Some History

Clown doctors were established in Switzerland in 1993 on the initiative of two brothers : André and Jan Poulie, in memory of their mother, Theodora.

France is the 9th country (in chronological order) in which the clown doctors are active.

The initial contact between the Theodora Foundation (in Switzerland) and France goes back to October 1999, and the Le Havre-based Groupe Hospitalier. A team of Swiss clown doctors came to visit the children in the children's pavillon of the Flaubert hospital. At the end of this visit, the clown doctors didn't say "Adieu !" instead they said "Bye ! See you soon !".
In March 2000, the first steps were taken towards creating the legal structure in France for managing the clown doctors activity, finding premises and setting up the process for selecting artists.

On 13th October 2000, the creation of the Theodora association is declared to the Police Headquarters (in Paris), for publication on the 4th November 2000 in the Official Journal of the French Republic.