Giving Back

The Orphanage school was opened by an Australian, Andrew Brown in 2019 to operate as an NGO to support the existing government run Luang Prabang Orphanage. The Orphanage currently supports 32 children and 12 staff with plans to increase capacity to 60 children. 

Lao's population is just 6,800,000 people and approximately 40% of the population live below the poverty line. Most of Lao's population live in rural areas and families rely on farming for their subsistence living. Very few families have access to medical facilities and, as such, the average lifespan of a Loa person is less than 50 years - almost 30 years less than the average western lifespan.

Helping children is a no-brainer!

The mortality rate for childbirth is as high as 20% in remote areas. With no doctors or midwives, complications often lead to the death of the child, the mother or both. Children also faces risk such as being trafficked into child sexy slavery to surrounding nations such as Thailand, Vietnam, and China. The outreach work of the orphanage is critical to ensure that vulnerable children have a safe pathway to the orphanage so that they can be given the best chance at life. The cost of supporting a child at the orphanage is $2000 AUD per year. As parents with children who want for nothing we were moved to help and this along with our core values as yogis to be able to help those less fortunate than outlives, given back is core teaching of “Karma Yoga”

A little goes a long way!

our currency can make a substantial difference in countries like Laos, one of the poorest I the world. A small amount goes a long way. Importantly for us we are partnered with Abdrew brown and his organization as we have line of sight to our donations, we can visit and inspect how our donations are being used, there is no middle person or bureaucracy reducing the impact of each dollar donated. For us this is a no brainer, donations are 100% transparent and we can see the positive impact they have on the children in need.

Current Programs

Poverty is the leading cause of death in Laos with a variety of diseases prevalent such as, scabies, polio, typhoid,  Malaria & whooping cough. Malnutrition also prevents infants from developing the digestive capacity to grow, Westen Wellness currently supports the milk and shoes program whereby we fund the delivery of high fat/protein based milk to the assist infants with develop the digestive capacity and provide shoes to reduce common skin based infections.  In 2024 Western Wellness swill raise $6,000 AUD for the above programs to supply milk and shoes for up to 500 children

Donations are sourced from the follow activities:

• Sound Spa workshops $4,000 PA

• Studio yoga passes $2,000 PA

• Giving is Living Yoga Retreat $16,500 PA

“Giving is living” yoga retreat

The cost of supporting a child at the orphanage is $2000 AUD per year, to further help support the children we have developed the “giving is living” yoga retreat held in Laos in January each year. The retreat raises $16,500 AUD to help fund the children at the orphanage.  Click here to find out more (of to retreat page)

Please review the following with info on the retreat.

How can you help?

You can support by the orphanage and our donations programs by purchasing services from western wellness as well as joining us on the giving is living yoga retreat. If you like to directly support the Orphanage you can contact Andrew Brown direct via the below or ask us for an introduction.