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Vietnamese training
An Owl Centre training programme, providing training to Vietnamese SEN teachers so that they can help local families with children with ASD.

The Owl Centre is a registered charity (number 1191239), and has been providing help to those in need since 2012.

In that year, a small number of Owl Centre therapists travelled to Vietnam to partner with the Saigon Children’s Charity. Their task was to train local SEN teachers who worked with children with Autism, but who lacked the knowledge and skills to help those children effectively. This training programme, which lasted for a fortnight and took place in Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, was the first example of The Owl Centre exporting best UK practice to countries with a skills deficiency.

Since 2012, The Owl Centre’s relationship with the Saigon Children’s Charity has flourished, and our therapists have travelled there every year to carry out training programmes. Arrangements are in place for this to continue. The Owl Centre has also developed links with charities in India and Sri Lanka, and we are constantly on the lookout for other well-established charities with which we can work in order to help children in need around the world.

The Owl Centre Vietnam
The Owl Centre therapists in Vietnam after completing one of our 'train the trainer' charitable programmes.
The Owl Centre India charity
The Owl Centre helps those in need around the world.
The Owl Centre India charity
Olga and Katy in Hyderabad, India, to help deliver the Owl Centre's charitable objectives.

Our Trustees

Heledd Kendrick

Founder and CEO of Recruit for Spouses (RfS), a company which solely exists to help the wives and partners of our Armed Forces into work.

A military wife herself, she started the business in 2011 when she realised her situation wasn't unique. Since 2011, the business has helped over 5,200 wives with career advice and has placed (and supported) over 1,000 into employment. Her work has helped shape policy within central government and resulted in creating the ‘Liquid workforce’ which is a way for military spouses to work from home in the Financial and Defence sector.

Heledd has played a significant role in changing attitudes towards spousal employment at the highest political levels, across the MoD and in wider industry. She has won several awards for her work in helping spouses access the workplace including The Prime Minister’s Big Society Award, Entrepreneur Award, Women in Defence Award, and notably she is also a Deloitte Social pioneer for her work in championing spousal employment for the Armed Forces Covenant. Heledd was also recently awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts and is one of the UK’s Timewise top power 50 in bringing forward Flexible working.

Marianne Simpson

Retired Special Needs teacher

She first visited Vietnam in 2000 when her daughter was working there - she loved it and knew she had to return! In 2005, she returned for a sabbatical from her teaching job in Oxford and worked for the National College of Pedagogy in Ho Chi Minh City through VSO.

On retiring in 2007, Marianne returned to Vietnam, this time for a much longer VSO placement in a teacher training college in Nha Trang. Over the years, Marianne has helped 100’s of Vietnamese families, particularly those with Autism and Cerebral Palsy.

Marianne returned back to the UK in 2012 but has continued to organize all of The Owl Centre’s Vietnamese projects, as well as attending some in person.

Jo Luxton

Executive Administrator for The Property Litigation Association and Real Estate Balance

She has many years of experience assisting organisations and individuals to achieve their business and personal objectives, which includes advising companies on gender balance and diversity within the workplace.

Jo has a strong reputation for excellence and efficiency, and dedicates herself to everything that she puts her mind to.

Jo attended The Owl Centre’s project in Ho Chi Minh City in 2019 in a support role, and therefore brings to her trustee role direct knowledge and understanding of the operational side of our charity.