FRIENDS Teahouse at RIM, Bhutan
Community Development Plan
As the only Government management Institute, RIM has been solely engaged in supporting the human resource development needs of the country, especially for the civil service. RIM’s intervention in the national human resource capacity building was primarily through training, research and consultancy activities. The institute has a total of 335 students undergoing the above-mentioned courses and we have five students from the Laya community undergoing different courses at the institute. Being situated at an elevation of approximately 3,700 metres above sea level, Laya Gewog is one of the remotest in Gasa Dzongkhag. Therefore, as a part of the Community development plan for FRIENDS project, we provide the students with all the required basic level free tutoring in preparation for Preliminary Exams (PE), Civil service entrance exams, English language class, Dzongkha Bridging courses, etc. All the classes are taught by the past Civil Service Exam topper students and capable faculty members of RIM. Therefore, RIM actively involves itself in providing the free coaching classes to the students who aspire to pursue their further education outside Bhutan.
Community Development Plan by RIM
FRIENDS Reunions at RIM, April 2022
A FRIENDS Reunion event was conducted by the Royal Institute of Management on April 1st, 2022 as part of the FRIENDS Project activities. Although the initial plan was to conduct the Reunion event in February with the Academic committee members of the institute in February, this was not possible due to the spike in Covid-19 cases in Bhutan which resulted in a lock-down until 28 March 2022. However, with the approval of the management and the cooperation of the FRIENDS Project team we were able to organize an online the event on 1 April 2022 with a total of 50 participants present.
The FRIENDS Reunion began with Ms. Sonam Wangmo welcoming Academic committee members to the event. The FRIENDS project team was represented by Ms. Sonam Wangmo along with the Ms. Sonam Pelden Thaye (Director RIM), Ms. Kesang Dechen (Principal Librarian) and Ms. Kuenga Yangki (Faculty member).
The program included introduction of the FRIENDS team and the FRIENDS Project brief presentation.
The event’s agenda included project results and inspirational speeches by Ms. Kesang Dechen and Ms. Kuenga Yangki, Ms. Sonam Pelden Thaye, Director, RIM, that emphasized on the importance of the intercultural awareness and competence from employability point of view.
The Reunion event at RTC was another chance to promote the FRIENDS’ impact and major project achievements and helped the alumni to notice various changes through which the project has gone through since its start (FRIENDS Reunion Agenda, FRIENDS Reunion Flyer, Event Minutes, FRIENDS Reunions at RIM Short Video, FRIENDS Project Presentation, FRIENDS Overview, Relevance of Intercultural Awareness and Competence from an Employability point of view Presentation)
FRIENDS International and Intercultural Festival at RIM, August 2021
On August 26th, 2021, the International and Intercultural Festival at the Royal Institute of management was conducted to present the different cultures and traditions within Asian countries (especially India and Nepal) through performance of different forms of dances and songs. The main aim of the event was to helps us grow our capacity to learn different types of languages, familiarise ourselves with different cultures, inquire, and think. The program was successfully organised by the FRIENDS project team with the support from the management and under the guidance of the Cultural club and especially the cultural coordinator. 133 participants were present at the event. The agenda of the FRIENDS International and Intercultural Festival is available here (Brief Description of the Event, Event Flyer)
Event Calendar (version as of May 2021)
Official Opening Event at RIM, March 2021
On 31 March 2021, RIM held a small opening event and facilitated an informal discussion on the setup and the role of the FRIENDS Teahouse on the campus and its usage by the students. The event was attended by RIM students and administrative staff in charge of student services. The RIM FRIENDS Teahouse is expected to bring together the students for informal meetings, leisure talks and recreation.
