Taking smiles overseas

By Ellen Dillon * Special to the Southeast Missourian

In May 2000 at the age of 52, my sister, Lynn, died suddenly of complications due to a heart attack. A paraplegic at the age of 17, Lynn had overcome physical challenges and dedicated her life to public service.

She was an advocate for the environment, children, the Native Americans of Wyoming, the uneducated and the disenfranchised. I wanted to do something to commemorate her life.

In April 2001, I attended Patch Adams' lecture at the Show Me Center. He showed a brief film clip of people clowning in a Croatian hospital for dying children. Patch announced that for the first time, they would be taking a group of clowns to Siberia in August. In a few short months, with the help of family and friends, I had raised the money, collected Beanie Babies and Polaroid film for the trip and met 20 clowns representing six different countries in Moscow. I knew nothing about clowning, but Beach Clown, Patch's assistant and organizer of the trip, assured me I would do fine. My first clowning experience was in Red Square!

From Moscow we flew to Ulan Ude, the capital of Buratia. We spent a week in Ulan Ude visiting hospitals, orphanages, children's prisons, an "old pensioner's" home, and anyone else who would have us.

One stop was a girls "prison," or reform school. After we entertained the 10- to 17-year-old girls with music, small gifts and Polaroid pictures, they took us into their gymnasium and sang and danced for us. These production numbers ranged from traditional Russian songs, to Tchaikovsky, to the grand finale complete with square dance music and cowgirl costumes! They hand-made all of their costumes. The teachers had used our visit to give them a project teaching them skills like sewing, dancing and performing. This focus on teaching and care for the children was prevalent everywhere we went. They are the hope for a stronger Russia.

Another stop in Ulan Ude was an Old Pensioners' home where we entertained some beautiful Russian senior citizens. We sang and danced to Russian songs with them, hugged them and laughed with them. These wonderful people were the most forgotten of all. Those who cared for them were loving and kind to the residents, but everybody needs someone to play with sometimes.

In St. Petersburg we had the opportunity to visit a children's orthopedic hospital. In this hospital, children from all over Russia received surgery on disfigured limbs -- mostly due to birth defects. There were six to eight children in each room with mothers, grandmothers and aunts acting as the primary nurses. The surgeries and subsequent physical therapy took two to three months. We watched a doctor patiently guide a little boy through a physical therapy session. They both beamed when he made his way across the bars and back. The building and equipment were dilapidated, the staffing minimal, but the sense of purpose, commitment and community was astounding.

Because of the financial struggles of the Russian government, the hospitals, orphanages, and prisons receive very little government support and depend on local money and volunteers. Many men and women in these institutions work six day weeks, sometimes 24 hours a day for very little compensation. The doctors often act as doctor, nurse, physical therapist, and family counselor all in one. The medical equipment we saw was antiquated; they haven't got enough medicine, and most of the buildings would be condemned in the USA. They patch, paint and work with what they have. The Russians have seen much heartache in their long history, and have a very positive attitude about doing as much as they can with what they've got.

Because of the extreme poverty and challenges of day-to-day life in the former U.S.S.R., visiting seniors, orphans, and those who are ill is a low priority. There are no unemployment or disability benefits and the unemployment rate in Ulan Ude at the time of our visit was 67 percent. Ulan Ude is a city of only 350,000 and there were eight full orphanages. The children have been orphaned and abandoned often due to alcoholism and starvation. In many cases, the prisons and orphanages had saved the children's lives. Many of the administrators of the institutions we visited thanked us profusely for our visit. "You don't understand," the director of penitentiaries told us, "NOBODY comes to see these people. You are the first people to express love and concern for them." Whatever we gave to these beautiful people was returned a hundred fold.

Ellen Dillon is a Cape Girardeau resident.