Who are you trying to help? What issue are you trying to address?

Having just established its formal education system in 1950s, Bhutan is a very small developing country located in south east of Asia. More than 50% of its population are young people. Currently, Bhutan is facing a major problem that is youth unemployment problem (7.3%). Our organisation, “Youth Media Center”, hopes to reduce this problem.

As a nation, Bhutan is continuously striving to build a knowledge-based society and develop expertise in order to compete in the international market. In spite of such efforts, several potentially lucrative fields remain underdeveloped, including multimedia. The field of multimedia is one area that has become important for communication, education, health, research, social services, business, environment and entertainment, but is limited by a lack of skills, knowledge and professionalism. This limitation exists mainly because of inaccessibility of resources, training, and workshops to serve as a platform to learn about multimedia.

What is your project and how will it help?

Seeing the multimedia industry as one of the most promising industries that could generate employment and revenue in Bhutan, we are proposing to establish a Multimedia Library to provide resources and educational programs for the general public. The core objective of launching the ML is to support people in creating multimedia products that can meet the international standards by enhancing their skills and knowledge through education.

The ML will not only contain traditional books, newspapers and magazines covering a wide range of subjects, but also conduct activities like video recordings (movies and documentaries), sound recordings (music and audios) and photography. The ML will also conduct training and workshops in order to support new and innovative ideas. In addition, the ML will create archives on domestic multimedia institutional information.

The ML will have pre-primary, primary, Jr. High school and middle secondary level programs, designed to address the younger group for media awareness.
We also hope to offer career building through training, workshops, and courses to enhance multimedia skills. Moreover, we want to involve the youth in paid projects, provide consultation, support multimedia entrepreneurs and provide resources and small funds to open their own projects.

Location of the project: Thimphu (capital of Bhutan).
To install the project “Multimedia Library” Youth Media Center will hire a rental house. The requested budget includes the rent for hiring a rental house for installing the “Multimedia Library”. Total of USD 3736 will be going towards the payment of rent from the budget.

How can other people partner with you on your project?

Other people can financially support us in implementing our project, or can providethe equipment and resources to start the library.

Please detail the resources that you need.

We would appreciate in kind donations;
1. 10 Computers
2. 1 Utility Van for transportation of trainees and staffs
3. 1 LCD Projector
4. 15 Cameras for training
5. 15 Video Cameras for training
6. 2 Xerox machines
7. Multimedia books, digital books, and audio and visual tutorial books
8. 1 high speed server
9. 10 headphones
10. 1 scanner
11. 1 color printer

Rent budget: USD$3736

We estimate that this will come to the value of USD 76,987, and will happily accept financial support to purchase the goods.