Clown from Quebec helping children experiencing trauma, headed to Ukraine
Posted August 3, 2023 2:34 pm.
Last Updated August 3, 2023 6:57 pm.
Meet the Quebecer who calls himself a humanitarian clown, with eighteen years of experience and already travelling to multiple countries, Guillaume Vermette’s main goal is to create a safe space for children not only physically, but emotionally too. Now he’s headed to Ukraine to help children dealing with the trauma of war.
“This war is horrible and makes no sense and I want to do something about it, I just don’t know what else to do,” says Vermette who is from Trois-Rivières about two hours northeast of Montreal.
“When there’s a humanitarian crisis, we straight away call for food, we call for medication, accommodation all the basic human need. I think we forget that childhood is a basic human right that we need.”
Vermette, who studied psychology and clown theatre, tries to help kids with traumas due to conflict feel a bit of relief by making a connection with them.
“I encounter kids that forgot how to smile, to laugh, how to play, that their childhood was taken from them by the war,” he says, adding he tries to bring together his knowledge to help kids.
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Already doing humanitarian work in 40 countries, volunteering and working across parts of Nunavik, Jordan, Syria, Lebenon and Haiti, to name a few, it will be his first time in Ukraine and in an active war zone. Vermette says the country he’s done the most volunteer work in has been Russia within orphanages. He refers to the country as a second home for him, which makes his two-week trip to Ukraine even more special.
“This trip is the most sensitive one or personal one I have ever done because the enemy there, the invader is my family in a way, or my second family, and it makes me so sad in so many ways.” He describes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as senseless.
“It breaks my heart. I know by experience how much this kind of situation, this kind of conflict can impact children.”
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He hopes his time in Ukraine will bring joy to the children impacted by war.
“I’ve seen kids so traumatized, they’re not even able to look at me a second. They’re afraid, and they have good reason to be after all they’ve been through… I feel I have enough tools to help them in healing this trauma, or at least I can try.”
For Quebecers, Vermette says anyone can spread a bit of joy in their day-to-day lives.
“You don’t need to be a professional performer or clown or whatever to contribute to people well-being and spreading smile, happiness and love. Everybody can and should do it everywhere in their everyday life.”
Vermette will head off to Jordan on his next humanitarian trip in September.
