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Fraternite Notre Dame teams up with UNICEF, and the US & Canadian Armed Forces to benefit the population in the mountains January 27th, 2010
Fraternite Notre Dame in Mongolia attempts to relieve very destitute populations from misery, by providing them nutritious food, clothing and medicine. Ulaanbaatar is growing days after day with new, impoverished migrant families: they came to the city seeking jobs; they only found homelessness.
Many street children and teenagers live underground, in the sewers. Other parts of the population in Ulaanbaatar or in adjacent suburbs are also affected by poverty. Fraternite Notre Dame strives to alleviate hunger, comfort destitute families and children and enable them to lead a stabler life.
Fraternite Notre Dame started working in Mongolia in 1994.
Fraternite Notre Dame's NGO was approved by the Mongolian Government through its Immigration Bureau in 1994. It was also recognized as a Church by the Mongolian Department of Justice, in November of 2002.
Food Pantry; Feeding Programs (baby milk);
Housing Programs (Nazareth Village in Khonkor);
Orphanage; School, and visiting poorest families and prisoners.
The fields of activity for Fraternite Notre Dame in Mongolia cover different districts of Ulaanbaatar, mainly Bayanzhur and Songino, which are the poorest districts in the capital. Additionally, Fraternite Notre Dame offers a Housing Program in Khonkor (20 kms from the Capital).
The Orphanage started in 2002. It is known as one of the best Orphanages in Ulaanbaatar.
The Primary School was opened in 2002 on the orphanage's grounds. The premises currently feature 4 classrooms and a Kindergarten. Children from all ages and levels are welcomed. They belong to very poor families, have no ID cards and therefore are not allowed to attend the City schools.
According to its possibilities, Fraternite Notre Dame operates a feeding program for malnourished children and for mothers who cannot breastfeed their child because of health problems.
The mothers come on referrals from pediatrician doctors or family health clinics. Baby-milk is given to 500 families once a month, and also to 3 hospitals and 2 orphanages for babies.
opened in October 2003 by Most Reverend Bishop Jean Marie, this village made of traditional yurts is a pilot project, welcoming poor families with children, disabled people, who had no home to live in. the compound helps them to recover their dignity, find a job and educate their children.
A yurt is the traditional Mongolian way of housing that consists in a round tent made of lamb skin and felt, with a coal or wood stove in the middle; the whole family live together in this one room. These are the main habitation unit for migrants, and they use them also when they get to the city, turning nearby lands into shanty towns.
One hot meal is served every day to each family and they also receive grocery bags on a weekly basis.
They also receive assistance with clothing, hygiene supplies. Many persons found jobs thanks to this assistance and were then able to move on into regular apartments.
Near the Mission, about 100 families are supported by Fraternite Notre Dame, with food, clothing, hygiene, etc.
Numerous toys are given to children at Nazareth Village and in Bayanzurkh District, for Christmas and National Holidays, such as Tsarang Tsar (Mongolian New Year), Women's Day, Children's Day and the Handicapped Day.
with donation of gers, clothing, toys, hygiene products and more.
Many state hospitals and outpatient clinics in Ulaanbaatar or in rural areas also receive regular donations from Fraternite Notre Dame; the same is done as well in other Districts and States, or to benefit private orphanages, schools, youth centers, etc.
Fraternite Notre Dame at large has grown a history of such humanitarian actions. It runs several soup kitchens, food pantries (the most striking example of these is in Harlem, NYC, with 700 families per week) and mobile soup kitchens in tough neighborhoods in the United States of America or in Europe (San Francisco, New York City, Chicago's West Side, and formerly, Paris' 20th arrondissement).
The Organization sent several truck-loads of food and medical supplies to Romania, former Yugoslavia, every time with on-site distribution.
Other operations for food and medical supplies distributions in disaster situations, including:
Mongolia is a landlocked country bordering with the Russian Federation in the North and the People's Republic of China in the South. The country occupies 1,564,116 sq. kms, which is larger than the overall combined territory of Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy.
Her population is 2.6 million, of which 38% live in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar, which is growing rapidly. Nearly 67% of the city's population is less than 35 years old (source: UNDP).
33% of Ulaanbaatar population live below the poverty line; in Bayanzurkh District: 20.54% of the population, with 17% poor and 6% extremely poor.
Songino District: 22.60% of the population; with 40% poor and 24 extremely poor. 72.2% of the population lives in yurts in this District (source: Mongolia Urban Poverty & In-Migration).
The country is well-known for its extremely cold and dry continental climate. Actually, Ulaanbaatar is the second coldest capital city in the world after Astana, Kazakhstan. Temperatures can drop as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius. Mongolia suffers from extreme cold and snowstorms in the winter (dzuds), droughts, forest and prairie fires, floods and outbreaks of human diseases.
In the post-dzud period, during late winter and early spring, children are at high risk of developing extreme fatigue and malnutrition, deterioration in their health and weakening of immunity to acute infections as a result of physical and psychological stress. (source: UNICEF).
Burning coal to heat homes and buildings accounts for more than 50% of Mongolia's carbon-dioxide emissions and air pollution in the capital; this causes respiratory diseases among the residents. Natural disasters (droughts, dzuds, fires and floods) have devastating social and economic effects, often resulting in catastrophic mass migration of impoverished herder families to larger cities, in search of employment and better living conditions.
Ulaanbaatar grows so rapidly that you can see yurts spreading on the hills around the city. This creates a real problem, because these people arrive from the countryside with no ID cards, no passport from the city authorizing them to work. Often times, their children have no birth certificate, thus they cannot go to school or to the hospital. Then, poverty leads to even deeper poverty along with despair, leading to alcoholism, which is currently a terrible plague there.
In 2010, Fraternite Notre Dame built a small primary school in the 24th Sub-District of Bayanzhurkh, in an area where there is no school and where many countryside people flocked in to find a dwelling. This year, the first four grades of primary school opened, welcoming about 70 children.
In the 13th Sub-District of Bayanzhurkh, on the orphanage grounds, a primary school was built. The premises can accommodate a fair number of pupils. The school is very important to the area, as there is a village of yurts close by.
The Kindergarten is also highly appreciated, for it allows parents to find a job, as their children are taken care of during the day. Thus, many disadvantaged families are given an opportunity to care for the basic education of their children, so important towards their future.
On Saturday morning, poor families from the neighborhood and even from remote areas come and get a pantry bag of food supplies and products that will help them through the week. Certain families ride a bus for an hour or walk an hour to receive this help.
Thanks to some American friends, our children at the orphanage were given an opportunity to mark their first Thanksgiving celebration. They were also able to enjoy various concerts and shows of traditional music performances.
Fraternite Notre Dame received a large container shipment of medical supplies and medicine, which was subsequently distributed, in partnership with other NGOs, partly to the Ministry of Health, district of Ruskul in the North-East part of the City, and partly to various other hospitals in the North and South sides.
A large portion of these supplies and medication were distributed at the Capital, but also in other cities. We maintain a high pace of cooperation with various government agencies at all levels, along with foreign groups active in Mongolia.
Nazareth village, located 17 kms from Ulaanbaatar, was initiated by His Excellency Bishop Jean Marie, Fraternite Notre Dame's Founder, in October of 2003. A good number of destitute families were welcomed and housed there. Many were able to find a job at local brick kilns, textile factories or in the construction trade.
When the priest of Fraternite Notre Dame was present with the villagers, he would run a vegetable garden and produce potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, radish and other vegetables, highly appreciated by hotels in the Capital. A swine breeding project is also under preparation, along with an iron workshop that will create local jobs.
This year, the first four grades of the Primary School opened their doors, welcoming a total of about 70 children. The construction of schools and Kindergartens is a priority in Mongolia and the authorities really appreciate the presence and action of Fraternite Notre Dame in the country.
At Nazareth Village, our priest organized parish life, with the faithful getting together on Sundays, and often on weekdays, for prayer.
He also visits the orphanage in Ulaanbaatar on a regular basis, to perform Religious Services. People call him at the bedside of the sick and the dying; again, he performs baptisms of both the newborns and adults alike.