The Bhutanese Community Resource Center (BCRC) and the Bhutanese Youths of Washington jointly organized one-day intercity soccer friendly games in Starfire stadium in Tukwila, Washington, Sunday. Both the boys and girls team of Tukwila were declared the winners.
Girls’ teams representing Burien and Tukwila
A total of six team including two girls team from Washington and one from Oregon participated in the tournament.Joint team from Everett, Kent and Burien also participated in the game.
BCRC sponsored the tournament while Bhutanese Youths provided other logistics supports.
Estimated 200 Bhutanese cheered the tournament. The game was organized as the annual sport activity of BCRC with the objective to select players from different cities for the interstate soccer tournament slated in Erie, PA in coming moth.
Contributed by Tek Kafley from Tukwila, Washington for BNS
In a surprising tone, Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay disclosed a fact that he wanted the Government of Nepal to “facilitate smooth progress resettlement” of exiled Bhutanese in the west. He revealed it after he returned to the country from India last week.
PM Tobay and Nepalese PM Koirala talk greet former Indian president Prathibha Patil in New Delhi (Picture courtesy: BBC/AFP)
During his recent visit to India, the Prime Minister, who has been standing firm against repatriation of Bhutanese in exile even from the time before his party came in the power, requested his Nepalese counterpart, Sushil Koirala, to facilitate resettlement of remaining refugees smoothly.
PM Tobgay said, “The resettlement program is going on very well, the people in the camps wanted to be resettled and the host countries were extremely helpful in bringing a closure to this longstanding issue.”
Though Tobgay reportedly assured Nepal of discussing the issue with his cabinet, he failed to affirm commitment of his government to accept refugees back home.
The prime ministers met on May 29 in New Delhi, where both attended swearing-in ceremony of Indian PM Narendra Modi.
The Carolina Asian American Chamber of Commerce awarded Kamal Dhimal with a letter of appreciation during the Charlotte Dragon Boat Festival earlier this week.
The Chamber named Dhimal as Asian Refugee Community Leader “for representing special immigrants communities by advocating for their growth and development needs”.
Kamal is coordinator of Shree Harisang Kritan Mandali, a Hindus religious group that has been promoting various activities in Charlotte. The group has successfully organized two Puranas and is said to be planning to establish its own Hindu center in near future.
Chairperson of the Bhutanese Refugees Repatriation Representative Committee (BRRC), Dr Bhampa Rai, has asked newly sworn-in Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to press Bhutan to repatriate “willing” refugees, Monday.
In his congratulatory message to Indian PM, Dr Rai made such an appeal on behalf of the Bhutanese refugees dwelling in the refugee camps.
“We have wasted 22 years in finding an amicable solution to this standoff. All our efforts to return home have failed, and we expect assistance of Indian government to put pressure on the Bhutanese authority to accept dignified repatriation of those willing to go home,” said Dr Rai from Damak, Jhapa.
Directed by Nicole Hoellerer, Takin Association UK, a Bhutanese community organization in Manchester United Kingdom, lunched their film premiere event “A Heart Divided” – a refugee’ tale with a bang, at St. Mark’s Hall at Swinton Greater Manchester on May 24.
The program kicked off by honoring Nicole Hoellerer, a Ph.D student at Brunel University London for her tireless and selfless contribution for Promoting the Bhutanese community relocated in the Greater Manchester. Miss Hoellerer is the pioneer behind the Bhutanese Refugee Film project that started in late July 2013 following the encouraging response from the volunteers who successfully contributed in releasing a short movie “Life Beginning” in June 2011. Nicole has been among the Bhutanese communities in Manchester for the last few years supporting and guiding the communities in various ways.
The film was lunched amidst various cultural recipes and speech by various guest speakers, who expressed that they had no words to describe such culturally rich event and were more than willing to work with Takin Association UK in any such future events.
The event poster
“This has been a wonderful experience punctuated by a stimulating interest,” said the chairperson of the association Lok Nath Bajgai. He further added that Takin Association UK is gaining ground in terms of networking not only within the Bhutanese communities but also with other local communities and institutions in fulfilling the objectives of the association and projects.
The one hour long film features the input from the community members and projects the life of the resettled Bhutanese in the UK. It also focuses the mixed feelings of the resettled Bhutanese experienced in three different countries – Bhutan, Nepal and the United Kingdom. It complements the idea of third country resettlement, present life in the host country, innovative ideas of integration and future prospects in the country of resettlement.
Before showing the film, Nicole Hoellerer explained the subject, told why it was important and begged pardon to those who enthusiastically consented for the role but could not be taken for screening due to inconsiderably poor images and sound. TAUK paid the deepest gratitude to Himalayan Nepali Church in the UK for allowing film shooting during their services and also thanked and appreciated singers like – Dilli Khadka, Nima Tamang and Abisek Bardewa who have immensely contributed towards making the film project a success.
The event was further glorified by the attendance of other local community organisations like Salford Forum for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Health Improvement Services Salford and Himalayan Nepali Church in the UK.
The Chairperson of the Salford Forum for Refugees Said, “Your culture is not only rich and diverse but very beautiful too and we have to learn a lot from you.”
The event also witnessed a harmonious relationship between the Christians, Hindus and Buddhists who came together to support each other.
“It is such a wonderful feeling to see all religious groups coming together to support each other on a single platform, otherwise such opportunities are rarely seen these days,” said Ashok Kumar Bardewa. “This is what is called a unity in diversity.”
The film project including the event was supported by National Lottery through Big Lottery Fund.
Kashi Pokhrel, the general secretary of the association, ended the program with a vote of thanks to the Big Lottery Fund, lovely audience and people who devotedly participated and volunteered to make the film project and the event a grand success.
Aimed at addressing mental health issues facing the resettled Bhutanese in the U.S., a regional conference will be held in Harrisburg, PA from June 28-29.
According to its organizers, the “2014 community initiative for mental health and suicide prevention regional conference” is a joint effort of three community-based organizations, Bhutanese Community Organization of Philadelphia, Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh and Bhutanese Community of Harrisburg, in collaboration with the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and Pennsylvania Department of Health through its Refugee Health Program.
Let’s Stop Suicide: A thematic poster on suicide prevention circulated by BNS in collaboration with artist Kiren Pele Gurung, Rochester, New York
The first day of the conference will have a panel discussion, and presentations on mental health and suicide prevention by community representatives and experts, one of the organizers, Ashok Gurung, informed Bhutan News Service.
An invitation letter dispatched to various community leaders requested VOLAGs case workers, community leaders, healthcare providers, and other stakeholders to attend and participate in the two-day conference.
“We strongly encourage community leaders from every state and cities that have resettled Bhutanese refugees to be a part of this event, and share their views, lessons learnt from past experiences and recommend practical solutions,” mentioned the letter.
The conference will take place at Temple University of Harrisburg, and free registrations are open until June 6.
The organizers also said that further information regarding registration and other details can be obtained by contacting PK Subedi (215-834-4070) and Ashok Gurung (412-961-4429).
According to a study conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2012, suicide rate among resettled Bhutanese in the U.S. is 20.3 per 1,000, which is higher than both the global suicide rate (16 per thousand) and U.S. suicide rate (12.4 per thousand).
Dhani Adhikari, 18, has become a rising start and source of inspiration for Bhutanese in Aurora, Illinois these days. She recently graduated from West Aurora High School with flying colors.
Recognizing her outstanding performance, the Exchange Club of Aurora has awarded scholarship for her university education.
Adhikari, who was resettled in the U.S. from Sanischare camp in 2009, is planning to enroll in a nursing program from this fall. BNS reporter, Bidesh Dhakal, attended her graduation ceremony on Sunday and produced the following report.
A local student raised in a refugee camp in Nepal has graduated from the Vermont Academy of Science and Technology program and has won a full scholarship to attend Georgetown University.
Indra Acharya, whose parents were exiled from the Kingdom of Bhutan, has had a markedly different experience from most of his fellow students. Acharya, now living in Shelburne with his mother, has used the experience as motivation to pursue his education.
“My parents, they were kicked out of the country and I was born in a refugee camp and grew up in there. A refugee camp experience, I don’t think I could explain,” he said.
Indra Acharya (Picture courtesy: Rutlandherald)
Things that most American students take for granted were hard to come by for Acharya and his family. “We had to struggle to find food to eat, to have a place to live in,” he said.
But Acharya, despite his circumstances, said he was always taught to “dream big” and educate himself.
“My parents always raised me to pursue a good education because they thought that education was the only way to succeed. That’s what they told me all the time. My parents always told me to dream big. That was one of the biggest experiences that I had,” he said. “My father died like two years ago, but my father used to tell me to dream big. That’s all he told me. Dream big. And I asked him, ‘What is the purpose of dreaming big when I don’t have anything?’ He told me that hard work, motivation and all those things will pay off and it does not cost money to dream.”
He resettled in Winooski in 2012 after the death of his father. He began attending Winooski High School, and was encouraged to take tech classes to learn a trade.
“I was told by many people that I should start working immediately rather than thinking about going to college. There were many people who tried to push me to go to work, saying you can be a great dishwasher,” he said. “Those were the motivations that I got from people here. I was never told to go to school.”
But Acharya said he wanted more. He eventually enrolled in the VAST program at Vermont Technical College in Randolph his senior year after learning about it from a guidance counselor. VAST is an independent, accredited high school program that allows high school seniors to take a full year of college-level classes while completing their high school education.
“I think the VAST program is really, really a great program,” he said. “I think the VAST program will help a lot, because in the state of Vermont we have a lot of people who … are really not thinking about education. They don’t think a college education, paying so much money, is worth it. I personally would not want to go to college by paying so much money. It’s really expensive now.”
Acharya excelled, posting a near-perfect GPA. He was accepted to Georgetown and earned a full scholarship to the school. And then he learned of another scholarship he earned — the Gates Millennium Scholars program funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It was established in 1999 and awards 1,000 students across the country each year to promote academic excellence and to provide opportunities for outstanding minority students.
Acharya is just the second Vermonter to win the award.
The award was no surprise to those who have watched Acharya grow as a student, including Sue Polen, head of the VAST program at VTC.
“He grew up in a refugee camp. They had nothing — dirt floors, dirt roads, standing in line every day for meals,” she said. “He’s a pretty incredible young man.”
“He would turn in two papers for every assignment just in case one wasn’t an A,” Polen added.
Acharya’s leadership qualities were evident from a young age. He said he worked to rally his community for more children’s rights, and advocated for children to travel from the camp to see places like the capital of Nepal.
At Georgetown, where he heads in July, Acharya will study politics and government and hopes to obtain a law degree. But he doesn’t hope to just practice law.
“My aim is not to become a lawyer. I want to become an advocate for social justice and I want to run for public service office in Vermont. That’s my aim. My dad told me to aim big, so yeah, I’ll run for Senate one day. That’s what I think,” Acharya said. “I will be back to Vermont, for sure.”
Acharya said he knows he has an opportunity to achieve his goals and is looking to continue working hard and making the right choices to do so.
“I was a political refugee. I suffered. I didn’t have food to eat. I didn’t have a place to go and play with people. I had two options. One option was to play terrorist army games … and be a person who wants to fight and create conflict. Or, I could be a peaceful person, not say anything, just explore the nature. Just sit there and look at the never-ending sky or the flying butterflies or birds. I chose the second option.”
The story was originally published in the Rutlandherald
Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, who was returning home from New Delhi from Druk Air, was stuck in Kathmandu due to bad weather conditions in Paro Airport, Wednesday.
PM Tobgay with Nepalese officials in Gaushala, Kathmandu (Picture courtesy: PM’s Facebook)
The Druk Air’s plane carrying the government head, and other passengers landed in Kathmandu at 2 pm.
According to Nepalese immigration officials, PM Tobgay left the Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) at 4 pm after the Druk Air informed all passengers of “uncertain flight’s delay due to bad weathers”.
PM Tobgay, who is likely to fly home Thursday morning after spending a night in Hotel Soalti Crown Plaza, also visited the Pashupatinath and Maha Bouddha on Wednesday.
Updating his Facebook status from Kathmandu, he wrote : “An unscheduled stopover in Kathmandu, due to the poor weather condition in Paro, allowed me to rush to the Pashupatinath temple complex to offer prayers and worship. The member-secretary and treasure of the temple trust were very kind (and patient) to show me around the very sacred area.”
TIA has been serving a transit for the Bhutanese flag-carrier, connecting Paro and Indian capital, New Delhi.
Tobgay was in New Delhi since May 25 where he attended the grand swearing-in ceremony of Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
A 13-year-old boy was found dead in the pool at the at the Woodridge Apartments on Yateswood Drive in Charlotte, North Carolina, Saturday evening.
The deceased has been identified as Abishek Tamang, a grade six student at Albemarle Road Middle School.
“We extend out deepest sympathy and condolence to the bereaved family and hope that, with out supports and help, they would get enough strength to overcome this grief,” Hasta Pradhan, chairperson of Bhutanese Community Association of Charlotte (BCAC), said in his Facebook status.
The organization also requested Bhutanese families in and around Charlotte areas to make financial contribution to support the family.
Dozens of Charlotte Bhutanese joined the Tamang family during cremation of the dead body earlier today. The Tamang family was resettled in Charlotte in February last year.
