6 years volunteering in Bhutan

Mr. Takuma Mama

“I cannot refuse anyone for I am here to help, all who need my assistance.”

Mr. Mama, UNV IT Specialist, is the most well known UNV volunteer in Bhutan as it was rightly mentioned in Kuensel published on May 26, 2008, “There is one thing in common to all IT Managers in Thimphu; when they have a problem, they run to Mama.”

Since 2003 he has been volunteering in Bhutan assisting the Ministries, schools and private companies to set up servers and repair damaged computer parts but mainly trouble shoots.

“He is a knowledgeable man. He can fix anything no matter what kind of software or hardware problems we have” said an IT officer.

Mr. Mama came back to Bhutan in July 2009 to take up his third UNV assignment in Bhutan. This time, his main job is to assist the Ministry of Labour in strengthening labour market analysis and employment generation especially among youth and women.

“Before Mama came we had a lot of problems but now we have fewer problems and much easier to monitor and handle our system” said Ms. Ugen Zangmo, his counterpart at the Ministry.

Surprisingly Mr. Mama did not receive any formal training or education in computers. He is self taught with 25 years of working experience in the IT field. He mentioned Bhutanese IT managers have the book knowledge but most lacked practical skills to set up and maintain the systems. What they need is a little practical training.

“He makes us fix the problem while he sits beside us and give us instructions” said his former counter part.

During his last assignment, he married a Bhutanese lady Maya and had a son. Mr. Mama is a quiet person and does not usually show emotions but when his first child Tatsuya was born you could see his face was glowing with pride and joy and loved to talk about his new born if you ask.