Danish physiotherapists Mie Jensen and Nanna Riis Madsen have spent the past three months doing what many of their colleagues back home in Denmark may dream of, but few actually do. They volunteered to work and live at the Danish Raindrop Foundation Handicap Project in Sakon Nakhon in the Northeast of Thailand.
Friday the 8 April 2017 was their last on the project. The next couple of weeks they will spent on a well-deserved vacation on the beaches of Krabi and Koh Lanta before going back home to Denmark. It has cost them some money and time but they go home richer than when they arrived.
For Nanna Riis Madsen, the adventure started with an article in her trade publication. For her friend Mie it was a request from Nanna to join her.
The first week in Thailand, the two young professionals spent in Bangkok getting over the jet-lag and meeting the founder of Raindrop Foundation, former Thai Senator Dr. Pensak Chagsuchinda Howitz, who in the 1970’s lived 14 years in Denmark before she moved to Thailand as the wife of former Danish Ambassdor to Thailand, Franz Howitz.
The first week in Sakon Nakhon they were lucky to overlap with departing physiotherapist Louise Juul Saaby who had spent her time at the Raindrop Center with her friend Anna-Sophie Mikkelsen.
Now, at the end of their term, Mie Jensen and Nanna Madsen look back at three months working with handicapped children at Thai health centers and in private Thai homes in the area around Sakon Nakhon and reflect on what this experience has meant for them.
