The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The second anniversary of Thimphu Rotary Club’s Charter Day was celebrated at the Clock Tower Square, Thimphu yesterday.
During the celebration the Rotary Club of Thimphu released the club’s magazine. The guiding principle of the club is “service above self”. The Rotary Club of Thimphu seeks to be the agent for addressing some of the most pressing issues that the Bhutanese society faces. The priorities of the club are to provide support for education, enhancing productivity of unprivileged youth and support program to assist sustainability of rural areas.
The Home Minister, Damcho Dorji said every human being must uplift the lives of the disadvantaged and the needy. He added that rotary clubs, worldwide, provide the platform for generous individuals a channel to the resources availability for the welfare of the needy. The Home Minister thanked RCT for helping the needy in the past two years.
Lyonpo Damcho Dorji said that under the wise leaderships of our Kings, the government has constantly pursued a balanced growth with the happiness of its people at the center of its all development plans. Despite such advantages and effort, there are always the dispersed and isolated communities of the population that need a helping hand.
“As a developing nation with the limited resources, it is not very easy for the government to reach out to every section of the society. In this context, the Rotary Club in Thimphu, like other civil society organizations, is well placed to fill in the gap and is a linkage to the Rotary International, Rotary Foundation and the global network of Rotary Clubs. Rotary Club of Thimphu has an immense potential to cater the needs of the poor and the underprivileged,” Lyonpo said District Governor Nominee (2016- 2017), Nepal, Jaya Rajya Laxmi Shah, said RCT has done projects under the rotary service under the RCT President and all the Rotarians.
“Rotary has brought us together and we have to note to a new chapter of service and service projects for the humanitarian cause, the cause is for the needy, the hungry, and the thirsty. We look after the maternal child health programs and also try to assist in the education and also the immunization programs like Polio. This is one of our achievements this year, by making a Polio-free South East Asia, and our aim is to make the Polio- free in the world one day,” Shah said. She said RCT has always admired the theme of the GNH which has been acclaimed by the UN as well. “Bhutan has proved that it is not only the big countries to do big things, even small countries like ours can be one of the best in the world,” she said.
She added, “Regarding the six years of District 3292, Nepal and Bhutan, we have achieved some outstanding features that we can be proud of, firstly, the first club of Bhutan RCT have been recognized the sixteenth among the top districts in the rotary international. Secondly, it creates history for women in Rotary Nepal by declaring me as the first governor nominee of District 3292 for the rotary year 2016 and 2017.”
She said she dreams of establishing Bhutan as a separate district of rotary international during her tenure as a District Governor. “This depends entirely on your efforts, but you can count on us, we will cooperate with you. I look forward to working with RCT for better days,” she said.
President, Thimphu Rotary Club, Rinzin Ongdra Wangchuk, said, “Rotary takes immense pride in its commitment towards the global effort in the eradication of Polio. Bhutan received its certification of a Polio- free nation in the 1st quarter of 2014, we move ever closer to ending polio.”
“Rotary is about helping another human kind, another less disadvantaged community. It’s about giving and sharing. There are very wealthy Rotarians who give selflessly to rotary and there is equally many more who give rotary their experience, time and effort, contributions that cannot be measured, every single effort of giving matters to rotary,” he said.
The Rotary Club, comprising of roughly 1.2mn members worldwide was started by Paul P. Harris. Rotary’s name came from the group’s early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of each member.
Rotary takes an immense pride in its commitment towards the global effort in the eradication of Polio. Major efforts began in 1979 with a project to immunize 6mn children in the Philippines. Rotary has saved many children from being confined to a wheelchair or on crutches.
The Rotary Club of Thimphu was chartered in April 2012 with 16 members. The anniversary celebration at Thimphu was attended by Cabinet members, Secretaries of the government, and members from international community and NGOs.
