In ongoing support of the fight against coronavirus, The International Federation of Aromatherapists (IFA) has implemented a series of measures for communities most impacted by the crisis. The IFA has collectively donated more than three thousand (4,000) masks, hygiene products and hand sanitisers to frontline healthcare workers in the UK serving the most vulnerable people striving to curb the pandemic i.e. Ealing Hospital and Northwick Park Hospital and local hospices. In addition we have donated masks to our China and Hong Kong members and will shortly be sending out masks to all our UK members. This week the IFA will donate a further 300 care packages to key frontline workers at Clay Ponds Rehabilitation Hospital, which is local to our West London Head Office. St Thomas, St George’s and St Mary’s hospital Paddington are sending people who have recovered from Covid 19 to Clay Ponds Rehabilitation Hospital to recover. They have over 200 key workers including nurses, doctors, carers and not forgetting cleaners that are in lockdown stationed there. Away from family and friends we wanted to make sure they felt cared for and so have put together care packages which include masks, hand sanitisers, comfort blends, soaps, essential oil diffusers, inhalers, magazines and some well-deserved munchies to enjoy. These care packages are provided completely free of charge. 

The Sompo Care Lavire is a carer home in Kanagawa, Japan that wish to offer complementary therapies and aromatherapy into their programme of care. In September 2018 the IFA organised for a team of volunteers to visit the care home and integrate Aromacare. The IFA sponsored its volunteer therapists travel and equipment to provide massage treatments to the residents. This charity project spanned over six months. During this time the volunteers also taught the residents family members simple techniques to use with their loved ones and how to create artefacts using scents to communicate caring and understanding. The IFA provided essential oils, carrier oils, massage beds, diffusers, towels, cushions and herbs to create a herb garden for the residents to enjoy. The IFA donated £2,154.00 of its funds to the project.

Natural Baby Care is a charity based in Japan that helps families with disabled children by educating them how to give their children massage to relax both their body and mind. The charity’s activities are aimed at children from 2 months to 6 years old. More details can be found here http://naturalbaby.shinyou.net At the IFA's 30th Anniversary Conference in Japan, in June 2015, the IFA sponsored Natural Baby Care 203,400 YEN (£1345.733). The president, Ikuya Inoue, attended to receive the cheque and raise awareness of the charity to our conference attendees. The IFA were delighted to have helped such a worthy charity.

The Fountain Centre is a charity that provides information and support in the form of complementary therapies and counselling to cancer patients and their carers. They are reaching out to more and more people and are now established within St Luke's Cancer Centre in the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford. This is no small feat for a complementary therapy centre to be based within an NHS hospital. This couldn't be done without the support of around 100 volunteers comprised of many IFA volunteer aromatherapists, who give up their time to help. The IFA also provide the centre with £600 worth of essential oils each year to support this project.

Rest UK is a voluntary organisation that offers rescue workers onsite chair massages in highly stressed and sometimes dangerous locations during the course of their shift. The effects are instantaneous and self-evident; people need to sit down, relax and after a short massage session will return to their grim tasks hopefully feeling recharged; enabling them to function more efficiently without the need for longer breaks. Rest UK is composed entirely of volunteers, many of whom are IFA members; the founder members are Kim Wooldridge MIFA, Lynne Woods and Stephen Paine. Rest UK have assisted with the UK fire service, including the search and rescue teams and the urban search teams. In the past they have attended international major incidents including Ground Zero following 9:11 and the Tsunami. At Ground Zero, many rescue workers suffered bronchial complaints, so oils such as eucalyptus were handed to them by volunteers. In 2010 the IFA raised £1,000.00 for the charity. The IFA chair, Sue Mousley inspired by their work also joined the team at the Emergency Services Show in Coventry in November to raise awareness. The IFA also donated essential oils which were given to the ‘Help the Heroes’ fund, which is also being supported by Rest UK and went to the soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

The coronavirus is a virus that can cause pneumonia and has already caused more than 2,000 deaths. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. It can be passed from human to human but because it is a new illness, it is not confirmed exactly how coronavirus spreads from person to person. Similar viruses are spread in cough droplets. In China especially, supplies of protective masks are running out and prices are rocketing due to high demand. The IFA have therefore donated two thousand protective masks to several Chinese and Hong Kong provinces for members and friends affected by the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus. Masks were sent to the provinces of Hubei, Zhejiang and Fujian, Kowloon and Wan Chai, so that people who are suffering the disease could feel the concern from the IFA. 

On 26th March 2018 at the Heung Yee Kuk Building, Shatin, Hong Kong, IFA members came together for a historic event to set the new world record by giving 30-minute hand massages simultaneously to 297 elderly people beating the previous world record of 250. This was achieved by IFA members doing what they do best helping, healing and supporting their local community and promoting aromatherapy in the best possible way – by being a living example and a credit to their profession. To make this happen the IFA sponsored £5,000 for the materials and expenses for the event. This landmark in the IFA’s history is an amazing honour for not only the IFA but our qualified professional Aromatherapists to be in the Guinness Book of records as well as giving back to the community.  A big thank you to all IFA members who participated and the WSA and CPA charity supporting this event. An incredible accomplishment and memorable day.

Crisis is the national charity for single homeless people dedicated to ending homelessness by delivering life-changing services and campaigning for change. For the last 40 years Crisis has provided support for people over the Christmas period (23^rd – 29^thof December) by setting up centres across London that cater for their most basic needs as well as giving them somewhere secure and happy to be over the Christmas week when they have nowhere else to go. Last year over 8000 volunteers helped Crisis deliver this programme and helped almost 5000 homeless people. The IFA have sponsored Crisis each year since December 2014 with equipment and products to be used by therapists. We would like to thank our members who have given massages at various locations across London during the Christmas period.

Yes to Life raise awareness of complementary therapies that are currently unavailable on the NHS for cancer patients. There are huge numbers for whom mainstream approaches such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy are either not a viable option, or simply one that they do not wish to pursue. For these people there are a wide range of alternative treatments, some from other medical traditions, some very new developments, and some that are well established. Significant numbers of cancer patients have received benefits from these treatments. Furthermore, there are many complementary therapies that can be used alongside conventional treatment in an integrative approach; to support the immune system, to minimise side effects and protect organs from damage, to enhance the effectiveness of conventional treatment, and to increase overall wellbeing. The IFA raised funds for Yes to Life to be used for the aromatherapy department by donating monies accumulated at exhibitions, conferences and merchandise during 2012 totalling £2,500.00.

Bedfordshire Body Positive (bbpositive) is a registered charity which was founded in 1989 and is run for and by people living with and directly affected by HIV/AIDS throughout Bedfordshire. It provides support for people affected by HIV/AIDS; to enable one another in dealing with physical and psychological challenges brought on by HIV/AIDS. A self-help ethos underpins bbpositive's philosophy. It coordinates services for men, women and children from all communities and backgrounds. It provides a centre for people with HIV and aims to provide support for clients through targeted services and through providing ‘a place of refuge and welcome’. In 2009 the IFA sponsored bbpositive with essential oils, couches and volunteer therapists to celebrate World Aids Day and raise awareness.

Broxtowe Women’s Project helps women living in the Borough of Broxtowe who are experiencing domestic abuse. They provide a confidential helpline, outreach service, training courses and drop in sessions, all aimed at empowering women and to help them survive domestic abuse. In November 2019 the IFA sponsored £1,500 to fund an aromatherapy taster day and provided training to incorporate aromatherapy as part of their care package. The IFA attended a Befrienders meeting providing treatments using simple techniques like hand massages to provide relaxation to service users and taught about how to use scents for emotional and mental benefits. 

The Po Leung Kuk is a well-known and historic charity in Hong Kong established in 1880. Over the past century and in line with economic development, the range of services the charity provides and regions the charity serve has expanded to accommodate the welfare of more people. With the rapid aging of our population, the demand for services for the elderly have been increasing, with families struggling to get the care they so desperately need. Since the 1980’s the charity has been focusing on the development of care services and quality of life for the elderly. Its mission is to ‘serve our elderly with care, concern and counsel’.  At the IFA’s Hong Kong Preventative Healthcare conference in March 2018 the IFA donated 2000.00 HKD (£1,831.50) to help to improve services by integrating the IFA’s Aromacare Carer course into a wider range of these elderly care programmes. Focusing on those with dementia and chronic pain issues, the monies donated will directly inform and educate staff training and development for a multi-discipline approach to care, in furtherance of our own charitable objectives as well as supporting communities in Hong Kong - a country who has embraced the IFA’s ethos since the 1990’s with its first IFA training school.

The IFA’s Aromacare Carers Course teaches parents of children with complex needs how to use massage and essentials oils as a means of communicating, caring and understanding with their children. Parents on the course have children with a combination of complex disabilities, and families find themselves having to cope with numerous challenges, upsets and frustrations on a daily basis. Aromacare has changed the lives of many parents and carers who have undertaken the course, making family life more relaxed and improving the one-to-one time they have with their child. A lot of the parents who wish to join the Aromacare course need funding to attend the course. Knowsley council, Everton Football club and the IFA ourselves sponsor numerous course participants to join the Aromacare Course created by the IFA. We have also sponsored a group of 8 mothers, £4,000 collectively to attend the course and received heart-warming testimonials in response.

On 11th March 2011, Japan suffered the effects of an earthquake swiftly followed by a tsunami, which had a devastating impact on parts of the country. The IFA quickly responded by organising a relief fund and put together a plan to support four emergency shelters in different locations. One of our own schools in Sendai City was completely destroyed including the school owner's home. To us, this brought home just how vulnerable we are to the power of nature. We organised teams of aromatherapists to visit different locations:- Tateiinogowa High school in Ishinomaki City, treating 250 people, many of whom were suffering from poor circulation and high stress levels, Higashimatsushin City where 91 people were confined in 4 large rooms, each housing three or four families, Koizumi Junior School in Kesenuma City, treating 210 people mainly children who had escaped to the top of the hill where the school stood. On May 21st we were at another high school in Ishinomaki, the shelter there housed over two hundred people. The IFA raised £3,000.00 for the Japanese disaster fund and donated oils for our therapists. Many of the people we met along the way told us that they had felt much calmer after treatments and felt positive for the first time. We continued our efforts and sponsored a network centre in North-east Japan in order to support local children (many of who had lost a friend or relative) and have organised the Yappashi Festival.

The Santa Clara Foundation in Chile shelters HIV positive children from deprived backgrounds. Because of their condition many have been treated as outcasts and reduced to living on the streets. They come to the shelter presenting with high levels of aggressiveness, low self-esteem, irritability, anxiety and sleep disturbances. The core group who live on the premises are children between 1 and 14 years old, who have either been orphaned or abandoned by parents with advanced AIDS and were incapable of looking after them. At the IFA’s Singapore conference in 2008 we delivered a two hour workshop to bring more recognition to the foundation and raised £1,500.00, which was used to improve the sanitary facilities at the shelter. We are pleased to have worked alongside Lady Sarah Ferguson who also actively supports and promotes the Santa Clara Foundation. In addition we sent aromatherapy oils for our therapists to massage the children, with treatments being carried out through two hour twice-weekly visits.

The Minatoku Daiba Koureisya Service Centre in Tokyo is an elderly peoples home service centre currently to 35 residents. In September 2018 the IFA organised for a team of volunteers to visit the care home and integrate Aromacare. Fragrance inhalers were made and given to each resident and periodic hand massages provided. The IFA sponsored its volunteer therapists travel and equipment to provide massage treatments to the residents. This charity project spanned over six months. During this time the volunteers also taught the residents family members simple techniques to use with their loved ones and how to create artefacts using scents to communicate caring and understanding. The IFA provided essential oils, carrier oils and towels. The IFA donated £1,218.00 of its funds to the project.

The Qui Zhi Primary School in Shanghai, China is a volunteer ​led institute for orphans of disasters living in the mountain areas of Shanghai. In 2015 the IFA collected, over its 2-day conference, 22000.00 RMB (£2472.30) for the school, to help towards coal and supply blankets for the up and coming winter months together with educational materials, books, dictionaries, pens and writing tools to further their educational facilities. Alan Howell’s company Shechina - also gave clothes and suntan screen, as the children live so high up in the mountain their skin is affected by UV rays. Our CEO, Pauline Allen educated the teachers about essential oils that would help their skin and assist the children in overcoming transitional feelings of anxiety and physical discomforts. When the cheque was presented to the headmaster at the end of the IFA China Conference, a group of children from the orphanage took to the stage and sang. The children loved the teddy bears that they received from the IFA and the school expressed their thanks with a banner and scarves they had made. A truly wonderful end to an IFA conference that brought home the value of our work.

The Meadow House Hospice is a specialist palliative care service funded by the NHS at Ealing Hospital, delivering care to Ealing and Hounslow Boroughs. Their aim is to help each patient and their families to cope as well as possible with the effects of cancer, and for the patient to be cared for and die in the place of his or her choice. The hospice aims to affirm life and to regard dying as a normal process, provide relief from pain and other distressing symptoms and integrate the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care. The Hospice has responded to the increasing demand for complementary therapies as part of their patient care by developing and expanding its services. IFA volunteers gave treatments to the patients' families at pamper evenings held at the hospice in October 2013 to raise funds amounting to £2,315.00.

The George Eliot Hospital is one of the forerunners in providing aromatherapy to pregnant women and has been assisting other NHS Trust’s around the country in setting up a similar care package. IFA member and midwife Sue Mousley has coordinated the ‘Oasis project’, which was originally set up to help patients who were experiencing a high level of anxiety about their hospital visits. The hospital Oasis team uses aromatherapy practices on both patients and staff alike. The Oasis dedicated therapy room opened just over a year ago in Coombe House and provides a peaceful environment where a person can relax and learn ways of controlling their feelings of anxiety. The service has gradually expanded to offer relaxation therapies to members of staff as well as patients, and to go to patient bedsides where appropriate. Therapies provided include hand massage, aromatherapy, visualisation, relaxation and breathing techniques as well as advice about dealing with stress and anxiety. In 2010 the IFA sponsored the George Eliot Hospital with books, oils and couches.

In 2007 Juan Paillamilla was a young, enterprising and hard-working Mapuche Indian, who lived in Villarrica, South of Chile. He had started an indigenous aromatherapy project that would hopefully help him and his family and community find new sources of income. He had also raised awareness of his people’s traditional herbal medicinal knowledge in his country and abroad. Juan approached Sylvia Galleguillos, regarding studying the IFA certified course that she runs in Chile and asked whether the fees could be waived, as he could not possibly afford them. Sylvia decided that Juan was a worthwhile and genuine case to take on but unfortunately could not afford his travel expenses. The IFA sponsored Juan’s travel and accommodation expenses so that he could further his education and improve his community with his newly gained knowledge of essential oils. He has since written to us and know has his own distillation farm.