 30 000 children have been reached in schools and libraries around KwaZulu-Natal Eastern Cape, Gauteng and Limpopo provinces in South Africa. The 3 artist team of Gavin Stockden, Sussie Mjawaru and Mr Fish have been causing a sensation with the energetic Nal’ibali teams throughout the reading for enjoyment campaign. […]

Nal’ibali, the reading-for-enjoyment campaign, has teamed up with Clowns Without Borders South Africa (CWBSA) to produce a series of literacy-focused shows 04 March 2019 By Nal’ibili Libraries across South Africa will be the scenes of a new community activation in 2019. Nal’ibali, the reading for enjoyment campaign, has teamed up with Clowns Without Borders South Africa to […]

by Admin | Mar 20, 2018   Clowns Without Borders South Africa had a most wonderful opportunity to take the Our Story Your Story programme to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology  (CPUT) campus in Wellington. Lisa Cohen and Simone Peters developed an intensive 3-day training workshop catered for the CPUT third year students, taking them on a […]

by admin | Feb 5, 2018 Clowns Without Borders South Africa is thrilled to be part of this ground-breaking research from the Universities of Oxford and Cape Town demonstrating the impact of our Sinovuyo Caring Families Programme for Parents and Teens on reducing domestic violence and improving economic resilience. OXFORD UNIVERSITY: ‘We have joy’: Parenting programme for Africa’s poorest […]

by admin | Oct 30, 2017 CWBSA partners with Dialogue – The Community Performance Network! Dialogue is a capacity building non-profit company that supports organisations and individuals who use Community Performance in their work. They facilitate the sharing of knowledge and skills about Community Performance that they curate through their Documentation and Archival programmes. By sharing and utilising such […]

by Admin | Nov 30, 2017 These are some of the testimonies from the experiences of parents and children who participated in the PLH Kids and Teens programmes in Kinshasa (locally called ESENGO). They were delivered alongside an economic strengthening programme by Catholic Relief Services. This was also made in collaboration with 4Children and funded by USAID PEPFAR. All names, in the […]

In October 2016, I went to a Clowns Without Borders SA workshop which was facilitated by Jayne Batzofin. I knew nothing about clowns except that they paint their faces and ‘scare’ people. I had never thought of myself as a clown before. The only reason why I went was because of the slogan, ‘children being […]