In the Kingdom of Bhutan, Learning to Value the Environment
LEAD Mongolia is a World Learning program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is working with some of Mongolia’s best and brightest emerging democracy advocates. To propel the program a step further, World Learning partnered with the International Republican Institute (IRI) to implement the LEAD Alliance, which bridges this Mongolian network with like-minded emerging leaders from Bhutan, Myanmar, and Kyrgyzstan.
The trip from Mongolia to Trashiyangste on the northeast border of the Kingdom of Bhutan is not an easy one. In late September 2017 — after two and a half days of travel including three flights and more than 24 hours of driving over rough roads through dense fog — LEAD Mongolia Fellows, Ariunsanaa Batsaikhan and Bilguun Batjargal made the long journey to this small town in Eastern Bhutan.
It was worth the trip: the pair was greeted by hundreds of eager Trashiyangste locals and their LEAD Alliance peers whom they had met earlier during the LEAD Alliance Summit in Mongolia. “We saw the real authentic Bhutan where no foreigners go,” Batjargal says.
The LEAD Mongolia fellows traveled to Trashiyangtse to provide technical support and oversight for the Sustainable Waste Management project led by their Bhutanese mentees and funded by the LEAD Alliance. The project set out not only to clean up the community, but to get citizens involved and committed to the initiative over the long term.
The LEAD Alliance Fellows from Bhutan are passionate about their country’s burgeoning environmental concerns. They say this small poor country of only 800,000 people is heavily dependent on imports, which bring in a lot of waste that is then often disposed of as litter or burned in firepits, which further pollutes the greenery, rivers and streams. “There is an inadequate awareness on waste management and segregation,” they wrote in their project proposal. “In addition, the government and relevant environmental agencies do not have the capacity and resources to address the problem.”
The Mongolia-Bhutan LEAD team co-organized two consecutive full-day trainings targeting town residents and youth, while collaborating with state officials and local school administrators in the process. Training content emphasized proper waste management, such as segregating degradable vs. non-degradable waste.
With a total of 493 community members in attendance, the trainings were an inspirational “call to action” to clean-up the community. About 330 town residents and students became involved in cleaning campaigns, many of whom said this was the first time they were encouraged to think about the environmental issues facing their community.
“One reason why we fail [to clean up the environment] is because we don’t have enough support,” explains LEAD Alliance Bhutan Fellow Tshering Dorji. “I alone cannot do it. The responsibility is not just mine or the government’s: It is the responsibility of each and every one of us.”
Through the project, shops and residents of Trashiyangste were also given the resources and skills to separate degradable and non-degradable waste to facilitate recycling and proper disposal of non-degradable waste. Residents were also instructed on how to sell their recyclables.
LEAD Mongolia fellows benefited from the training as well.
“Although we traveled to Bhutan to support our mentees, I felt that Bhutan had a lot to teach us in respecting and valuing our environment,” Batjargal said after this trip.
Batsaikhan agrees. She argues the LEAD Alliance provided a platform for her and other young leaders to gather in one place under one mission to pursue common goals. “In my opinion, as young person it is vital to have peer leaders to learn from each other,” she says. “I loved every minute of it!”
