Background:

Winters in Mongolia are harsh, needless to say with temperatures dropping as low as minus 45 degrees celcius, combined with storms and heavy ground freezing. The rural nomadic herder community is especially vulnerable to weather conditions. In 1999/2000, 'zud' occured, a severe winter during which significant amount of livestock perished, which lead to large scale humanitarian and cultural disaster. The Mongolian government was obliged to seek international assistance to deal with the emergency. Since, there have been recurring 'unusual' severe winters, possibly related to global warming and general difficulty recovering from previous environmental disasters. Overall, we have seen slowly perishing nomadic culture and mass urbanisation over the last 15years.

My mother and I felt responsible, as co-users and polluters of the planet, to be directly involved in aiding and supporting the children who have been affected by the environmental, cultural and social disasters brought by the severe winters. However, we are careful to provide sustainable and meaningful support and have therefore retained majority control of any project management and aim to operate as independently as possible to make quality difference.

How we operate:

Our charitable endeavours are now done under the 'Citizens of the World' name so we can invite others to join our efforts. Citizens of the World are committed to the 'bottom up' approach where we aim to focus on a selected small group within the wider community and aim to make as much sustainable and quality difference to the selected few lives as is possible. We focus on quality and holistic reach, rather than on the quantity of the beneficiaries. We leave the 'top down' larger scale support to more organised professionals who are better able to distribute resources. You can see more on our historic outreach on our new facebook page @CitizensoftheWorld1

Summer 2018 Capital Project:

We are now aiming to raise up to £3,500.00, of which we will personally provide £1,500.00 and aim to raise up to £2,000.00 from friends, family and our immediate community. Our Summer 2018 Capital Project focuses on an urgent improvement needed to the hygiene facilities of the boarding school. In particular, we aim to replace the single outdoor toilet facility with a sustainable and safe facility, provide . We aim to source our materials and labour as locally as possible while outsourcing design and know-how to professionals who have track record in designing eco-villages and sustainable projects and who are happy to volunteer their skills. Any shortfalls will be topped up by us as we are committed to implementing this project in the summer of 2018. However, we hope others can join our work and contribute their experience, skills and know-how!

We are currently undergoing analysis and research phase and will make a site visit in February 2018 together with potential partners. We will then work on finalising the budget and project schedule by the end of Spring 2018 and will provide an update via our facebook page. Any extra funds or savings will be kept for emergency cost overruns and further extras rolled-over to the next capital project. We will report fully to everyone who has contributed and share the success stories of the amazing children who are working so hard to stay in education. Thank you for your time!