Fall / Winter Sponsors' Update
Views of what your contribution to the Children of the Peak Sanctuary Project has achieved.
News...
This quarter, up at the Children of the Peak Sanctuary Project, we have had a number of exciting initiatives and visits from other folks and organizations all keen to help us make a difference in the lives of the children.
We have had plays performed by the children from the American School in Ulaanbaatar up at the kindergarten and had other schools up to visit and see our programmes in action. We have had a very active Volunteer Programme with a professional Physical Education programme started for the children, an international collaboration on innovative new playground upgrade design, and ongoing professional Kindergarten teaching standards being shared with our long time volunteer Sharlene ( see video below).
We have been chosen as the focus of a young girl's fundraising campaign to raise money to buy a ger to donate as an additional foster care home to protect abused and battered children .
One of our Gobi Gallop riders who was moved to help even more has taken and sold dozens of Mongolian yak wool socks back in her home country and donated the profits to the project to help the children. Innovative fundraising like this is having a huge impact on the work that we are able to do.
In addition to this, we have made many new contacts in the Mongolian business community and are excited about collaborations with Hariin Huruum, a very famous Mongolian fashion designer who is working to help our Fran London Fabric Arts Centre employees not only become more professional and design savvy but also to create a line of elegant home linens that will be sold not only online but also at their UB studio! This combined with contracts to make Christmas gift bags for local companies and mittens for outdoor city workers means that the Arts Centre is well on its way to becoming self sufficient!
We have been chosen as the focus of a young girl's fundraising campaign to raise money to buy a ger to donate as an additional foster care home to protect abused and battered children .
One of our Gobi Gallop riders who was moved to help even more has taken and sold dozens of Mongolian yak wool socks back in her home country and donated the profits to the project to help the children. Innovative fundraising like this is having a huge impact on the work that we are able to do.
In addition to this, we have made many new contacts in the Mongolian business community and are excited about collaborations with Hariin Huruum, a very famous Mongolian fashion designer who is working to help our Fran London Fabric Arts Centre employees not only become more professional and design savvy but also to create a line of elegant home linens that will be sold not only online but also at their UB studio! This combined with contracts to make Christmas gift bags for local companies and mittens for outdoor city workers means that the Arts Centre is well on its way to becoming self sufficient!
Thanks to collaborations with another local NGO, Misheel's Kids and a team of very dedicated dentists at Implant Clinic, a private local dental practise, we are thrilled to announce that we have already had 45 children's teeth fixed ( an average of 3 fillings each!) and have the remainder of the kindergarten children scheduled for dental work before May.
Thanks to one of our local corporate sponsors, Sandvik, earlier this month all of the children at the kindergarten received free vaccines - a much needed part of their health programme.
We also were fortunate this fall to receive very generous gifts of laptops both from Redpath Mining and from Jacob's Engineering. The laptops have been invaluable in helping us get a community internet access programme going and are a welcome addition to our Brad Winters Community Library after school homework help programme.
Thanks to two very generous donors, we have recently been able to upgrade our kitchen up at the Peak Kindergarten and now have a full operational, professional kitchen capable of producing excellent meals for not only the 150 children at the kindergarten and our staff of approximately 40 people every day but also for the neighbouring Red Stone School which provides primary and secondary education to the older children from the community who are not otherwise attending school.
We continue to have 8 children on scholarship at local private schools and were thrilled early in December to be invited to perform at yet another private school in Ulaanbaatar - the English School. We also have been lucky enough to have been "gifted" excursions for the children out to a major cultural celebration out at the Chinggis Statue and Museum complex (Thank you Genco Tourist Bureau!), the Children's Museum at Shangri'La Mall and Narimdal - one of the largest children's camps in Mongolia.
We have also been fortunate enough to begin partnering with some local Mongolian artists and other concerned citizens in a few fundraisers which we hope to continue as part of moving forward to raise funds to build our second school on the other side of the garbage dump.
We are very appreciative of the efforts of so many people in helping us make a difference, one child at a time.
Thanks to one of our local corporate sponsors, Sandvik, earlier this month all of the children at the kindergarten received free vaccines - a much needed part of their health programme.
We also were fortunate this fall to receive very generous gifts of laptops both from Redpath Mining and from Jacob's Engineering. The laptops have been invaluable in helping us get a community internet access programme going and are a welcome addition to our Brad Winters Community Library after school homework help programme.
Thanks to two very generous donors, we have recently been able to upgrade our kitchen up at the Peak Kindergarten and now have a full operational, professional kitchen capable of producing excellent meals for not only the 150 children at the kindergarten and our staff of approximately 40 people every day but also for the neighbouring Red Stone School which provides primary and secondary education to the older children from the community who are not otherwise attending school.
We continue to have 8 children on scholarship at local private schools and were thrilled early in December to be invited to perform at yet another private school in Ulaanbaatar - the English School. We also have been lucky enough to have been "gifted" excursions for the children out to a major cultural celebration out at the Chinggis Statue and Museum complex (Thank you Genco Tourist Bureau!), the Children's Museum at Shangri'La Mall and Narimdal - one of the largest children's camps in Mongolia.
We have also been fortunate enough to begin partnering with some local Mongolian artists and other concerned citizens in a few fundraisers which we hope to continue as part of moving forward to raise funds to build our second school on the other side of the garbage dump.
We are very appreciative of the efforts of so many people in helping us make a difference, one child at a time.
|
|
|
|
|
Upcoming...
As you can see - there is a lot going on up at the Children of the Peak Sanctuary. We are already working on upgrades and enrichments to next year's summer programmes at the summer camp. This fall we were very fortunate to receive the donation of 2 horses for the riding programme out at the Soaring Crane Summer Camp and are so grateful to the folks out at Horse Trek Mongolia not only for caring for and training the horses throughout the winter but also for donating the services of one of their guides next summer to come and administer the riding and horse care programme for the children at the summer camp.
We are also hard at work putting together fundraising initiatives and plans for our second kindergarten which is scheduled to be built next summer. Depending on the level of funding that we are able to secure by May, the size of the school will be somewhere between 40 and 150 children and will likely mean that no children under the age of 6 will be working on the garbage dump to survive.
We are also hard at work putting together fundraising initiatives and plans for our second kindergarten which is scheduled to be built next summer. Depending on the level of funding that we are able to secure by May, the size of the school will be somewhere between 40 and 150 children and will likely mean that no children under the age of 6 will be working on the garbage dump to survive.
Through the Teachers' Eyes...
Below find recent photos taken by the teachers showcasing what they have been up to this fall with the children in the class. Please notice the wonderful involvement of volunteers in the classrooms, the hands on, play based approach we are following to give the children the skills and confidence they need to be successful when they move forward with primary school. These photos show the kids on their field trips, getting dental work, getting vaccinations and performing at the Children of the Peak as well as at other schools. These photos are all taken by the teachers for you and so while the quality of image may not be fully professional, the education, materials, caring and warmth that they are illustrating truly are. We are so thankful to you all for helping us make a difference, one child at a time.
|
|
Through the Eyes of a Volunteer...Sorry the audio is a little hard to hear - this is Sharlene, one of our very dedicated volunteers talking about the transition to play based curriculum and the many benefits it has for the children. Our kindergarten is shaping up to be one of the most progressive in Mongolia thanks in large part to the input of volunteers like Sharlene. Additionally we have a volunteer who is working with us to redesign our playground and make it a model of fine and gross motor skill development along with physical preparation for the challenges of reading, writing and arithmetic that the children are undertaking. The fact that we are able to use natural and recycled materials for the majority of the new playground will mean that when complete, it will be the first of its kind in Mongolia!
|
New Year's Celebrations at the Peak bring Joy and Pride to the Children, Staff and Families
|
The end of the calendar year is a big event in Mongolia as it is around the world and it is always a wonderful time up at The Children of the Peak. The children dress in their very best, the teachers and staff work hard to put together a holiday concert for the parents, volunteers and donors organize gifts for each of the children, we put on a huge, special holiday meal for the children and class by class, if we're very lucky, Owooliin Owoo ( Grandfather Winter ) comes in his gorgeous blue and white deel ( Mongolian traditional long coat pronounced "dell") and reads poems and stories and distributes the gifts to the happy children. Every year it is one of the most wonderful days to see the children so proud and happy performing for their parents, gifted from Owooliin Owoo and then presented with a feast.
Thank you to ALL of you for making these precious memories for these children and their families. We couldn't do it without you. |
