2013 July

Mongolia has summer now. It can become very hot. Nadaam has been celebrated, the national holiday with long distance horse racing (maximum age of the riders is 12 years), wrestling and archery. Meanwhile life in Anna Home goes on.

First about this new website: with the help of Michiel Stoffels and Martijn and Robin from RoRotterdam we transferred the old one to more modern software, which makes maintenance easier. The content remained the same. We should probably do something about it and in case you have ideas, please let us know!

The financial account of Anna Home and the transition home is ready, you can download it here. An independent accountant and the board of the Mongolian foundation signed it.

Transitional Home

Anna Home takes care of children up to the age of 18. When they get older they may choose fors ome extra assistance in life in a ger for boys and a ger for girls. They take care of themselves but receive money to live on and assistance by the caretakers in Anna Home. That way they can finish their studies and slowly get used to an independent life.

In girl’s ger now live Bolortuya, in her second year in technical college to become a dressmaker, Tumentsetseg, also second year, becoming a cook, and Monkhtsetseg who finished school this year and now is looking for a job (or maybe will enter the police academy).

.

.

.

In the other ger now live four boys. Olziibat, also becoming a cook, starting his last year at school. Ganbat, Khurelbaatar and Gansukh are still in high school.

Children who left

Two children left because their family wanted them back to help them. As ever it is very hard to know if this is in the interest of the children, but the Mongolian law is very clear: the parents decide what happens with their children.

Bayrbat and  Urantuya, who stayed long wit us. The first three photos are all Urantuya’s and show her development. The fourth is Bayrbat.

Byambadavaa has finished the highest level in high school and passed an exam which admits him to a university in Ulaanbaatar, where he will study law, starting this September. It will be an enormous change for him. He lived in Anna Home for six years, from the beginning of the house. He has no parents. Three photos of him, dating from 2008 to 2012:

Summer vacation

Vacation has started, which in Mongolia lasts from the beginning of June to the beginning of September. Lots of work is being done in the garden, for which the season always is short, football is being played and English and dancing is taught by Koty, the Peace Corps volunteer who visited weekly for two years and will keep on doing that for another year.