History
The Omprakash Foundation has emerged in reaction to three overlapping problems that its founders first noticed in 2004. The first concerned their own ability to access information about volunteer opportunities: while trying to find educational organizations where they could volunteer in India, they were frustrated to see that all of their efforts led to similar organizations that charge high fees for admission into structured, pre-arranged “volunteer trips.” With some difficulty, the founders eventually connected with an organization where they could volunteer directly, and it was during their subsequent trip that the second problem became clear: many educational organizations in India were eager to receive volunteers and other resources, but were unable of making these needs known to the world. The third problem became apparent only after the first two came into focus: because potential volunteers and donors were virtually unable to learn about the specific needs of the world’s many worthy educational projects, it seemed that all “humanitarian” efforts were doomed to end up being thoroughly de-humanized by the bureaucratic mechanics of macro-level development.
As an organic solution to all three of these problems, the Omprakash Foundation began as a unique effort to build human-to-human relationships that would facilitate communication and collaboration between different social actors around the world. As volunteer English teachers at a small school in Dharamsala, the Omprakash founders had learned the power of “connecting the dots”: administrated by the Louisiana-Himalaya Association, this school was a hub of different community service projects, all driven by volunteers from India, Tibet, Europe and the U.S. On their last day in India, they volunteered at the Mother Teresa Home for the Dying and Destitute in Delhi, where six nuns care for three-hundred physically and mentally disabled residents. There, they met Omprakash: an old gentleman who had been living in the home ever since suffering a severe stroke thirty years earlier. The living conditions at the home were far from what most people would call ideal, but Omprakash told them that he felt like he was in paradise, simply because the nuns had been so kind to him.
This comment sparked everything that the Omprakash Foundation is today. The human capacity to ameliorate suffering–both within others, and within themselves– had never been so apparent. Suddenly, money and politics and bureaucracy ceased to seem like the most important ingredients in the recipe for positive social change, and the necessity of basic human-to-human interaction became obvious. It seemed all too obvious that we could easily support the impressive projects we had seen by simply connecting the dots back to our privileged American communities. At the same time, by letting the voices of people like Omprakash resonate amongst our friends and families, we could share the sense of humility and gratitude that this man inspired in us. So, with LHA as our inspiration, we returned to the U.S. and started writing letters.
The generosity of our donors has enabled us to support a variety of causes, a full account of which can be found below. Soon after we began raising and donating money, we decided to focus primarily on projects involving education. A six-week research trip in Tibet, graciously funded by grants acquired through Johns Hopkins University and Bowdoin College, enabled us to visit over twenty different schools during the summer of 2006. This field research, complemented by continuing travel experiences, reading, and endless email communications, informs our ongoing process of deciding what projects to support. Rather than bind ourselves to a single, inflexible mission, we aim to continue allowing our decisions to be guided by the human relationships that we and our partners forge while traveling abroad.
In addition to bringing money and material resources to schools in India, Tibet, Pakistan, and beyond, we are also working to connect the dots by directing volunteers towards schools around the world that have expressed the need for native English speakers to help teach English. We do not offer any sort of guide service that will escort travelers to and from their volunteer opportunities. Rather, we offer our advice and encouragement to young Americans looking to broaden their perspectives by entering a foreign community and forging relationships without the filter of an organized travel group. We strongly believe that this effort of ours will be eye-opening and intensely educational for both American volunteers and the foreign communities that they will serve. Read about funds disbursed through Omprakash Foundation>>