Description

In this program volunteers regularly visit and massage babies living in orphanages in their own communities. The volunteers foster orphaned and disadvantaged children's well-being and development by helping meet their need for nurturing touch and one-on-one interaction.

Kizuna Baby provides volunteers with a one-day training in the infant massage program of the International Association of Infant Massage. Some trainings conclude with a group visit to an orphanage to meet the staff and babies.

Kizuna Baby arranges for trained volunteers to regularly visit orphanages in their own communities to give babies gentle massage and nurturing attention. Kizuna Baby also provides volunteers with ongoing support and offers them opportunities to continue their education in massage for children.

Currently Kizuna Baby operates this program in cooperation with orphanages in Beppu, Kobe, Morioka, Tokyo, and Yokohama. We are working to expand the program to other regions in Japan and abroad.

Highlights

Babies need an abundance of nurturing touch and attention from their caregivers. Babies who have been separated from their parents are particularly at risk of receiving less one-on-one interaction and affectionate contact than they need for their optimal well-being and development.

Baby massage volunteers can be important providers of supplemental care to babies living in orphanages in Japan. By regularly visiting the babies and providing them with one-on-one attention including massage, volunteers bring more nurturing touch and interaction into the children's lives than they would otherwise have.

Massage is a particularly important service to provide to orphan babies because it has been proven through scientific research to bring children a number of health and developmental benefits. These benefits include increased weight gain for premature and low-birth-weight infants, strengthening of the immune system, reduction of stress, and improved sleep.

Staff and directors of orphanages which receive baby massage volunteers often report that the service these volunteers provide is needed and appreciated.

Qualifications

1. Medium to long-term commitment to provide consistent service
It is important that volunteers be committed to providing regular visits to a local orphanage on a medium to long-term basis. Please only join this program if you have the intention and ability to visit a child at an orphanage for at least 30 to 60 minutes an average of once per week for 3 months. Longer-term commitments and more frequent visits than these minimum guidelines are preferable.

2. Absence of contagious diseases
Volunteers are required to be free of diseases which babies could contract by sharing your airspace or being touched by you. Please only apply for this program if you do not have any symptoms of infection and know yourself to be free of contagious diseases.

3. Baby massage training
Please attend a baby massage training presented by Kizuna Baby. Dates and locations of upcoming trainings will be provided to applicants. Because the Kizuna Baby training includes unique content specific to the Kizuna Baby program and volunteer work in orphanages in Japan, baby massage trainings and certifications completed through other organizations are not acceptable substitutes for the Kizuna Baby training.

Languages

• Japanese
• English

Cost in US$:

free

Cost Includes:

• In-country orientation/Training

Experience Required

no

Volunteer Types

Typical Volunteer

Any adult may apply for this volunteer program as long as they are able to meet the requirements listed above.

Age Range

varies

Typical Living Arrangements

• Independent living

Participants Travel

Independently

Typically Participants Work

Independently

Application Process Involves

• Online Application plus Application Assessment
• Phone/Video Interview

Typically The Application Process Time is

1 week

Post Services Include

• Job and Internship Network

Kizuna Baby's Mission Statement

To help meet the need for nurturing touch and communication of orphaned, ill and disadvantaged children through infant massage and pediatric massage.

Year Founded

2010