The Bhutanese Leading the way.
After making significant strides towards creating a tangible impact among the youth in Bhutan, youth-led group YUMRA (Youth Upliftment through Media, Reflection and Advocacy) is now on its way to begin a nationwide assessment on child protection, cyberbullying and technology-facilitated violence and abuse.
Under the stewardship of the Bhutan Media Foundation (BMF), YUMRA now braces for its next big project, which aims to learn, unravel and delve deeply into understanding reasons behind technology-exacerbated harm and drawing lessons from them for formal policy recommendations to address gaps in digital child protection laws.
Their day of action is scheduled for 2nd August from Bumthang and will conclude on 16th August at Phuentsholing, while exploring other regions like Mongar, Punakha, and Thimphu in between.
Pema Yoezer, a core member said, “We plan to make it a more comprehensive survey by covering each district to make the research richer.”
Another member, Sonam Dechen Yangden said, “The aim of this survey is to explore gaps in existing policies for child protection and violence and abuse that stems from the digital space.”
The group said that their main goal is to create a youth-led policy brief and present it directly to lawmakers to demand updated digital safety laws.
Going forward, the group believes that its findings and policy recommendations will pave the way for driving positive policy and tangible social change.
Titled “Protecting Child and Youth from Cyberbullying and Technology-Facilitated Violence and Abuse in Bhutan”, it is funded by Save the Children Bhutan, and implemented by BMF, in collaboration with YUMRA as the facilitating youth-group.
Originally, the youth group consists of 9 core members, of which 4 members are remaining. Impressively, members are individuals who have only recently graduated from high school (between the ages of 18 and 19 years) and are now planning their undergraduate studies.
Additionally, the youth group has 104 general members across schools and colleges throughout the country, with plans for expansion of their youth network throughout the country.
Background of the group
The group was started as the Youth Wing of BMF by 19-year-old Phuntsho Wangchuk, who was then interning at BMF.
Phuntsho started to reach out to his friends at school. The group, with its founding members came together and decided the official formalities of the group, including its name, logo and framework discussion.
They decided that the youth group will be called YUMRA.
The passionate youth group operates under the vision of being “a thriving platform that shapes youth into informed, reflective, and responsible contributors to society,” and with the objective to empower youth through media literacy, critical thinking, and practical skills.
Tenzin Lhaki, a member said, “As the influence of social media grows rapidly, youths are exposed to a lot of information online. We are advocating for media literacy for youth, so that they can critically analyze information and verify sources while consuming information.”
A notable feature of the group is that it is entirely youth-led, and is peer-to-peer oriented.
Members of YUMRA said that their group is a “thematic working group,” which means that there is ni hierarchy in the team, and each member is delegated with specialized tasks.
“For example, we have an overall representative of the group, a few members in the strategic guidance team, some in content and some in the outreach and engagement team.
YUMRA is also strictly grounded in bringing change in society by building a culture of volunteerism and creating inclusive spaces for dialogue, collaboration and leadership to engage youths so that they can drive responsible change and meaningful civic participation in society.
So far, YUMRA has made progress while earning credibility and invaluable lessons from their programs and activities.
One of the core members, Sonam Dechen Yangden said, “The Bhutan Media Forum was our debut. YUMRA supported BMF in organizing the Bhutan Media Forum through creative direction, technical support, and outreach.”
A key milestone of the group was when YUMRA participated in one of the summer engagement programs hosted by RENEW. There they got an opportunity to present their goals and objectives to honourable parliamentarians.
“They were thoroughly impressed by our presentation and we even got valuable feedback,” said Pema Yoezer.
Pema Yoezer shared that the youth group has also faced its own share of challenges.
“One of the main challenges we faced was logistics and resource constraints. We needed a proper place, proper organization of our activities and funding, which was difficult as this is a new experience for us” he said.
“Since this is a new experience, there was also a huge challenge and a gap in knowledge sharing. We didn’t know about most of the things so the learning curve was a bit difficult since we had to file reports and prepare for our research,” said Tenzin Lhaki.
The group is also faced with the challenge of sustainability.
“Now that we (the core members) are soon leaving for college, there is a question of the sustainability of the group in the future. However, we are discussing the appointment of members from our general members to solve that,” said Tenzin Lhaki.
Riku Dhan Subba, the Executive Director of BMF said that YUMRA is the youth-wing of BMF and their national assessment project is a very critical initiative which will be important in designing policies that affect young people in Bhutan.
“It is a very critical initiative for youth advocacy and problems that affect the youth. I am very proud of their achievements and I hope that their assessment will be very fruitful and impactful for bringing policy change.”
He said that the next move for the group is to be fully instituted, with more efforts to make it stronger so that it is still going to continue despite changes in membership. This includes making a national youth network across Bhutan and more outreach programs.
