Network
Willy Oppenheim
Location:
USA
University: Bowdoin College / Oxford University
Regions of interest: Asia, Africa, Middle East, Latin America, United States, Europe
Skills: work with children, women's empowerment, teaching, fundraising, construction
Volunteer Activity:
Lha Charitable Trust
Mukhtar Mai Women's Organization March 01, 2011 - April 01, 2011
Project Why March 01, 2011 - April 01, 2011
COVA March 01, 2011 - April 01, 2011
Health-Inc March 01, 2011 - April 01, 2011
Helping Hands March 01, 2011 - April 01, 2011
MVF March 01, 2011 - April 01, 2011
Project Why March 01, 2011 - April 01, 2011
SECMOL March 01, 2011 - April 01, 2011
Springdales March 01, 2011 - April 01, 2011
Stories by this Volunteer
Don’t Be Like This Guy: Reflections on the Ethics and Economics of International Volunteering
by Willy Oppenheim
March 21, 2012
I have wanted to write a reflection about the ‘Gap Yah’ video ever since I first saw it on Youtube a few months ago. The video depicts a posh young British male gloating to his friends about his recent experiences traipsing multiple continents on a ‘Gap Yah,’ observing a “woman with malaria” in Africa and having a “spiritual cultural political experience” in Burma. The character’s descriptions of other people are patronizing in every way, and his self-righteous retellings of his own ‘going native’ are ironically juxtaposed against stories of his partying and being offensive. A ‘sequel’ shows the same character campaigning on his campus to ‘save the children’ by having a fundraising party, and his motivations and means for ‘helping them’ appear equally dubious and distasteful.These...
Reflections from Meerwala
Mukhtar Mai Women's Organization, by Willy Oppenheim
May 19, 2011 | 1 comment
11 April 2011On the flight from Abu Dhabi to Lahore, the Pakistani woman sitting next to me asked me why I was visiting her country. When I told her I am a graduate student researching the reasons rural families do or do not want to send their daughters to school, she did not mince her words: “Well, I don’t think you’ll understand anything.”This was hardly the first time that my research proposal had been met with such skepticism. Indeed, many professors and colleagues in the Education Department at my university had raised well-reasoned questions about how I would control for the obvious biases and blind spots inherent in my subject position as a white, privileged, non-Muslim American male. These concerns about the potential trustworthiness of my...
Images from Meerwala
Mukhtar Mai Women's Organization, by Willy Oppenheim
April 17, 2011
I left Meerwala a few days ago, and I miss it! It is a beautiful village with great scenery and -- much more important -- lots of kind and generous people. These photos give a glimpse of the landscape and the people of this special place. I strongly encourage prospective volunteers to consider serving MMWO and spending time in Meerwala.
Volunteering at MMWO
Mukhtar Mai Women's Organization, by Willy Oppenheim
April 04, 2011
I have been a guest at MMWO for just over a week, and I feel very lucky to be here. I am staying in the main office building, where several other MMWO administrators live. The organization is generously providing me with food, a bed, and endless cups of chai. I am spending my days getting to know students and families in the village of Meerwala, and it has been fascinating and inspiring thus far. I am happy to say that getting here from Lahore was relatively easy, and that I feel very safe and secure in this location.
India Book Distribution 2008
Omprakash, by Willy Oppenheim
March 13, 2010
During June, July, and August of 2008, we organized and participated in the distribution of over 200,000 children’s books to different schools and libraries throughout India. The idea for this project was born during the previous summer, when conversations with many of our partners in India revealed a consistent desire to obtain high quality fiction and non-fiction books to supplement the official English-language curriculum.In autumn 2007, we discovered Thrift Recycling Management, an organization that collects used children’s books from all corners of the USA. Thrift offered to virtually donate as many books as our partners could handle, provided that we paid the shipping costs. Thanks to the generosity and trust of those who support Omprakash, we managed to raise the necessary funds, and the summer project...
