A local woman will be travelling to Vietnam in the fall as part of a group of 20 therapeutic massage practitioners from around North America teaching orphanage workers the therapeutic benefits of massage.
Joanne Allen, who works at Lentz Chiropractic, was chosen to be part of the group from over 1,000 applicants. The group, sponsored by the Liddlekidz Foundation, will be travelling first to Saigon beginning on Nov. 30 and will visit eight orphanages throughout the country until returning from the country on December 17 after visiting Hanoi in the north.
“We get to kind of introduce the nurturing touch techniques to the children and then from there we also work with the staff and caregivers and kind of teach them what we know,” she said.
Allen stumbled upon the website for the Liddlekidz Foundation and was intrigued enough to sign up for the newsletter. Later, she got an email from the Vancouver, Wash.-based organization requesting volunteers for an upcoming trip.
“I filled out the lengthy application and then I got an email saying I was being considered to be part of the team. After that, I did a phone interview with the founder herself, Tina Allan … and then got an email the following week saying I'd been selected,” she said.
Allen said the children the group will be working with have been orphaned or abandoned, and many have missing limbs or other medical needs as a result of landmines that litter the country. Others have various forms of congenital physical disabilities.
“A lot of times when they're in the orphanage setting … they don't get a lot of the human contact that, say, given a normal family situation, so some of them are a little forgotten,” she said.
Along with the emotional benefit, the children also receive medical benefits of the massage, improving their circulation, keeping muscles in good condition, among other benefits.
Allen has raised a little less than one-third ($1,300) of the $4,300 needed to go on the trip, all of which will be funnelled to the foundation. If Allen raises more than $4,300, all of that money is passed on to the foundation so it can continue on with its work.
