Past President, Richard Kemball Cook, has just returned from a visit to the mountain kingdom of Bhutan.
He and his wife, Cora, visited this Shangri-La land of flying tigers, spinning prayer wheels and steep valleys that claims to be the happiest place on Earth. While there they visited the Rotary Club of the Thimphu and met the Club President, Tsewang Rinzing.
The rural population in Bhutan, in some places nomadic tribes, are spread out across the high mountains. Clean water is the main focus of the Club’s projects, concentrating on the provision of filtered water for hospitals and schools as well as on the adequacy of toilets in their expanding towns and villages.
The Club has around 20 members of both sexes, with membership restricted to Bhutanese nationals. Its fundraising is mainly local - coming from the members themselves and their contacts in the Kingdom's business community.
The Club has many successful Global Grant partnerships and seeks them in these areas:
- reverse migration to the towns: increasing production in the upland farms to provide better livelihoods by funding farm tractors, providing solar-electric fencing to keep the wildlife away etc.
- support the medical services by providing emergency equipment and dialysis machines
- encourage and support young people that have an exceptional academic potential to gain the most that the world’s universities have to offer.
Picture: Richard exchanges pennants with the Tsewang Rinzing, President of the Rotary Club of Thimphu. Picture credit: Richard Kemball-Cook.
