Bhutan second women minister

Bhutan again elected a wom­en minister. Lyonpo Dechen Wangmo is the second wom­en minister after Dasho Dorji Choden.

Lyonpo Dechen Wangmo is the third oldest sibling. She is 42 and mother of one. She contested as Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa’s (DNT) candidate from north Thim­phu.

She has bachelors in car­diopulmonary science from Northeastern University, Boston MA, and masters in public health (Global Health Epidemiology), Yale Univer­sity.

She achieved top five per­cent in cardiopulmonary sci­ence of the performers grad­uating with highest honors. In 2007, she became the first Bhutanese to graduate from Yale school of public health.

With vast experience in medical field, she under­stands the health system of the country and is confident in improving the health ser­vices. The new health min­ister said, “Since I am very passionate about health, I chose to work in health sec­tor.”

Lyonpo said that since the people of Bhutan have placed trust on me, I am hoping to achieve higher goals for the sector and it could be quite challenging. I am super ex­cited and confident to bring significant development particularly in health sector. She also emphasized with the government’s slogan of ‘Narrowing the Gap,’ they plan to reduce inequity in health services.

She looks forward to make every individual acces­sible to quality health servic­es throughout the country. Government plans to estab­lish separate health unit with specialist and dispense ser­vices in every gewog level to achieve their goal.

 

By Leki Dema