Mrs. Deepa Willingham

Mary Jean Eisenhower ~ Deepa Willingham ~ Beatrice Biira
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Mrs. Deepa Willingham

Mrs. Willingham, a naturalized citizen of the United States, was born and brought up in Calcutta, India where she obtained her primary (under the stewardship of Mother Teresa, who was her teacher), secondary and undergraduate educations.She was the Valedictorian of her graduating class obtaining a B.Sc. (Honors) degree from the Calcutta University.Following graduation she came to the United States to obtain graduate degrees from Miami University in Oxford, OH and the University of Wisconsin.

In addition to health-care management and entrepreneurship, in the 1960's, Mrs. Willingham served as lecturer at the University of Wisconsin and the Santa Barbara City College and was a teacher/coordinator of special educational programs for the federally funded Head Start program.She was involved with educating ‘at risk' high school students from the inner city in Milwaukee, Wisconsin designing and implementing innovative teaching techniques to achieve educational goals.She was also a founding board member of Cornerstone House of Santa Barbara, an organization dedicated to non-institutionalized care and education of severely handicapped children.

Mrs. Willingham dedicates her time, effort and resources and participates in many local and international projects - building Pisos (cement floors) in Mexico; National Polio Immunization Day in India; establishing girls' literacy and village rehabilitation programs through the establishment of the Ptyalin Learning Center in Calcutta, India; supporting girls' education in the Philippines; and escorting US high school and college students for humanitarian educational trips to the Ptyalin Learning Center.She also represented Rotary International at the 51st Commission on Status of Women at the UN in February of 2006 and was the keynote speaker at the spouses' Plenary Session at the 2008 International Assembly.

When asked why Mrs. Willingham started this school for girls in the country of her birth, she answers, "It is the fulfillment of a life long dream…to give back the gift of education, particularly to girls.

Deepa Willingham
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To counter the poverty and sexual abuse that many young girls face in Piyali Junction, Deepa Willingham has created a rural school for poor families, many of whom earn less than one dollar a day.

Started by Deepa and her partners, the school has already enrolled eighty girls.
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Deepa serves on a number of boards of hospitals and other institutions, and she has championed the school in her spare time.She considers these children her own, and has campaigned tirelessly to raise funds, follow up, and even supervise the smallest details of the school.She has a vision to do even greater things in this region, including building a school for 1,200 girls, as well as a hospital.Although she is 63 years old, Deepa works from 8 a.m. until 2 a.m. or later, deep into the night.For her children, she constantly works the phone and her email, and visits individuals, officials, and anyone who can help her expand her school and help the less fortunate.Deepa has helped personally with the pulse polio elimination program in India, and has given her full support and energies to expand education and rehabilitation of at-risk girls in the Philippines as well.Her tireless efforts to better the lives of the destitute and downtrodden make her a real unsung hero.

Education deeply impacted - perhaps saved - Deepa's life as a young Indian girl.A severely abused child herself, Deepa grew up in a society that did not value people of lower castes, and valued even less the rights and dignity of women.Deepa has never forgotten her origins - and where she was able to go and achieve.The education she received gave her the chance to go to the U.S., and she is committed to give back to her people and provide the poorest of the poor amazing opportunities to change themselves, their villages, and their country.Deepa remains deeply moved by Gandhi's vision of an India transformed from the village up.She believes that when you educate a girl, you change a family and a community.Mother Teresa, her childhood teacher, inspired her to embrace possibilities and a common humanity.This is why Deepa works for a better India, and pursues her mission worldwide to give the poor and marginalized young women of Mexico, the Philippines, and other countries the opportunity to redefine, re-imagine, and reshape their societies for the better.

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