On March 1, 2011, Friend of Mongolia awarded 4 Community Development Grants. FOM membership dues and donations go directly to support these Community Development Grants. We would like to thank our members for their generosity, and allowing us to fund these projects. This year we had 12 applicants from Peace Corps, VSO and independent NGOs. We were able to fund 4 projects. Congratulations to them! Here are the short summaries, so you can see where your money is going-

Altantovch Jamiyan-VSO, Darkhan, Psychiatric Ward (Funded-$330.00):

This project will provide occupational therapy to consumers who live in the psychiatric ward of the Darkhan hospital through arts and crafts. The ultimate goal is to be able to sell the crafts and create a sustainable project. The funding will be used for human resources and the purchase of materials.

Sandrina Da Cruz, VSO, Khutul, Selenge, Lotus Center, Crafts Production (Funded $490.00): This project focuses on vocational training for low income women. The women will receive expert training and they will be able to purchase materials to help them produce the felted craft products. They will also receive business management training. The participants will also be contributing financially to receive the training. The funding will be used for human resources and the purchase of materials.

Sergelen Vanjargal-Mongolian 4H, UB, Countrywide program, (Funded: $500.00):This project strives to promote human and community development by promoting reading, as well as creative and critical thinking skills for Mongolian children aged 5-17. This book competition engages libraries across Mongolia. Participants must complete a 2 month, weekly reading program. At the end of the program they will have read at least 1 book and completed a creative work related to that book. The funding will be used to promote the competition, train librarians and support the awards ceremony for the best projects.

Kate Borkowski and Nate Lingo, Peace Corps, Sukhbataar Aimag, Baruun Urt, AIDS Prevention, (Funded: $485.00): This project aims to educate 300 students during a summer camp in Sukhbataar Aimag on HIV/AIDS prevention through a series of lessons and activities. The camp promotes human development through education and increased awareness of social issues that effect teenagers. The funding will be used for supplies related to HIV/AIDS education for participants.

 

 

Friends of Mongolia assisted a project organized by PCV Amber Book and her community in Hovd Soum in Hovd Aimag over during the spring. FOM facilitated the delivery of a computer tower from a private donor in the US and provided funding for periphery items such as keyboard and monitor. Amber sent a brief report describing the project and its impact on the community

Hovd Soum Multilanguage Library
By Amber Book (M-18)

Hovd Soum is home to 4,500 people of Kazakh decent. This population makes up a small group that is otherwise surrounded by people who natively speak Mongolian and have a different culture. Although the Kazakhs are fluent in Mongolian their ethnicity sets them apart from their Mongolian peers. This being the case they have very few resources available to them for improvement. Books in their native tongue are scarce, and students must share books in the classroom due to severe lack of funding. The shelves in the library are empty and there is no internet. At the end of a student’s career there are very difficult exams that a student must pass in order to enter a good college. In order to go to a school in Kazakhstan there is information they must know about Kazakh history and culture that these students have no access to.

Therefore as a volunteer in this soum I quickly realized an acute need in the school of 625 students that I was teaching at. I saw that these students would benefit from a well-stocked library full of books from all the languages that are taught at Hovd Soum Secondary School. These languages are Kazakh, Mongolian, English and Russian. In order to obtain the English books I wrote to friends and family in the United States and pleaded with them to send these students some good English books. We received over 150 books. Russian books and Mongolian books were purchased from several different stores in Ulaanbaatar and shipped by bus to Hovd Soum. In order to obtain Kazakh books I traveled to Bayan-Olgii Aimag which is predominantly Kazakh and has many resources and books written in the Kazakh language. These books were bought and shipped back to Hovd via bus. Friends of Mongolia donated the tower component of a computer to the library and funded the purchase of the other pieces including a monitor and a printer/scanner/copier.

While all these supplies and resources were being collected the school in Hovd Soum constructed the room in which the library was to be housed. They constructed 2 large bookshelves from donated material. They furnished the room with a couch, benches and a table. The room was decorated so as to give a welcome feeling and a neat quiet place for students to learn and study. With the help of funding from International Republican Institute the library was able to obtain more books. This money was used to obtain very informative English grammar books, Mongolian text books and a myriad of Kazakh books. Also there was sufficient funding to purchase a wireless internet connection for the computer. This will be highly beneficial to all the students and teachers in Hovd Soum as they don’t yet have regular access.

In summary, the funding for the books and the computer will help further the education of the students of Hovd Soum. This gives them a competitive edge against those students who have all these resources easily at hand. In this environment, where jobs are scarce and colleges are extremely choosy, any possible help is appreciated for these students in order to obtain a better future.