BHUTAN: How to make it to the summit


FROM KUENSEL NEWSPAPER


31 March: When Trishna Jaishi represented Bhutan at the One Young World Summit in London last month, it did not just happen by chance.

The 20 something, from Samtse dzongkhag, who is pursuing a master’s in South Asian studies & international relations at the Pondicherry university, India, first had to go through a unique selection process; posting a profile on social networking sites like Youtube and Facebook and then being voted on by the Youtube community.

Those with the most votes would be invited to be delegates at the 2010 inaugural summit in London. The contest started on July 31, 2009, for all people born after 1984.

In her Facebook profile, Trishna’s theme line was “One earth one home,” with human rights and women’s education, environment preservation, upgrading the nations’ science and technology and helping Bhutan maintain its peace forever, as other issues important to her as a leader of tomorrow.

Trishna succeeded in securing the votes to become a delegate to the world’s largest summit for young leaders, but needed to fulfill on more step – raise a fee of 3,000 euros, using social networking sites as a tool and with help from the organisers. The amount would cover accommodation, travel costs, all meals and the delegate fee.

This was the hard part. “I asked my parent scholarship division, Madanjeetsingh South Asian foundation, and companies of the world to fund me, but nobody turned out,” Trishna said in an email. “Then I asked the education department and education minister to help me. Unfortunately they had no fund for such short term visit and it was a huge amount too.”

In the end, American Express sponsored her and the Bhutanese foreign and education ministries helped her get a UK visa on time.

“It was a golden opportunity to represent my country and the youth, who will be the leaders for the future,” wrote Trishna. “We had discussions on the six pertaining issues of the globe and the role and empowerment of the media too. In my address at the summit, I spoke on the importance and benefits of GNH. I was even nicknamed as ‘Happy Gal from a happy country.’

The summit took place at the Excel centre in London from February 8-10 and its inaugural featured Kofi Annan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bob Geldof and Oscar Morales.