A group of young Bhutanese have come out to create a community of people from diverse backgrounds with different talents and abilities. They call the group Youth Caring Community (YCC).

“We are trying to create a resource or community pool. If we could include all the people from diverse background then we could help our young people [with their expertise],” said Namgyel Wangchuk, YCC’s project developer.

In Thimphu, on August 12, coinciding with the International Youth Day, YCC organised its first Jomo event and launched YCC photo challenge.

The group consists of six founding and about 10 supporting members.

Namgyel Wangchuk said YCC is a time machine; it would link a youth with an interest (y-seed) to a professional from the pool (y-guide) so that the youth is inspired to pursue what he or she is interested in.

Namgyel Wangchuk said that if YCC could change the mentality of the community that every job is equal, that every student is intelligent and that every youth is smart, it would help solve unemployment issue facing the country today. “If we can say ‘you are not good in maths but you are good in singing and that’s absolutely fine,’ we would be giving young people self-esteem and confidence to pursue their interests. Because we only look at one side of the coin, we forget all other things.”

Jomo event motivates individuals who have made a positive impact on Bhutanese youth, to support their morale and assist in their collective endeavours, and to initiate dialogue to build a community for youth.

Karma Choki, also a project developer with YCC, said YCC was trying to mirror an ant colony (jomo in Dzongkha means an ant), how well organised it is with everybody pulling their weight. Embracing diversity of youth talents and encouraging them to pursue their insterests could lead them to new opportunities, she added.

The main purpose of the photo challenge is to create awareness about different intelligence, to encourage youth to participate in healthy online communities, to help individuals realise their dream, and to bring individual’s dream into picture. For the competition participants will have to upload two pictures along with name and a quote or a caption – a picture of the participant and a picture of what they aspire to be. The pictures should have hash tags #YCCBhutan along with #YCCAchieved or #YCCGoal.

Namgyel Wangchuk said YCC would focus on rural youth as they have less access to information. It has plans to provide career orientation to class 12 students next year.

Karma Cheki