24 Days in Mongolia - The Director's Report Part 1 - The Children

Well, it has been ages and ages since I have had a chance to sit down and update this blog - my apologies. I have just returned to Canada last week and, in the throes of jet lag extraordinaire I am trying to stick to my determination to share with you a little bit of what it is like when I am in Mongolia. The work on the Children of the Peak Sanctuary Project runs the full gamut of human emotion. There is an intensity of excitement and joy along with inevitable sorrow and heartbreak that is exceptionally hard to adequately put into words. But I'm going to try. Over the next few weeks I will be posting a series of short (hopefully!) updates to try to show you all what we are accomplishing. I am hoping to give you all a better idea as to the challenges that we are still facing and how we look at who needs help and how we choose our projects to make the most impact . This is the first of 5 blog posts  - Hope you enjoy them all!

When we are talking about the projects that make up the Children of the Peak Sanctuary Project, we usually focus on the kindergarten as it is our largest project. We do have, however, have a number of other projects which are designed to work in tandem to bring education, development and opportunities to our community. Our long term programme to create leaders of tomorrow who will truly understand the problems of poverty and will have the insight as to how to help alleviate it is underway. One goal we have each year is to have at least one child taken on scholarship at a private school in Ulaanbaatar. This undertaking has many difficulties - but the rewards are enormous and the future potential is very exciting!  So - what does it take to make it work?

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Three lovely young scholars, three excellent and generous schools, private donors helping with school uniforms, dedicated teachers helping these children adjust to school life in an international school, hard working parents, foster care moms and community members working togeth to get the children to the private school bus stops (all a LONG way from the kindergarten) and, of course, the fearlessness and relentless hard work of the children are ALL combining to make our scholarship Programme a reality. 

​ I would  really like to thank to the English School of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar Primary and Modene Private schools! 
​These schools have partnered with us by providing scholarships for children from the Children of the Peak Sanctuary Kindergarten. They are helping us turn out future leaders who will understand the problems in the poorest neighbourhoods! ​

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Then there are the children up at the kindergarten that I got to spend time with - starting the morning (every morning!) with the national anthem, helping the teachers by being the serving "assistant " for the day - laughing with friends and just enjoying a meal together.

One of the great things about my time in Mongolia is getting to hang out at the kindergarten and see the joy, love and warmth that the children are experiencing there. It is not, however, ever all sunshine and roses. The reason that we are there and working in this community is because it is one of the poorest and disenfranchised districts in all of Mongolia. This means, inevitably, there are some days when we have those very tough moments of meeting children who need extra help. Case in point, a beautiful little three year old girl who attends our kindergarten whom I met recently. 

One of our "Kitchen Helpers" who gets to help set the table and serve the meal to the other children.  A coveted job

 Altantsetseg* is a lovely, quiet 3 year old girl who started attending our kindergarten this year. She lives at home with her parents who are now 17 & 18 ( yes, they were 15 and 16 years old when they became a family) and they are trying hard as a family to make it. One of their big challenges is that Altantsetseg suffered serious burns last year when an electric cooking pot that was sitting on the floor of her ger accidentally tripped onto her. She has ended up with massive and dramatic scars across her torso, arm and foot. 

Having fun helping the grown ups move some gers at the kindergarten!

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On this trip  I also happened to run across two little boys along with their horse out in a local country town... scavenging in the garbage dump. Ironically, we were out in this community working on another development initiative: a summer camp for the children from the dump and other impoverished communities, including it seems, the regional district in which we will be building the camp and where these two little boys live. It was so difficult to see this urban problem having spread out into the countryside. It did, however, create the opportunity for us to help by providing a home for them (another blog post!) and their family. Oh, and yes, they will be coming to the summer camp next summer for a chance to have fun and make friends along with lessons on human rights, life skills, gardening, swimming, orienteering.... you get the idea!

The scar on her foot is so severe that it is stopping the proper growth of her foot and the scarring on her torso impedes her ability to bend and move without it splitting. Our teachers spend half an hour every day oiling her little body in an effort to stop it from splitting and bleeding. These realities in our community help us identify need. Fire and hot food safety in the ger is a huge educational need in our community. We have known this in the past, but there is nothing like seeing the human toll of the lack of fire safety on the face of a three year old. This is the organic nature of our project.

While we have always been aware of fire safety issues with respect to the children, we now have a focus and will be working toward getting an education programme in place for parents to show them hands on concrete ways that they can minimize the risk for their children. This will mean contacting our local and international partners to set up fire safety courses and programmes at the kindergarten - the kind of community events that we are so pleased to be able to be the venue for. Oh, and yes, we will be looking at fundraising to cover the expenses so that Altantsetseg can have her skin grafts done as well.
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*​not her real name 

In addition to our small office in the city, I have a tiny little corner that is mine up at the Kindergarten. I love the days when I get to work from there and really be in the middle of the light and laughter and excitement that our 128 children create every day. It is also so beautiful when,   amidst the hustle and bustle of what constitutes daily operation of the Veloo Foundation projects in Mongolia, through meetings and evaluations about programmes, construction issues, transportation initiatives, trekking inquiries & gala event planning, partners, volunteers and safety awareness, you suddenly notice that the ever constant thrumming of chatter and skipping and laughter is gone. You notice the most curious of all things - silence. And then you can't resist sneaking away from the workings of the  project to visit the reason for the Project...the children.   They are so beautiful when they're sleeping.....or even when they're not! This is what it's all about. Happy, peaceful, well fed and educated children NOT up at the dump picking garbage! 

​    Thanks to all of you who have made this possible.  We truly could not do it without you all!