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The Lotus Centre School Project >>
The Lotus Children's Centre with the kind help of an individual, has managed to purchase a two storey building with the aim of turning it into a school for the children. We hope that the school will provide all the classes and facilities of a normal Mongolian school so that our children have a real chance of breaking away from their past.
The current education system cannot handle our kids
Local schools refuse to accept some of our children who have either missed too much schooling or have not attended school at all, while others do not have the necessary documents to be admitted to the regular education system. Some have mild physical and developmental disabilities; which places them at a severe disadvantage, as there are few schools equipped to deal with children with special needs. Currently we are trying to educate these children in our Kindergarten, however the kindergarten has exceeded its capacity and they need far more than kindergarten education to have a real future.
Our children's history
The background of our children often make them the ostriszed from the other kids in their classes, this often leads to teasing and bullying. For some of our kids the problem is also made worse as they are placed into classes that younger than their age, due to school being missed while on the streets. This has lead to some of the kids being unmotivated learners while others have left school.
To give them a real chance
Mongolia has a huge unemployment rate of with the ADB eastimating it could be as high as 40 %. To obtain a job people rely mostly on their families, but for our kids is obviously an impossible option. In order to increase their chance of employment, the children need to have valuable skills and a positive belief in themselves. At the local schools the children cannot acquire the discipline or skills needed for full time employment or further training. Therefore the Lotus school wants to focus more on vocational training and job skills, next to the standard Mongolian curriculum.
How you can help
We are looking for funding to make our school a reality. We have broken the cost of the school up into rooms that can then be funded. We have created a floor plan of the new school and identified the construction costs associated with each room. All costs are in US Dollars. If you wish to sponsor a room please contact lotuschild@magicnet.mn
The Lotus Kindergarten first opened its doors in 1999.
We wanted our children to think of learning as a fun experience, and school as somewhere they really enjoyed going to. Children and teachers worked hard to create a warm, welcoming atmosphere. This had a very serious side, the school drop out rate among abandoned children is exceptionally high and many street children feel that education is simply not for them. We worked to provide a positive first experience of education in the hope that this would lead to a life long interest in learning. Activities were planned and taught initially by experienced Scottish and Mongolian kindergarten teachers, Ishbel and Bayermaa, assisted by Boloroo and Altan-od, who quickly became teachers themselves. The children painted and played and sang, listened to stories and built things out of cardboard boxes - everything that appeals to young children the world over! Small class sizes gave each child the opportunity to be listened to and we had space to invite children from local families to join us. Priya, one of the older girls living at the centre,offered to come and work as a classroom assistant.Many of the children from that first class have been
reunited with their parents and most of the pupils now
attend regular Mongolian secondary schools. One of our
first pupils has been sponsered to attend a private
school in Ulaanbaatar and is the highest achieving
pupil in his year. The original staff moved on,
Bayermaa and AltanOd to other teaching jobs, Boloroo
to a managerial role in the Centre and Priya to assist
at a kindergarten in Finland. We were joined by new
teachers - Alice and Arabella volunteered from Britain
and spent a full winter at the kindergarten and
Saruul, an informally trained teacher with great
English, came down from the countryside and taught a
variety of skills to an enthusiastic class.
Now the kindergarten has grown to three classes, a
total of 59 children. The oldest class is taught by
Tungalag, an experienced secondary school teacher. She
joined the kindergarten team last year and swaps her weekday teaching job to become an aunt at weekends, including the children in her family celebrations and countryside trips. Her class of 27 pupils includes older children who have recently arrived at the centre and have yet to be placed into local schools. Under her guidence the children are learning the first steps in reading, writing and numeracy , and her class has a happy, productive atmosphere, despite being crowded into a very small room. In summer the children make the most of the good weather and and have PE and nature lessons outside.
The middle kindergarten class is taught by Ouyngerel,
a very experienced Mongolian kindergarten teacher.
This is a small class of 17 who work in a bright, welcoming
classroom. They start the day by singing and dancing
and complete art activities or learn about health
issues or the Mongolian countryside before enjoying
lunch and settling down for an afternoon sleep. Part
of the daily routine includes basic hygiene education
and the kindergarten maintains high standards of
cleanliness, despite having no running water.
The youngest class is taught by Usa, an informally
trained teacher who has grown up at the centre and
built up a close relationship with the children. The
children enjoy singing and simple arts and crafts and
the classroom is decorated with bright pictures the
class have created. There are 15 children in the class, some have just turned two, and much of the day is spent
playing and enjoying each other’s company. With so
many small children in one group additional help is
always welcome and some of the ger mothers and older
girls at the center often spend their mornings helping
out here. These children too settle down for a much
needed sleep in the afternoon.
Saruul uses her English skills to help with
translation work and teaches the language to all
classes through songs and games. Satora, a volunteer
from Japan teaches the oldest class basic Japanese
and Tsetsenbileg and Donna run music and PE classes.
Bob Brown, an experienced scientist from America,
comes each week to teach practical science and his
‘hands on’ classes are looked forward to by pupils and
teachers alike.
