Annual Reports
& Impact Archive
Clowns Without Borders UK works alongside children living through displacement, disaster and conflict. Since 2015 we've delivered play and arts sessions in refugee camps, crisis zones and asylum accommodation across more than 20 countries. We believe play is essential for children in difficult circumstances — it's how they make sense of hard experiences, stay connected, and express themselves. These reports are a record of how we've tried to make that possible.
Our 2025 report is being written now.
This year we ran weekly sessions in temporary asylum accommodation in South London. Some children came once. One child came 21 times. We're taking care to write it up properly. Check back soon.
When we started in 2015, we brought artists to refugee camps to do performances. That was genuinely useful. But over time we started asking different questions — what do the children here actually want? Who's already doing this work and how can we support them? What happens after we leave? The answers to those questions have changed how we work. The reason we're here hasn't.
Every report below is also filed publicly with the Charity Commission. You can view our accounts and trustees' annual reports on the Charity Commission register (Clowns Without Borders UK, registered charity 1156987).
In Türkiye, the artists we'd worked alongside for several years registered their own NGO and are now running programmes independently. In Mozambique, two local leaders took over the work entirely. In Ukraine, a series of short videos helped 7,755 teachers bring play into classrooms during the war.
After the February earthquake in south-east Türkiye, 33 local artists led our response. In the UK, the children on our board — aged 6 to 14 — reviewed our three-year plans and our safeguarding policy and gave us feedback that changed both.
Six weeks after the conflict started in Ukraine, we were at reception centres in Poland doing sessions with children who'd just arrived. That same year, ten children aged 6 to 11 from a primary school in Tower Hamlets became the first children to sit on a UK humanitarian charity's board.
We partnered with the Mines Advisory Group to deliver landmine safety messages to children in Somalia, Lebanon, Iraq and Vietnam — using games, stories and performance rather than warning posters. Around 5.5 million people were reached. Artists from four continents joined us that year.
When Covid closed the camps to outside visitors, we started training people who were already inside. Zahra, a 16-year-old Afghan refugee living in Moria — a camp holding around 40,000 people — used our WhatsApp resources to run her own sessions. We reached 11,789 children that year.
Working with Rohingya children in Cox's Bazar, we asked how they'd like hygiene safety information delivered. Their answers shaped a new curriculum. UNICEF then used our approach across 10 refugee camps. We also started work in Mozambique after Cyclone Idai, reaching 13,980 children across four countries.
In Cox's Bazar we asked children how they wanted hygiene safety messages delivered — and built the curriculum around their answers. We also started formally training the people who work with children every day, so the sessions could continue after we left. 19,800 children across Bangladesh, Greece and Hungary.
We worked in Greece, Serbia, Turkey and in St Maarten after Hurricane Irma, reaching 7,467 children. In St Maarten, a local artist carried on visiting schools after we'd gone home. It was an early sign of something we wanted to build on — work that didn't depend on us being there.
We spent most of 2016 in refugee camps in Northern Greece, doing over 70 performances for 7,500 children. Getting access was increasingly difficult — regulations changed, camps became more restricted. We kept finding routes in. It was also the year donations from supporters doubled.
We went to Nepal after the earthquake, to Calais over New Year, to India where we worked with girls who had survived trafficking, and ran workshops in the UK for young refugees. More than 7,500 children across four countries. We were a very new organisation trying to work out what we were doing.
"We enjoyed it so, so much. This is a moment we forget the situation we are living in now." — Pirix, Ocura, Mozambique, 2024 — spoken after a performance during active conflict
Where we're heading — and what the children on our board said matters.
Our three-year plan was developed with input from our Children's Board. These are the four things we're focused on between 2024 and 2027.
Children have a real say
The Children's Board reviews our plans, gives feedback on safeguarding, and we're exploring what it would mean for them to have a say in how we spend money. We want this to be substantive, not symbolic.
Work that continues after we leave
We're running programmes in the UK, Ukraine and Lebanon, and investing time in training local artists properly — so they can lead sessions in their own communities without needing us there.
Being honest about what works
We want to share what we've learned — including the things that haven't gone well. We're presenting at conferences and building a section of our website where other organisations can access our resources and evidence.
Funding that doesn't disappear
Too much of our income arrives in response to emergencies and then dries up. We're working to build more stable, unrestricted funding so children get consistent support rather than bursts of attention.
Sessions where children decide what happens
Our South London programme ran weekly sessions in temporary asylum accommodation. Children came from more than a dozen countries. Some came once; one child came 21 times. We didn't direct the sessions — children chose the activities, set the pace, and sometimes ran things themselves. We're still working out exactly what that means for how we operate. The 2025 report will say more.
Work handed over to the people who live there
The artists we'd worked with in Türkiye for several years registered their own NGO and are now running independently. In Mozambique, two local leaders took over the programme entirely. In the UK, the children on our board reviewed our three-year plans and our safeguarding policy and gave us feedback that changed both. These weren't token gestures — they took real time and produced real changes.
A response to Ukraine, and a board that includes children
Six weeks after the conflict started, we were doing sessions with children at reception centres in Poland. That year we also established the first children's board at a UK humanitarian charity — ten children from a primary school in Tower Hamlets, aged 6 to 11. They've since reviewed programme plans, tested activities, and helped us think about safeguarding in ways we hadn't considered.
When we couldn't go in, we trained people already there
Covid closed most of the places we worked. We started sending resources — short videos, activity guides, WhatsApp packs — to people inside the camps who could use them with children. Zahra, a 16-year-old Afghan refugee in Moria camp, ran sessions herself for around 150 children. Remote training turned out to have real advantages and we've kept it as part of how we work. We also partnered with the Mines Advisory Group to reach around 5.5 million people with landmine safety content delivered through games and performance.
Asking children what they wanted — and changing the work accordingly
In Cox's Bazar, we sat with Rohingya children and asked how they'd like hygiene safety information delivered. Their answers shaped a new curriculum. UNICEF then used our approach across 10 refugee camps. We also started formally training the people who work with children every day — teachers, community workers, NGO staff — so sessions could continue after we left.
The first time the work continued without us
After Hurricane Irma we worked in St Maarten. A local artist we'd worked alongside kept visiting schools after we'd gone home. It was the first time we clearly saw what we were trying to move towards — work that belongs to the community, not to us.
Starting out — and figuring things out as we went
We went to Nepal after the earthquake, to Calais, to India where we worked with girls who had survived trafficking, and to refugee camps in Northern Greece. We were a small, new organisation with more passion than structure. A child in one of our first workshops in India said the experience was "out of their imagination." We've been thinking about how to earn that ever since.