Bhutan's Health Trust Fund needed a sustaining source of income — and to make that case, Sangay Ngedup, then Minister of Health and Education, walked 560 kilometres across the country's hardest terrain, from Trashigang in the east to the capital, Thimphu.

Starting on 25 September 2002, the 16-day journey followed old trekking trails and national highways alike, carrying his own provisions, stopping in district after district to talk with villagers, health workers, and local officials about why the fund mattered. Many districts contributed their own resources on the spot. Students, monks, and local officials joined stretches of the route.

The route

Across Bhutan, on foot.

Follow the route of the 2002 Move for Health Walk, from Trashigang in eastern Bhutan to Thimphu.

"Sustainability is not only about money, it is about responsibility."

The walk fed directly into the Bhutan Health Trust Fund — the endowment behind the country's continued promise of free immunisation and essential medicines. GAVI, which Ngedup helped found two years earlier, publicly credited the effort as a model of country ownership in vaccine financing.