2011 November

VISIT

My daughter Willemijn and I were a few days in Choibalsan. It was a great pleasure to be back! The children and the leaders of Anna Home received us with nice food, songs, poems, dance and a play. We admired all the medals and other prices that they won this year and we saw notebooks with text and algebra.

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The house is still there and seems to be in good condition, although it is sometimes difficult to heat it in all places. The children now all have a small place to put their belongings.
But there are also problems. For example, the sisters Dalaitogoo and Monhzul lived in Anna Home since 2007, when their mother suddenly left them. They were out on the street without anything at all. Now the same mother wanted her children back, very much against the will of Boldsaikhan. But she has parental authority and nothing will help. Now they are in Ulaanbaatar, most probably do not go to school and risk human trafficking.
Two other sisters, Tumentsetseg and Namuuntsetseg, were allowed to stay one night in prison with their mother. They enjoyed that very much. They did not see each other for 2 years and mother has still at least 2 years to go in prison.

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To make the hashaa nicer we planted some trees, sprouts from local trees of which we hope that they will stand the cold.

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BUDGETING

We also worked hard on the budget for the year 2012. It is ready now and on the last day of our visit it was approved by the board. It increases from 55 million Tugriks to 58 million, approximately € 32.000.
We hope to find separate funding for Internet. Technically this is now possible and it seems important for the children to broaden their scope of the world. Did you know that Anna Home has a page on Facebook? Shortly the children will be able to write on it themselves! An American Peace Corps volunteer, Koty, is going to teach them.

THE TO BEIJING TEAM

This summer four cars drove from Bergambacht in Holland via Mongolia to Beijing. The drivers managed to find many sponsors for two projects, of which Anna Home was one. We received the fantastic amount of € 5000, for which we are most grateful.

Maarten