Around 10% of the world’s population lives with disabilities, while 20% of the poor populations in developing countries are disabled, according to the latest research. Many of the world’s disabled people face barriers that prevent them from participating in normal society, and many are often forced to live on the margins of society. They are denied basic rights such as studying and getting health and social welfare services.

      Every year on December 3rd, disabled people from around the world unite together to celebrate, and to make their voices heard by the public.

This year, ADRA Mongolia celebrated the “International Day of Persons with Disabilities” in Ulaanbaatar city, Zavkhan and Bayanhongor provinces in collaboration with the Association of Parents with Disabled Children, Mongolia.  During this period, a 1-month-campaign was organized using different slogans, such as “I have a dream,” “Equal opportunities for every child,” and “I have rights,” in order to raise public awareness on cognitive disabilities and the concerns of children with cognitive disabilities.  It was organized to make their voices heard by the public and by policy makers. It was impressive and significant to hear the children’s voices, especially the hopes and wishes that each child has.

The Ensuring Access to Education and Health for Children with Cognitive Disabilities (EACH) project is funded by ADRA UK.

       ADRA Mongolia’s Micro Economic Development team has recently initiated a student- volunteer program called “Student Assistance for Entrepreneurs” (SAFE).  The SAFE project, part of the broader PRIME UB project, cooperates with students and teachers from local universities and colleges to promote the mutual sharing of skills, knowledge and ideas with micro entrepreneurs within Ulaanbaatar to bring about positive socio-economic change.

     The SAFE program will be implemented for 5 years, and will involve 200 students. Each semester, 20 students are trained to provide assistance to beneficiaries and project activities. This spring semester, students will be divided according to their skills and interests as following to participate in one of the following 3 project activities:

•          Hosting Design Competition:  Marketing, PR, Project Management

•          Market Research of Shop front: Market Research of Real Estate, and Products

•          Work with Entrepreneurs:  Various businesses, various activities

In return for their work, students will benefit themselves by earning practical credit points in their class and gaining real-life small business experience. Many students have also expressed enthusiasm at being given the chance to contribute to the community in a meaningful way.

For people who want to meet like minded individual outside of the work or home environment, volunteering can be an excellent way to make new friends, and participate in fulfilling work. This project is funded by ADRA Australia.

The Micro-Economic Development (MED) Program has been implementing the Self-Help Group (SHG) project in Bayankhongor aimag for four years, from 2006-2010. Through the SHG project, 76 informal SHG’s have been established, and 561 participants have been involved in SHG activities. The beneficiaries were able to attend SHG training, small business training, business planning, vocational and basic accounting trainings, and were even able to make some savings. They were able to put their savings into a commercial bank as collateral.  Many participants took business loans and were able to start and expand their businesses and increase their household and business incomes.  The result of the project activity was an average savings per person of 56 USD and the average size of received loans from the commercial bank was around 650 USD. 135 members took vocational trainings, and 95 new businesses started. 

Based upon the previous project intervention, it was found that sustainability was a very important component to help provide economic support for the project beneficiaries.  As a result, the MED Program has started a new project called the “PRIME BH” (Poverty Reduction through Innovative Microfinance Empowerment, Bayankhongor) Project to help provide greater financial support to the project beneficiaries. The PRIME BH projects aim is: Reducing poverty in rural western Mongolia through innovative microfinance and community development. The project objectives are:

·       Firstly- To enable institutionally sustainable self-help groups,

·       Secondly-to increase the livelihood income of beneficiaries through participation, & improved financial & business skills.

·       Thirdly-To improve the microfinance operation environment.

ADRA Mongolia’s MED team has already launched the PRIME BH Project activities in Bayankhongor. There are 7 new cooperatives which have been established and have received their official certification and stamp. The project staff held the project needs assessment trip from September 14-27. During the trip the established cooperatives made their next 5 plans by drawing pictures and attended the needs assessment survey session.

The PRIME BH Project will continue to address the problems of poverty reduction and economic development in Bayankhongor aimag through the provision of further training, business development services and community linkages.  By cooperating and implementing together with local organizations, the project will ensure that its outcomes have the greatest chance of sustainability.  Ultimately, a sustainable future means a future that is free of poverty.

“The Sustainable Poverty Reduction through Agricultural Development”project staff visited Zavkhan province from the 20

of September to the 4 of October, 2010.  The main purpose for this visit was to organize a harvest holiday, to increase market share in local markets through introducing different product lines like new pickled vegetables, or salads, as well as to conduct pre-membership training in order to make local people well aware of cooperative benefits and encourage new members to join cooperatives.

The harvest holiday is a crucial event which evaluates the beneficiaries’entire years efforts and hard work. This year’s harvest holiday was evaluated by some interesting criteria such as; the biggest pumpkin and cabbages, or the cooperative which produced the largest number of product types as well as the best farmer (grain grower), and the best leader. According to the harvest holiday data, a total yield of 106.331 tons of potatoes, 19.939 tons of vegetables, 247.5 tons of green fodder and 18 tons of hay were harvested across all community based agricultural cooperatives.

One of the highlights of this year is a newly introduced individual system which promotes mutual benefits of individuals and cooperatives. During the spring beneficiaries were provided with land and seeds through cooperatives and in response, they committed to provide 20% of their harvest and seeds back to the cooperative in fall. As a consequence of this new system, the individual’s participation and responsibility increased significantly. This project is funded by ADRA Germany with financial support provided by the European Union.

During this month, ADRA Mongolia was fortunate to host Jair Parada ADRA Asia HR/Finance Director and Daniel Dos Santos, ADRA Asia Regional Executive Director.

The purpose of the visit from the ADRA Asia regional office was to learn and familiarize themselves with Mongolia and the ADRA Mongolia office. Specifically the week of meetings focused on sharing and improving management procedures, listening, accessing and analyzing views of strategic future for ADRA Mongolia and promoting partnership and relationship at different levels.

“You have a great team in ADRA Mongolia. It has been an intense but rewarding week. Please remember to express our appreciation for the staffs’ attention to us during our visit. May God continue to bless all staff in their ADRA Mongolia ministry.” Daniel Dos Santos ADRA Asia Regional Executive Director.

Thanks to Jair and Daniel for visiting Mongolia. We look forward to many more visits in the years to come.