Going to school at Ulan Bataar, Mongolia

The sun is out and casts a hard white light on the Northeastern Bayanzurkh suburb of Ulan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia. The soothing warmth of the sun does not hide that this is one of the poorest areas in town. Here, children walk around not wearing much clothes despite the below zero temperatures and that is exactly why the SOS Social Centre is located here; to target the needs of children and their families.

Inside the social centre, the voices of children reading aloud from textbooks fill the room. It is a rhythmic, but also somehow staggering sound as they each read out from different books and at a different pace. Skinetuya is 12 years old and sits concentrated at the end of a narrow table - his voice rather low. He is one of the more than 30 children who come to the SOS Social Centre in Mongolia's capital Ulan Bataar to learn how to read and write.

Skinetuya is a boy with a big round face and a winning smile. His parents moved to the city three years ago in search for work. Both used to work in a gold mine in a rural district, but the mine closed and no other jobs were available. That story is typical for the area. Most children living here are sons and daughters of migrant workers. Back in 2003-2004, the winter was particularly harsh and many of Mongolia's rural population lost their livestock and thereby also their livelihood and were forced to migrate to the bigger cities and look for work.

Now his parents work at the big market in central Ulan Bataar. His mother washes cars in the parking lot, and his father mans a small baggage carrier.

"Life is better here because my parents have some work. Before, they had no jobs, so it was difficult to find money for food. Here, there are also many nice people and I meet other children. In the mine not so many other kids where around," he says.

Child growing up in Mongolia

Skinetuya lives in the vicinity of the SOS Social Centre in the Northeastern suburb of Bayanzurkh. It is a particularly poor area where more than 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The children's right to education is not always met here, as most of the population are migrants from the countryside, lacking the resources and papers necessary to register with authorities and claim benefits. A problem Skinetuya knows about all too well. "I used to look at the other children going to school and I felt jealous. I also wanted to go. My parents are not registered here, so therefore I cannot go to school," he explains.

The 12-year old boy and his parents live in one of the traditional Mongolian yurts - a round tent with one large room inside. Beds are pushed up against the sides and a stove with a long chimney takes up space in the middle. Skinetuya's 20-year old sister and an uncle also live here. Toilet facilities are outside the tent, a few meters away from the entrance where a wooden shed covers a hole in the ground.

Since he began attending classes at the SOS Social Centre he feels that "life is getting better" and Skinetuya hopes that after one year of classes at the centre, he will be able to go to a normal school. He is wearing shoes and clothes provided by the centre as are most of the other kids in the small classroom. Being a polite boy, he says "thank you very much".

Another reason for his smiles is the fact that currently his parents are making some money. When they have enough for food he is sometimes able to buy a pencil or a notebook for himself. A cheap pen goes by the price of 500 Tugrik, or the equivalent of 0.25 Euro. His mother will get 1500 Tugrik for washing a small size car - or 2000 for a bigger sized. On a good day she will wash anywhere between ten to twenty cars. During the cold season from October to March, where temperatures easily go below minus 35, it is impossible to wash the cars with water. Then she can only polish.

Working with the local community at Ulan Bataar, Mongolia

Once the classes at the social centre are over Skinetuya goes to the market parking lot and assists his mother with the vehicles. Still, the family goes to bed hungry 2 or 3 times a week.

It is estimated that more than 300 people, including 150 children, earn a living in the market washing cars.

At the SOS Social Centre in Ulan Bataar a team of three teachers provide informal education to a batch of children who can come here for four daily classes. In the morning and until lunch, the teaching aims at grades 3 and 4, in the early afternoon it is for those at first and second grade. On Fridays, the centre is providing medical check-ups and lessons in handicraft.

The children are mostly sons and daughters of migrant worker who have not formally registered with authorities in Ulan Baatar. The lack of registration makes is almost impossible for the children to attend normal public school and receive health care.

Unfortunately, many of the children attend the classes at the social centre less regularly once winter is over. Then they often have to go and help their families collecting garbage, which provides a meagre earning for them. The SOS co-workers at the centre are often reminding the parents about the importance of education.

After a year of attending classes, the SOS Social Centre helps the children with documentation and resources that should facilitate entry into normal government publicly-run schools.

The director of the SOS Social Centre, Jalgal Otgonsuren, explains that during the time of communism the literacy rate in Mongolia was very close to 100 per cent. Since a more market-oriented democratic system was introduced, the literacy rate has gone down as many families are struggling with poverty.

SOS Children has been working in Mongolia since 1997 and has two SOS Children's Villages at Ulan Bataar and a second which was officially opened in July 2009 at Darkan, in the north of the country. More than 150 children have a loving family home at these children's villages.

You can support children in Mongolia by becoming a child sponsor.