‘Mawong Yuetsen’ with the slogan, “Our gewog has a future”, the project is instilling ideas in two districts of Bhutan since 2022 whereby villagers come up with innovative ideas to make lives in rural areas self-reliant, stable, and attractive. It is a competitive campaign organized by Project for Rural Development, Bhutan with the support from BMZ, the German Sparkassenstiftung (DSIK) is implementing the project along with its local partner RENEW Microfinance Pvt. Ltd. The idea of the competition was brought from Germany called the Unser Dorf hat Zukunft which has been happening since 1961.
In Bhutan, for the pilot phase, the themes were “Beautification and Preserving of cultural heritage” which was carried out in two Dzongkhags (Tsirang and Dagana). The pilot phase for Mawong Yuetsen has been a huge success with 24 teams competing for the title. More than 90 females and 150 males participated in the competition completing about 101 project activities. Which mostly includes construction of canopy, maintenance of lake, making pit and more.
The competition couldn’t proceed further with its next phase to other Dzongkhags considering the current attrition rate in Bhutan. Therefore, Mawong Yuetsen competition concluded on 19th of July 2023 with a wrap-up workshop celebrating the success of the pilot phase.
The workshop was attended by the 1st and 2nd place winners of the competition, supporters, and partners of the competition.
The workshop reflected on the accomplishments achieved by the teams, impacts created and the sustainability of the projects. The team further hopes to connect with Tourism council of Bhutan for further collaboration.
At the end of the presentation, the participants shared their journey with Mawong Yuetsen including the challenges they faced and how it has brought positive shift in their mindset about voluntarism.
The workshop was concluded with a photo session and thank you note from the organizer and the participants.
