"The impact of war on children is devastating and its effects can last for decades after hostilities have ceased.”
By HERB KEINONUpdated: JULY 2, 2018 02:14Yazidi Participants learn medical clowning(photo credit: FOREIGN MINISTRY)
It’s the stuff that movies are made of: a group of Yazidis from Iraq make their way to Jerusalem to learn the fine art of medical clowning.According to the Foreign Ministry, that is exactly what happened last week when a group of Yazidis came to receive training in medical clowning to help children in need of medical treatment or suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.The project was a joint initiative of Dream Doctors, an Israeli NGO integrating medical clowns into the country’s hospital healthcare system, a British charity called Road to Peace, Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem and the Foreign Ministry.Road to Peace, which helped bring the Yazidis to Israel, describes itself as a British charity “working with organizations and individuals across the world to help build alliances between communities in conflict and facilitate medical treatment for sick and vulnerable children. The impact of war on children is devastating and its effects can last for decades after hostilities have ceased.”The organization has been active with the Yazidis, who suffered horrible atrocities at the hands of Islamic State, and recently set up a childcare unit in Sinjar, in northern Iraq, where Islamic State killed thousands of Yazidis and other minorities in 2014.
