A Mongolian girl's dream

As nomads, Mongolians live in houses called GER, a one-room round structure that shielded them from the minus zero degree temperatures. The GER can be folded up and set up within hours and therefore effectively served the needs of the nomads in the past and continue to serve present-day Mongolians as well. It is said that traditionally, there were no door locks in the GER as nomads were expected to open their GER to anyone else who wanted to keep warm when they wanted to stop awhile during their journeys.

When life became difficult for those in the rural areas, they moved to the city, especially of Ulaanbaatar, which now houses about 50 percent of Mongolia's estimated population of three million. As a result, within the city, one observes many GER communities. Unlike the past, however, the present GER communities in the city now house many of the poor struggling to meet their daily needs.

In one of these city GERs called Zuun Ail, we met a beautiful seven-year-old girl named Nomin. Our undergraduate students from the Toyo University who were doing "community watching" at this particular GER asked our Mongolian interpreter, Ochir (himself a graduate student of Toyo University) to ask Nomin if they could interview her. Nomin ran back to their GER, along with two other sisters, and not long after, reappeared with their 44-year-old mother, Shuugaru, who kindly shared her permission for her and her children to be interviewed.

Nomin's mother candidly told our group that she was singlehandedly raising her six children by herself through construction work during the day (she cleans up apartments that are being remodeled or being constructed) and by working in a pub in the evenings. Her eldest son stopped schooling to help her take care of the other five children, the youngest of whom is still two months old. She was also renting out a third GER that she owned within the area her family occupied. With these earnings, she said she is striving hard to provide her children with good education so that they will have better lives and hopefully be able to reside in a better place in the future.

Nomin, when asked, told the group that she was now seven years old and in Grade 2. She and her siblings have to walk some kilometers to get to school. Together with her siblings, she is expected to help fetch water from a public source which is also some distance away from their GER.

Nomin loves to play house with the other children in the neighborhood and she mentioned that she also loves dogs and cats. When asked what her dream was, what she wanted to be in the future, without hesitating, she told the group that she wants to be a policewoman. When asked why, young Nomin answered that she wants to protect her family from many drunkards and criminals in their neighborhood.

At a very young age, Nomin's dream reflected the desire of many Mongolians to see a safer, more protective Mongolia soon. Their country now in transition, Mongolian children are vulnerable to difficult access to education and, on their way to distant schools, are also victims of road accidents- it is said 80 percent of traffic accidents during weekdays involve children. Data for 2005-2010 showed 68 deaths and 3,558 injured among children due to traffic accidents.

Poverty, abandonment, and escape from abusive parents have resulted in a significant number of Mongolian children who are not officially registered, without formal identification. Many public and private groups, Mongolians and foreigners alike, have tried to provide shelter and care for these special children, including our own CICM missionaries, Bishop Wenceslao Padilla and Fr. Ronald Magbanua, the St. Paul Sisters and many others.

We join Nomin and other children and other vulnerable sectors in Mongolia, the women, the elderly and those with physical disabilities among the poor in their prayer and desire that sooner than later, their basic daily humane needs for security and protection can be provided for them.

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