Hockinson grads head to southeast Asia for humanitarian adventure

Posted

Danielle Lueck remembers exactly how her childhood friend, Jade Budden, first broached the idea of traveling to southeast Asia together.

“About six months ago she called me and said, ‘Do you want to move to Thailand?’ and I said, ‘Sure,’ Lueck says, laughing and smiling across a cafe table at Budden. “It was that easy.”

Best friends since the seventh grade, the two Hockinson High grads (class of 2009) are completely in sync with one another even though they’ve been living miles apart for the past six years. After high school, Lueck moved Portland and studied massage therapy at the East West College of the Healing Arts. Budden earned her degree in political science and international studies at the University of Oregon and moved to San Francisco, where she works for a sustainable living startup.

Both young women are driven, in love with seeing the world and dedicated to helping others. So, when Budden called Lueck with a plan for seeing southeast Asia, the only plausible answer was, “Sure.”

Since then, the two Hockinson natives have narrowed their focus. They leave March 29 for Kathmandu, Nepal, where they’ll live with a local Nepalese family of eight and spend six out of seven days a week volunteering with a women’s sex trafficking prevention program. One month later, the women head to the Chiang Mai province of northern Thailand to volunteer with an elephant sanctuary that rescues and rehabilitates disabled, blind and orphaned elephants.

“We’re excited to go, but we’re also excited to spread the word about these programs,” Budden says. “Sex trafficking is a huge problem in southeast Asia and we will be working in sex trafficking prone neighborhoods performing research on the issues and developing pragmatic ways to combat (these issues), as well as working to educate women in these communities about the threat of sex trafficking.”

After researching their many volunteer options, Budden and Lueck selected the Volunteers Initiative Nepal (VIN), a nonprofit organization founded in 2005 that is on a mission to empower marginalized communities in Nepal.

Although VIN offers several volunteer-based programs, including several focused on public health, youth empowerment and journalism, Budden and Lueck focused on the group’s “Women Empowerment” division and selected the volunteer program that aims to prevent the trafficking of young girls within Nepal and internationally.

“Sex trafficking is a growing problem in Nepal,” Budden says. “Some 12,000 to 15,000 young girls, typically between the ages of 11 and 20, are trafficked each year.”




The women are also collecting donated electronics for the VIN program. Laptop computers digital cameras and tablets are especially needed. To donate to this cause, email Budden at Jade_Budden@Live.com.

After Nepal, the women will enjoy a brief respite in Malaysia before moving on for more volunteer work in Thailand. Lueck says she has always been fascinated by elephants and, of course by Thailand since she plans to focus on traditional Thai massage in her massage therapy business.

“Originally, when we decided to travel to Thailand, we had our hearts set on riding elephants,” Lueck says. “Then we researched it … and discovered that many of the elephants used for tourist attractions, such as elephant rides, are severely abused. We changed our minds pretty quickly when we learned how these animals are treated.”

Instead of seeking out elephant rides and adding to the problem, the women decided to volunteer their time and energy at the Elephant Nature Park in northern Thailand. The award-winning elephant sanctuary has been rescuing, healing and rehabilitating abused and orphaned elephants since the 1990s.

Frugal and realistic, the Hockinson grads have tried to keep their costs to a minimum for their humanitarian trip – they are staying with local families, volunteering with organizations that have low overhead costs, traveling on budget airlines and packing light. They both work full-time and have been saving money for six months. Still, the total cost of the trip is more than $9,400 for both women. To help fund a portion of the costs – about one third of the total bill – Budden and Lueck have established an online site where interested people can read about their trip and donate any amount of money to contribute to the overall costs.

While traveling, Budden will be blogging about the women’s adventures for EVOX television, an online, streaming television programming site dedicated to “expanding consciousness and finding deeper meaning in life.” To read Budden’s blog, visit www.evoxtelevision.com.

To contribute to Budden and Lueck’s volunteer mission in southeast Asia, visit www.gofundme.com/jadeanddanielle.