During our visit to Ulaan Batar, Ramsay and I had the opportunity to visit the Lotus Children's Centre. It is something that we had wanted to do even before the trip began.

We had heard about the situation faced by thousands of Mongolian children, orphans, abandoned children, or children whose lives at home were so terrible that they were driven to the streets. If life in the streets in any part of the world is horribly precarious and dangerous for any child, in Mongolia where temperatures fall below –20°c for several months per year sees many children dying of cold or seeking refuge in the city’s underground sewer system. Crime, drugs, disease and prostitution are the norm.

These children for the largest part have no access to any form of assistance, such as healthcare or counselling. Many of these children have suffered from sexual abuse, violence or malnutrition and have been damaged for life even before ending up in the streets. If they do make it into adulthood, which is very rare, they almost invariably become criminal themselves, having had no education and never enjoyed a normal existence.

Didi Kalinka, an Australian woman who was working as a school teacher in Ulaan Batar decided that something had to be done for these crowds of street kids and since the Mongolian Government would not, or could not cope with the problem, she started the Lotus Children Refuge in 1995 out of her own small funds and the help of a few friends.

Today the Lotus Children Centre (or refuge) looks after 170 children from newborns to teenagers. Lotus is the only chance to live a normal life these children have, yet the centre is forever under immense financial pressures. The Mongolian government contributes to only $2000 per year for the whole centre, and if it wasn’t for the help of volunteers and donations God knows what would happen to these kids.

Lotus is not just an orphanage. At the Centre, the children get the food and medical care they need, as well as the education that mostly they don't receive when they live on the streets. But, perhaps more importantly, the children live together in "family units", and so they learn not just about how to look after themselves, but also about responsibility and how to look after others. The centre runs it own schools, which provide the children with a learning environment suited to their special needs as many have suffered too much to be able to enrol in a ‘normal’ school. Older children are encouraged to finish their schooling as Didi’s network stretches far and wide and she will help children finding work and settling in an independent, adult life.

Ramsay and I were very moved by what we saw at the children centre, not just the obvious dedication of the staff and volunteers, but also the eagerness of the children to learn and to make the best of the opportunities the Centre gives them.

The Lotus Centre works very hard to ensure that, wherever possible, children are re-united with their parents or extended families. Families are usually the best place for children to grow up in, but when parents die or are genuinely unable to look after their children, the Lotus Centre provides a warm, secure, loving environment for children who need it.

The Centre has a website at: www.lotuschild.org where you can find out more about the work they do.

Ana.

Make a donation to the Lotus Centre

You can make an online donation through the Lotus Centre website. If you can afford it, please consider doing so. Even a little can go a long way in Mongolia.

Also, Nomads Life has decided to contribute a share of 50% of all donations to our projects toward the Lotus Children Centre, which means that all donations made toward our next trip will be split in half to help support the Lotus Children Centre.

Many thanks,

The Nomads Life Team