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Friday, Nov. 23, 2012
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Local teacher to teach in Bhutan by Heather Robertson
After a fruitless search on the Internet for inspiring projects or travel, I typed « Teach in Bhutan » into the search engine. Up popped Bhutan Canada’s Teach in Bhutan webpage. Less than a year later I will be volunteering for the Bhutan Canada Foundation as a teacher. It all began for me several years ago with a student choosing Gross National Happiness as the subject for his grade 12 French Immersion speaking exam. What is GNH? In Bhutan it is a concept that is an alternative to the practice of measuring the quality of life through the Gross Domestic Product. GNH has four pillars: sustainable
development, promotion and preservation of culture, conservation of environment and good governance. Education is seen as the thread weaving the pillars into practices that underlie the education system. Today I am preparing for a year in a rural setting where school is taught in English, students and teachers wear national dress to class, meditate in the mornings, and live in basic conditions. Tucked between India and Tibet, not far from Nepal, Bhutan is a mountainous kingdom that is quickly making its way in to the modern world. Now a democracy Bhutan has an education system that was developed in concert with
Are you interested in assisting Heather Robertson in her fundraising efforts? To donate to the Bhutan Canada Foundation and Heather’s Druk Air flight to Paro, you can go online by clicking the “Donate Now” button on the BCF homepage at
572-3767. Please make sure to include Heather Robertson’s name in the “comment section” on any donation. Please be aware that all donations need to be received by Dec.17, http://www.bhutancanada.org 2012. Should you have any You can also make questions or comments, your donation by calling feel free to contact her at the BCF office at (416) hlrobert@shaw.ca. Interested in helping to send school supplies to Bhutan? Please contact Heather at 250-359-5960 or hlrobert@shaw.ca.
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Canadian educators. The Ministry of Education in Bhutan is striving to offer Bhutanese students a modern education while maintaining Buddhist values of the country. The Bhutan Canada Foundation is helping Bhutan to meet the needs of this new system by providing a number of native English speaking teachers each year. Travel to Bhutan is limited to overland via India or air into Paro. With the high altitudes and difficulties of travelling into this remote country, supplies for school children are limited. I am raising funds in order to send schools supplies ahead of my departure. Notebooks, paper, chalk, pens and pencils are
not readily available to students. Although I will be making a local wage in Bhutan, around three to four hundred dollars per month, I have many expenses, including travel from Nelson, vaccinations, health insurance, food, rent and furnishing my living quarters and kitchen. Currently, I am participating in a Bhutan Canada Foundation fundraising event. If I raise five hundred dollars for the Foundation by December 17th, a donor will purchase my return flight from Bangkok to Paro. I would be thrilled to raise more for the foundation.
Labour Film Festival Saturday, Nov. 24, 3 p.m. short films and 7 p.m. feature documentary at Expressions, 554 Ward Street The Canadian Labour Your Taxes” (Canada); “Drink International Film Festival ‘Em Dry” (Canada); “It’s (CLiFF) will play across About Respect” (Canada); Canada, in parts of the and “Milk, Honey and United States, and, for the Tomatoes” (Netherlands). first time, will screen in the The evening event begins Kootenays. at 7 p.m. and will feature The festival has two the documentary “We Are events, a matinee at 3 p.m Wisconsin” (U.S.A.). .which will showcase four submitted by the West films: “A Day in the Life of Kootenay Labour Council
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