{"id":1889,"date":"2025-03-04T15:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T15:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clowns.org\/who-are-we\/our-history\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T08:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T08:53:11","slug":"our-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/clowns.org\/en\/who-are-we\/our-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Our history"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Our history<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Since 1993. More than 30 years drawing smiles. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\"On February 23, 1993, we left Barcelona for a refugee camp near Italy. With our show, we managed to get families at war to laugh together until they cried. At that moment, we understood that laughter could be a weapon of mass reconstruction. That's how Clowns Without Borders was born.\"<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Tortell Poltrona<\/strong>
Founder and president of PSF<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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How did it all start?<\/div>

During Christmas 1992, Tortell Poltrona received a call from some boys and girls of the Escuela Proyecto de Barcelona where they proposed him to take his show to the Yugoslavian war for the children of a refugee camp with whom they communicated through a pioneering telematic network.\u2028\u2028They proposed to hold a simultaneous Peace Day in the schools connected to the network and wanted to send joy to the war in the Balkans. The children in Barcelona had collected their money for the expenses of the trip.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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The first trip to Yugoslavia<\/div>

On February 26, 1993, Tortell Poltrona, together with his partner Montserrat Trias and his son, Blai Mateu, performed the first show in the refugee camp of Veli Joze in Savudrija, present-day Croatia.\u2028\u2028In this performance, the different families confronted by the war laughed together, turning laughter into a song to peace and resilience; evidencing the usefulness of circus arts as a weapon of mass construction and social transformation.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Clowns Without Borders Foundation<\/div>

It was decided to make a second trip two months later with a group of jugglers (Boni and Caroli). This trip laid the foundations for the creation of an organization that would help artists to repeat these experiences; doing shows for people suffering from crisis situations, especially for children, free of charge, as the children of the Projecte school had initially requested. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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International expansion<\/div>

In 1994 there were 19 expeditions. In the following years, respecting the same ethical standards with which the Spanish organization was founded, new organizations were created in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, South Africa, Sweden and the USA. There are now 15 member countries.\u2028\u2028The Spanish section works both nationally for the most disadvantaged children in Spain, and internationally for refugee and displaced children affected by armed conflicts and natural disasters, and has carried out more than 500 expeditions that have benefited millions of children around the world.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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