STEADY FOOTSTEPS, INC. was founded by an American couple: Virginia Lockett, a Quaker, and her husband David, who is Buddhist. David and Virginia first came to Vietnam in 1995 to adopt two children. They were saddened, at that time, by the apparently hopeless situation of disabled people in Vietnam.
By the time the Locketts returned to Vietnam in 2005 for a short-term volunteer project, improvements in Vietnamese medical care and economy had made attention to the plight of the disabled more feasible. And yet many of the foreign-run assistance projects that David and Virginia observed seemed to be ineffective--due, in large measure, to minimal and hurried oversight by absentee program directors.
That 2005 trip convinced David and Virginia that the efforts of two middle-aged, middle-class Americans, dedicated to preventing head injuries and to improving life for disabled people in Vietnam, could be both effective and appreciated. They quit their jobs, sold their home, founded STEADY FOOTSTEPS, and moved to Vietnam. They have yet to regret their decision.
Teaching by Example
Physical Therapy is a young profession in Vietnam and Occupational Therapy is a non-existent one. STEADY FOOTSTEPS volunteers try to demonstrate for Vietnamese-trained medical professonals and students the practice of compassionate and effective rehabilitative care.
We have opportunities right now for volunteer Occupational Therapists to come and work with us between 4 August and Christmas of 2009.
For more information about volunteer opportunities, please contact Virginia at valockett@gmail.com
Steady Footsteps Scholarship Fund
Ever since Virginia began volunteering in Da Nang, she has been searching for that rarest of creatures: an intellligent, open-minded Vietnamese therapist with a flair for language and the drive and determination to spend years away from the warmth and comfort of home in a chilly place such as Dunedin, New Zealand, in order to become a fully trained therapist at international standards. We hope to send the first Steady Foosteps scholarship recipient to New Zealand in January of 2010 to study Occupational Therapy. Quyen has been studying English diligently for years and will continue to study English in New Zealand in order to do well in her professional courses. Our hope is that she will be able to bring back the benefits of her full training and share her knowlege with the next generation of therapists--in Vietnamese!
Please consider contributing whatever you can afford to this worthy cause.
Contact Information:
STEADY FOOTSTEPS, INC.
604 Clearfield Ave.
Chesapeake, VA 23320 USA
Web: www.steadyfootsteps.org.
Email: valockett@gmail.com.
STEADY FOOTSTEPS, INC. is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
We welcome your tax-deductable contribution.
Virginia Lockett, PT
President and Founder