Empower Bhutan's Citizens to Engage in Democracy

Basic Photography for Adolescents
 

Adolescents from monastic schools, schools, and out-of-school of ages between 14-19 underwent a five-day ‘Basic Photography Training’ with five members of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) from October 17-21, 2017 at Nazheon Pelri in Thimphu.

The training was held at Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy (BCMD) media lab at Nazhoen Pelri.

BCMD in collaboration with UNICEF conducted the training to give adolescents including monks and nuns an opportunity to learn ‘Basic Photography’ to be able to express themselves and record issues and concerns affecting their lives and society at large. 

UNICEF has been using training in ‘Basic Photography’ as one of the many ways to empower and enable adolescents to record and document issues and concerns affecting their lives. A total of five nuns from Drubthob Thangthong Dewachen Nunnery and five monks from Dechen Phodrang Lhakhang participated in the training. All the monks and nuns were among the age group of 14-19.

Nuns and monks alike expressed their joy in having been given the opportunity to participate in the training. “I really enjoyed using the camera and meeting new people and interacting with them while taking pictures,” a nun from Drubthob Thangthong Dewachen Nunnery, Tsheltrim said.

Adolescents Conducts Photo Exhibition

Coinciding with “World Children’s Day”, adolescents from monastic schools, out-of-school, and school-going children who have been taking photographs since their recent training, shared their results in a “Photo Exhibition” on November 20-21, 2017 at Royal Textile Academy in Thimphu.
 
The exhibition was a result of five-day training that BCMD conducted in collaboration with UNICEF Bhutan on October 20-25, 2017 at BCMD’s media lab in Nazhoen Pelri Complex. 

The exhibition, which carried the theme “The World Around Us” #We Are The Future #Children Take Over was an exhibition # By The Children #For The Children to “Celebrate the Creative Spirit of The Bhutanese Children”. 

The exhibition displayed over 40 best photographs taken by adolescents including the nuns from Durbthob Thangtong Dewachen Nunnery, monks from Dechen Phodrang Lhakhang (monastery), school-going, and out-of-school children. 

Besides landscapes, adolescents had documented the myriad of issues such as poverty, sanitation, social media, disabilities, and lack of recreational facilities for children, etc. Speaking at the end of the exhibition, UNICEF Bhutan, Head of Child Protection and Adolescent Development, Aniruddha said that the participants have done extremely well in photography. “They took so many good pictures that we had difficulty in selecting pictures because all the pictures were really good,” he said. 

The same batch of adolescents will conduct another round of photo exhibition in February 2018. BCMD in collaboration with UNICEF Bhutan conducted the training and exhibition for 20 adolescents and five CSO members.

Students Complete Local Action Plans in Paro
 

BCMD's Community Mapping project in Paro has contributed to the growth of some young active citizens.

Youth were involved in five projects over a span of three months. The Community Mapping was initiated to help build community initiative among the citizens including local residents and students.

After participating in the project, students from Paro schools and college say they have learned to develop a sense of belongingness and ownership in the community they live in. The students say they learned to be responsible, active, and take part in volunteer activities through community mapping.

Khangkhu Middle Secondary School student, Ruth said that their attitude towards the community changed following the community mapping and implementation of a local action plan to address local challenges. “We now have a sense of ownership because we carried out the work and feel the pinch if something goes wrong with our project,” said Ruth. Her school tool up a project to renovate a school canopy on campus.

Students of four schools and Paro College of Education shared their experience while presenting the outcome of their local action plan on December 3, 2017, to the Paro Town Committee.    

Shaba Higher Secondary School (SHSS) student, Kinga shared that he learned the skills to examine more closely the issues affecting the community such as social, economic, and environmental and how to address those issues. The higher secondary school’s initiative has ensured safe drinking water through the adoption of Kesa community’s only drinking water source.

A student from the Paro College of Education, Sonam said that his team had rich learning experience despite the challenges of achieving the outcome of their waste management advocacy programme. “My team had learned a lot like communicating with the stakeholders and community, and tackling issues within issues,” Sonam said.

Students of Drugyal Central School stayed late into the night to complete their project on time. The students repaired the dilapidated drains in the school. The mappers from the school also acknowledged a huge turn out of volunteers, some of whom they had to turn down since they already had enough.

Shari Higher Secondary School took up maintenance of water pipes and taps at Shari. A total of about 120 students from four schools and Paro College of Education were involved in the Community Mapping exercises - a joint pilot project Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy initiated by Paro Dzongkhag. IDEA International supported the local action plan projects.