School Empowerment Program (SEP)

Sexual health and well-being are progressively being identified as global health priorities. At the same time, young people and adolescents are seeking increasingly asking for better career and college guidance in Bhutan. The importance of addressing these topics from a young age as definitions of careers are changing, with jobs becoming more dynamic and globalisation. As unrelated as career guidance and sexual education seem, these are the educations that schools in Bhutan currently require. Hence, the School Empowerment Program is initiated to create awareness and most importantly encourage open dialogue regarding sexual and career education to make well-informed decisions.

This initiative started as a passion project among a few members of the hub and a consultation meeting with the Principal of a public school in Thimphu. The informal conversation on the astounding lack of awareness of sexual and career education amongst adolescence and their invisible impact on their growth has now developed into a broader concept, garnering more members within the hub to join the project. The scope of the project has also expanded to multiple public schools within Thimphu with opportunities to reach schools in other parts of the country as well.

So far 2 independent and separate sessions on career and sexual education have trained 250 and 500 students respectively.

The objectives of the project include:

• Short Term Goal: Work with 3 additional public schools in Thimphu by the next 2 months 


• Mid-Term Goal: Work with 7 public and private schools in Thimphu by the next 10 months 


• Long-Term Goal: Work with schools beyond Thimphu and make it an annual project activity for schools with whom the hub has completed the session previously.