Back in February OYHTB collaborated with The Royal Tutorial Project and The Media Project from New Zealand, to produce a film made by young students in Bhutan on the subject of "Emotional First Aid". During a week long training workshop, the students and counselors explored ways to help young people cope with various situations in daily life to overcome personal and emotional problems. The students used drama and animation techniques to convey their ideas and the finished

In early May we were thrilled to provide a vehicle to the children’s halfway home in Thimphu, who do essential work for vulnerable children there. We were delighted to present the vehicle to the staff and children want to do more for them!

In March, Draktsho and OYHTB were so thrilled to welcome Sir Dominic Asquith and the team from the British High Commissioner of Delhi to Draktsho Vocational Training Centre. And in May, His Excellency the Hon'ble Prime Minister of Bhutan, Dr. Lotay Tshering visited the centre. It was an honour for the staff and students to welcome these visitors and to share their thoughts and concerns relating to people living with special needs. Our gratitude to the British High Commissi

She did it! Huge congratulations and our deepest gratitude to Kim Carter, who ran the London Marathon in April with the Bhutanese flag in support of Opening Your Heart To Bhutan! Kim has raised over £2000 for the charity thanks to her monumental effort! Our deep appreciation also goes out to Phoenix Gongs and Jikiden Reiki Healing, who raised £300 for the charity with a sound healing event. We are so thankful for their support and for all those that fundraise on our behal

Generous support from Chestfield Rotary Club We give our wholehearted thanks to Chestfield Rotary Club, whose generous donations have supplied teaching and learning materials for our Draktsho Vocational Training Centres. The children will benefit from being able to develop their skills in art and explore their creativity. Materials purchased included supplies for weaving, carpentry, painting classes, souvenir making, watercolours and supplies for first aid classes.

Our project manager in Bhutan, Ugyen Tshering, has been busy on the ground and has updated us on all the projects and works that have taken place at the Draktsho centres recently. Some fantastic progress has been made in many areas including recruitment of some key staff, improvements to important areas of the school and development of the sustainable agriculture project. Staff Recruitment One of our commitments as a charity was to fund extra staff at Draktsho East to serve t

THANK YOU We can't really say thank you enough. To all of you, to our funders, to all our partners in Bhutan, to our indefatigable CEO and Founder Ani Pema Deki who continues to spread kindness to children in Bhutan and around the world. To our Project Manager Ugyen Tshering who holds it all together in Bhutan. To everyone at Draktsho Vocational Training Centres. To everyone around the world who ran, cycled, baked cakes, organised dog walks, gave their personal money, organis

And more foundations laid... THE BIG NEWS: Dining hall at Draktsho completed before monsoon season It is a delight to see the students at the residential school for students with disabilities finally being able to all eat together indoors, protected from the rains in the spring and summer, and the cold in winter. This project was completed with so much help from you all as well as funding from the German Embassy. Opening Your Heart To Bhutan also managed to fund some sturdy,

Ani Pema Deki, Project Manager Ugyen Tshering and I visited the Principal of Meretsemo Village School Lhundup Gyeltshen at the end of January. We were very happy to see the school and village grounds are improving at a pace. The children are making excellent use of the playground Opening Your Heart to Bhutan funded and the footpaths project funded by Openwork is well under way. This will make it much safer for the children to get to school and they won't get stuck in the mud