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Clowns bring laughter to flood evacuation sites
Members of Aku Badut Indonesia have visited several flood evacuation shelters in South Jakarta to entertain flood victims.
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Clowns from Aku Badut Indonesia (ABI) play with children affected by recent flooding in a shelter in Pesanggrahan, Bintaro, South Jakarta on Sunday. . (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
M
aking people laugh in the face of disaster is certainly not an easy thing. But for members of Aku Badut Indonesia (I am Indonesian Clown, ABI) it comes naturally after years of brushing up on their skills.
A member and cofounder, Ibnu Mahdiansyah, retold the tricks he used to entertain children at evacuation sites in Jakarta in the past week, after floods hit Greater Jakarta early this month.
He said he usually started with a question the children could not refuse to answer: “Who wants presents?” Ibnu said the children would race to answer his question: “Me!”
“Not quick enough! One more time! The one who answers the fastest receives a gift from Mr. Clown!” Ibnu told The Jakarta Post as he described his act.
He said he then rolls out a tricky question, “Who hasn’t showered?” and the children race to answer “Me!” only to realize they have been tricked, which makes the children laugh out loud.
Ibnu, along with other clowns from ABI, had been visiting several evacuations sites over the past week in Kampung Melayu Kecil, Bukit Duri subdistrict in South Jakarta on Friday, in Pesanggrahan, Bintaro in South Jakarta on Sunday and another one in Pengadegan in South Jakarta on Tuesday.
ABI was cofounded by Ibnu and five colleagues in January 2018 as a community of clowns with a social mission. They started by entertaining children with cancer and orphans, free of charge, and then participated in numerous “trauma healing” efforts in disaster-stricken areas throughout their two years of operation, including in Lombok after an earthquake in 2018 and in Banten after the tsunami of the same year.
