Youth: More than 90 youth from across the country are attending the four-day long youth summit that is on going at Ugyen Academy Higher Secondary School in Punakha.

The event that is being organized by the Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy (BCMD) and is the first of its kind. It aims to provide like-minded youths with a platform to reflect on their roles in a democracy. The summit is being held with financial support from the Canada Fund for local initiative and the UNICEF.

BCMD Assistant Programme Officer, Sherub Dorji said the objective of the summit is to bring together youths between the ages of 16 to 25 who are graduates of classes X and above, and help them in networking with each other to understand issues concerning youth across the country.

“We want the youths to understand what role they can play in their community, in the country as a whole,” he said. During the summit, youths are expected to develop their own ideas and come up with action plans to improve their communities.

The youths will engage in discussions and topics like waste management, domestic violence and substance abuse among the youth, he said.

“We have called social-workers who have made differences through small initiatives like Barath Rana and Ngawang Phuntsho, a thupa seller Aum Tsheirng of Lungtenzampa,” he said. This, Sherub said, is to help youth participants in developing action plans to carry out social actions.

A teacher trainee and one of the participants, Dorji said it is an opportunity to meet students from different colleges and share individual initiatives in their respective locality.

“Youth are ones that could bring changes in the community if given responsibility,” said another trainee.

Dawa Gyelmo