News & Links
War Victims Project, Sarajevo
Last year, I had the opportunity to visit the Balkans twice. The purpose of the first trip was to explore this war torn region for myself. Like many Americans, I had never seen the effects of war up close. It was a very sobering first look. A few weeks later, I returned…this time to work. My work is in Thai massage and related techniques that are very effective for post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. I worked through a UK agency that provides massage to war victims and was also hosted by Bosnian village women’s groups.
What I found was that there is great need that is largely unmet and that there is a greater need to engage and train Bosnians to help each other rather than flying in therapists from other countries year after year to do all the work. We felt that this greatly increased the expense of helping out and it created a kind of dependency that keeps people in the victim state. We have a network of experienced therapists and teachers who are willing to take a few weeks from their busy practices to volunteer. We want to provide them with a clinic/hostel setting with an interpreter in Sarajevo and a modest per diem of $50 US per day in recognition for their efforts. They will provide their own transportation costs.
We are a registered 501c 3 charity. All donations are tax deductible. Please click here to learn more about this project and to help.
Oct 30. 2010