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Mongolia invests in community amenities
Herder group in Mongolia
Mongolians are making improvements to vital services in rural areas through funds which pay for amenities that local communities decide they need the most such as water wells and traveling clinics.
Water can be hard to find during Mongolia's freezing winters. Plenty of it from dug wells is a welcome sight to the country's thousands of herders and the millions of livestock they live off. Herder Batjargal, a father of four, says that this recently rehabilitated well is the only source of running water his family and their 700 heads of livestock have.
SOUNDBITE (Mongolian) Batjargal, Camel Herder:
"This well we use for everything, for our daily use of water and for our livestock, and it is same for the other herders around this area."
NARRATOR: Batjargal and other herders proposed the renovation of the once-defunct well in their area, under Mongolia's Sustainable Livelihoods Project, funded by the World Bank. The project's Community Initiatives program gathers rural community members and lets them decide what initiatives to finance with program fund, says Deputy Governor Amahan Dula Amahan.
SOUNDBITE (Mongolian) Deputy Governor Amahan Dula Amahan.
"In terms of selections we have several levels the community groups gathered and they speak of the project they propose for next year and after the community group proposes the so call ?.... meeting discusses and makes a short list. And the third level there is a selection committee that discusses which three or four projects can be implemented this year and the others a set aside for next year proposal.
NARRATOR: Under the initiatives fund, rural communities are involved in the upgrading of small but vital infrastructure projects like the wells and hospitals. The Mongolian town of Ulziit chose to renovate its health centers using money from the fund to pay for new equipment, beds, sheets and windows, says the Governor.
SOUNDBITE (Mongolian) Governor:
"Under the fund we have for small project to renovate the town hospitals. And these small projects, we were able to have beds, sheets, carpet and wash machines and new roofing
NARRATOR: Ulziit also funded a motorcycle for its traveling medic, Dr. Khurelchuluun, who rides up to 30 kilometers a day in freezing temperatures to make house calls to homebound patients.
SOUNDBITE (Mongolian) Dr. Khurelchuluun, Physician:
"Before it was quite challenging because I only had a horse and it was difficult when it was snowy and rainy."
NARRATOR: In addition to improving their health facilities, rural communities have allotted initiative funds to upgrading their education sectors. Fund money has gone to renovating dormitories in the Mongolian town of Bogd where children from isolated areas come to live in order to be closer to school. Bogd's community tapped the initiative fund to pay for the dormitories through kitchen equipment and new chairs and tables for its dinning room. A welcome improvement says 17 years old Narangerel who lived at the dorm for the past four years.
SOUNDBITE (Mongolian) Narangerel, Student:
"It is all very useful and makes it a more convenient environment for study."
NARRATOR: And study she must says Narangerel in pursuit of her dream to become a doctor.
(duration: 3'47")
