What We Do

In more and more countries, laughter as medicine is integrated into the daily hospital routine as a tool for an indispensable prerequisite for life.

The funny chaos created by Clown Doctors brings smiles not only to the faces of the patients and their family members, but also to hospital staff and visitors.

Clowns transport ease and comfort in difficult life situations and make our society more humorous and humane.

• We would also like to visit rehabilitation centres, rest homes, refugees or woman shelters, but this is dependent on funding and sponsorship.
• First and foremost we are duty bound to the wellbeing of the patients we visit.
• We guarantee a high level of artistic and human qualities and reliability in our clowning work.
• We deal respectfully and discreetly in our daily contact with the sick and their environment, family & friends.
• We, the Clown Doctors New Zealand Team, support each other to the best of everyone’s knowledge in each task and beyond.
• We are committed to open and honest communication with mutual respect and appreciation.
• We are obligated to our sponsors, partners and supporters to maintain transparency, high quality standards and commitment to all our agreements.
• All clowning programmes are operated on a regular basis and extended step by step into institutions and where people need our support.
• Clown Doctors contribute to the development of humour and enabling people to find their inner clown and to master the art of laughing at themselves.

From our own experience we know about the psychological effect of joint laughter – with it comes a feeling of togetherness and relatedness. Laughter provides us with distraction and a positive attitude and brings hope even in a deep crisis.
In the next three years, the teams in each hospital should be increased step by step from 2 to 6. This higher frequency of the visits could help to spread joy & laughter up to approx. 22,000 patients per year (which is dependent on funding/sponsorship). We are very confident that Clown Doctors work improves the circumstances of the patients and other participants and will have significantly impact on the communities and whole society.