The Loden Foundation

The primary objective of the Loden Foundation is to promote education and learning in Bhutan and thereby fosters an educational, literary and intellectual culture in Bhutan. It aims to help Bhutanese youth obtain education and learning at the preschool, school and post-school stages and to cultivate an enlightened ethos in the Bhutanese society at large.

It also promotes Bhutanese culture and tradition in other parts of the world and undertakes other charitable activities which contribute to the welfare of the public. Our main projects today are Loden Entrepreneurship Programme, Loden Early Learning Centre, Loden Knowledge Base and Loden Scholarship Scheme.

The Country

The Loden Foundation has its focus on Bhutan although itis our hope to expand our activities to other parts of the Himalayan region inthe future. Wedged between India and China, Bhutan is a country roughly thesize of Switzerland (38,394 sq kms) with about 690,000 people. With over 72.5%under forest cover and its Buddhist culture still intact, Bhutan is currently seenas an attractive tourist destination.

Bhutan had its first motor road, regularschool and hospital only over about fifty years ago. TV and internet has cometo Bhutan officially only in 1999 and democracy was introduced in 2008. Today,Bhutan is going through dramatic cultural, social, economic and politicalchanges.

With the spread of secular education and theonslaught of globalization, materialism is growing. Traditional subsistencefarming is slowly being replaced by a new consumerist lifestyle.

The Need and Our Work

Each year many thousands of youth are churned out of schools but places for higher education are limited. The civil service, which was the main employers so far, is now saturated. Beside, private sectors a fledgling and youth unemployment is rising. The Loden Entrepreneurship Programme was established in order to help young Bhutanese become self-starters in business.

Outside the two main cities, there is no daycare or early learning centres for children below six. This puts children from rural at disadvantage. The Loden Early Learning Centre is a programme to give rural children equal opportunities in childhood development and early learning.

The country is also moving from an oral past directly to an audio-visual era bypassing the literary stage. There is much need for a better literary culture. Further, information on higher education, entrepreneurship or vocational training is rare. The Loden Knowledge Base hopes to minimize this gap by providing a walk-in resource centre and by organizing various vocational and educational programmes.

Although, school education has reached all corners of the country, about 15 out of every 100 children are still left out because their families cannot afford to buy uniforms or stationeries. The Loden Scholarship Scheme was launched with the aim of easing such financial burden.