Omprakash in the Classroom- Collaborators
These organizations help us bring our international network of partners into schools and communities that can learn from and support their efforts.
Frontier Café, Cinema & Gallery, located in Brunswick, Maine, has grown from founder Michael Gilroy’s passion for connecting people with experiences that provoke a sense of discovery. Frontier is a destination where people can gather to enjoy and explore food, film and art inspired by the world beyond. We are pleased to share with Frontier the goal of helping bring their international experiences into their home communities, and we are grateful to Frontier for being a space where Omprakash volunteers and fundraisers can organize educational events and service-learning projects.
Images of the World is a series of slide programs created by the husband and wife team of Tass Thacker and Bruce B. Junek—explorers, authors, photographers and teachers who have bicycled and traveled through 53 countries. Since 1987 more than 1.4 million students have seen their educational assembly programs, which are an adventure in social studies, science, geography, culture, history, art, reading, writing, and learning about the world. Their goal is to promote cultural and ethnic understanding, global awareness, environmental education and stewardship, intellectual and artistic curiosity, healthy lifestyle choices, and to encourage others to realize their own goals and dreams in life. Their website is www.imagesoftheworld.com. Donation to their Educational Fund offers the chance to positively impact the lives of hundreds of thousand of students across the nation. Due to budget cuts, they no longer do programs in inner city schools, or in economically challenged neighborhoods and districts that previously had welcomed them every year. They appreciate any way that you can spread the world to other schools about their programs. They travel six months each year on a speaking circuit across a ten-state region from California to Minnesota. As Bruce and Tass visit schools, they introduce students to Omprakash and its educational network. To support IoW’s work, you can make a tax-deductible donation to Omprakash and earmark it for IoW.
Onebird is dedicated to creating and funding community arts programs worldwide that work with children, in collaboration with their families and communities. Using photography, writing, mixed media and emerging technologies, Onebird teaches participants tangible skills that will assist them in sharing their stories and conveying their perspective, identity and culture. Onebird has supported Omprakash volunteers by offering them cameras and their tested curricula for teaching photography as a means of “art therapy.” This generous support from Onebird enables Omprakash volunteers to initiate photo projects abroad that enrich our entire network with educational imagery.
The Health League cleverly shares ideas for promoting “3-D Health,” a combination of personal, community, and environmental health. Public appearances and presentations to school and camp groups involve live characters, music, slides, and video clips. Initial efforts are targeting adolescents from Maine families with limited resources. The organization’s mission is to empower consumers to eat, move, and in general live intentionally in order to promote 3-D Health.
The Health League operates in several ways that benefit Omprakash and its partner organizations. Performances include compelling messages about the power of service. Audience members also receive written information about ways to be in action to promote 3-D Health, including by contributing to Omprakash-related service projects. In addition, The Health League is developing educational materials such as visual aids and music that volunteers will be able to use in various settings worldwide to excite people about ways to promote 3-D Health where they live.
A large number of appearances will be at schools and camps that cannot pay for dynamic guest presentations. In addition to seeking grants and (soon) selling educational T-shirts and music online, The Health League relies in part on donations to do its work. Basic overview of the project and background about founder Tyson Weems is available at www.thehealthleague.org.