The Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative
SJI/ADM/Membership/2015/97October 26, 2015
Honorable Lyonpo,
Parliamentary Representative,
Dewathang-Gomdar Constituency,
Samdrup Jongkhar Dzongkhag,
C/o Ministry of Education,
Thimphu.
Sub: Samdrup Jongkharpas for Samdrup Jongkhar Dzongkhag : Looking After
Ourselves & Our Own
Honorable Lyonpo,
On behalf of the Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative (SJI) and Lho Mon Society, I wish to humbly submit that our country is small, still highly dependent on the goodwill and generosity of our development partners and a young democracy, which we have to nurture and wisely manage. It is our conviction that “Self Reliance and People’s Conscious and Active Engagement” are central to our sovereignty and our democracy. Dependency can be gradually minimized with the Government and other actors managing GNH-responsive policies and strategies that enhance the country’s revenue generating capacity for larger public good and the citizens responsibly managing areas of their influence. In essence, it is about wisely exploiting the opportunities and addressing the challenges collectively, in an environment of unwavering trust and confidence.
The above is the underpinning of the SJI and Lho Mon Education (LME), projects (based in Dewathang) born out of the great wisdom of a great master, H.E. Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche. These aim to realize the GNH goals of holistic and sustainable development through making education relevant to life and livelihood, enhancing food self-sufficiency, training farmers in organic methods and appropriate technologies, providing economic opportunities for farmers and youth, reducing rural-urban migration of youths, and other activities. By creating a working GNH laboratory in Samdrup Jongkhar, the SJI hopes to create a model of community-based development that can be replicated nationwide.
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The LME and SJI projects’ long term strategy is to instill the intrinsic values in the communities and ultimately communities taking ownership of the programs for their and their children’s sustained well being. The projects strategic partners are progressive farmers, extension agents and local officials, business communities, educational institutions, the Government and external bodies such as Navdanya, India. Our desire has been to also see Samdrup Jongkharpas as active and natural partners of the projects in particular and the Lho Mon Society (LMS) in general. The LMS is a registered civil society based in Thimphu. The SJI and LME operate under its auspices.
His Eminence DJKR wrote to all the youth of Samdrup Jongkhar in 2013 (atleast to those whose names He received from a coordinator). A copy of the letter is attached for ready reference. The letter among others states that, “One thing I really want to say to you is this: No matter where you are and no matter what you do, please remember not to forget your roots and the soil in which you grew up-if possible not just in spirit but also in action. Even if you are away for a time, visit Samdrup Jongkhar and your home villages in Dewathang, Wooling, Lauri, Gomdar, Pemathang, and other places you grew up as often as possible, don’t disconnect yourselves, and try to do some good for this place that raised you.
I’m not saying this as a moralistic thing at all. The reality is that in the years to come, what we now call “backward” will actually be a haven. In many parts of the world, urban life has become so intolerable that people are leaving cities to go back to the countryside. This can happen here in Bhutan. Every time I’m here in Dewathang, I see more clearly that this region can actually be a really good place to live in very many ways, and I hope from the bottom of my heart that you young people who grew up here will help make it so.
That’s one reason I started up the Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative, and I do hope some of you might become involved in that. It’s also why we’ve just started a new and innovative education programme in English, Science, math and other subjects right here at Chokyi Gyatso Institute in Dewathang, which we’re really rebuilding and making over in ways that can truly service our community here”.
Responses from some of the youth were heartfelt and very encouraging. Therefore, we wish to enlist the enthusiastic support and commitment of not only the youth but of all the Samdrup Jongkharpas living in other Dzongkhags, for work or business or anything. Support can be in any form. Further, such support and spirit of ownership of the initiatives by the Samdrup Jongkharpas can leverage the LMS’ fund mobilization strategies and in building the confidence of our potential donors in the LMS and its projects, viz. SJI and LME.
We believe that such an active participation of the citizens in the wellbeing of their communities, their own and their children’s lends meaning to the intrinsic values of democracy and GNH. Therefore, in pursuit of the spirit of Rinpoche’s letter, we request
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Your Excellency’s kind indulgence in mobilizing and concretizing the support of the Samdrup Jongkharpas from villages under Orong, Gomdar and Wangphu Gewogs in Thimphu and beyond (if possible), living/working in Thimphu and beyond. Similar letters are also being sent to MP Pelzang Wangchuk of Jomotshangkha-Martshala constituency with the request to reach out to those under his jurisdiction, MP Jigme Wangchuk, Samdrup Jongkhar’s representative in the National Council covering gewogs closer to his village and Dasho Ugen Chewang, the former Auditor General to cover Dewathang and Samdrup Jongkhar Thromde.
Thanking you in anticipation of your kind support in helping us build a concerted effort to help our own communities through the mobilization of the huge social capital that has not yet been tapped.
Together, we can make a big difference to ourselves and to our own!
Yours sincerely,
Neten Zangmo
(Executive Director)
Copy to:The Secretary, Board, Lho Mon Society, Paro.
Enclosure: Rinpoche’s letter to the youth.
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PO Box 131 PO Dewathang, SamdrupJongkhar, Bhutan +975-17130934