Giving Youth a Free Space to Learn at Media Lab

Dear friends, donors and supporters,

We are glad to let you all know that we have re-launched our Media Lab and we are back in the game. We are continuing our activities at the lab and, as envisioned, we aim to make the media lab a dynamic space where youth can access all sorts of digital media equipment and learn how to use it for the betterment of Bhutanese society.

The lab looks great with a cosier atmosphere.But more importantly the activities are becoming more robust and are reaching the people who need them most.

Here is a brief overview of what the Media Lab has achieved since summer began:

• Creating Multimedia stories of Civil Society Organisations (CSO) in Bhutan: CSOs in Bhutan have a long way to go to play their roles as service providers in the country. In doing so, we believe that it is important for CSOs to be able to effectively communicate with their audience. We led a 2-day workshop for our civil society friends at the lab where they learned how to tell their stories using multimedia tools. The training was facilitated by Marie Thesbjerg, a Danish journalist who has worked with us on numerous activities.

           As a result, we created five different stories using photos, captions and audio. The stories were about people                    living with disability, challenges faced by recovering drug addicts, kidney patients and promoting local products in the country.

           One such story is that of a youth representative of the Youth Initiative (YI), who has started an idea of promoting              locally produced chips at the school cafeterias. Click HERE to watch the video.

           The lab will soon house an open mic night where the stories will be screened for the members of civil society,                  other youth, and to provide a space to talk about such issues.

• Community Mapping: From July 1-10, the lab housed our 3^rd batch of community mappers. 30 teachers and students from across the country came together to learn about the importance of a sense of community and how it can be improved with peoples’ engagement. The mappers used UNICEF GIS mapping tool to map and upload the data online. Check out the map HERE.

           As a result, the youths and teachers, provided five different solutions to address some of the issues in Thimphu                such as legal space for street hawkers to sell food, set up dust bins at a spiritual site (Buddha Point) for waste                  management, improve public bus services, strengthening individual roles in a community and persuade a       retreat centre to adopt the policy of offering local produce like roasted rice, eggs, maize snacks, vegetables and fruits instead of imported packaged snacks as offerings in monasteries.

           Check out some of the photos from the workshop HERE

Looking ahead, we hope to continue strengthening the capacity of our CSO friends through the lab and inspire youths to be able to create multimedia contents to better understand and advocate for some of the issues they are concerned about. Please give us your feedbacks and suggestions at phuntshonamgay@bcmd.bt