Amistad volunteer Vesna Wallace continues her humanitarian work with the very poor in Mongolia. She writes an exciting account of her most recent outreach in Mongolia's remote northern Dorngobi region.

“Two days after I arrived in Mongolia, I took a ten-hour train ride to Dorngobi and then went by jeep to a settlement of about 100 people, too small to even have a name. People there are very poor.
With donations from Amistad, I was able to help these people open a kindergarten for 24 children, a school for 28 children, and an adult literacy program for 20 adults, as well as buy a solar generator for
electricity. These donations will also cover a salary for their one teacher plus school benches, chairs, books, notebooks, pencils, and meals for the children.”

“A German man helped them buy wood to build a new school and general purpose building, which is now being constructed using volunteer labor supplied by the villagers. It will have rooms for kindergarten and elementary school, and other community activities. It will be finished by the beginning of September, when classes will start. People there were extremely happy and grateful
for our help.

“One man by the name of Altangerel, who looks after all these people like an angel, said jokingly that a god of wealth must have just fallen from heaven. They have never seen so much money in their lives.”

“With additional donations I also helped three families there. We were able to assist one family in starting a little grocery store in the new wooden structure where the school and kindergarten will be. The mother will be able to take a sewing class, and to buy a manual sewing machine that
does not require electricity.”

“We were able to help another family of five to start a little trade business and to assist the mother in finishing a cooking course. She will then be able to support her family by getting a cooking job at a tourist camp. The third family also has five members. The father believes in schooling, but his income was too small to support the education of his children. I helped his wife to start a business in Sainshand town, since she is literate and can do it well.”

“Later, I went with a young social worker to visit a very poor family in the city. They live in a little wooden barracks consisting of one room with three beds. The father earns $1 a day as a security guard; the mother cannot work due to illness. All four daughters are getting an education through the help of some relatives. I combined the remaining Amistad funds with an additional donation from two of my friends in Santa Barbara to help them with food and tuition in the fall.”

“Amistad's donation went very far this year, as God blessed every penny,” Vesna told Amistad.

Amistad's Executive Director, Karen Kotoske, received an e-mail from a Mongolian government social worker, Erdenceceg Bandi, asking Amistad for help with a young girl who was in great need of medical assistance. Bolorchuluun had been severely burned as a small child, when boiling water had been
accidentally spilled on her right arm. Bolorchuluun’s nomadic parents didn't have the means to help her receive medical care, and to comfort herself from the horrific pain, the little girl had held her arm in a bent position. Over time, scar tissue partially fused the upper and lower parts of her arm. Bandi hoped that Amistad could fund a plastic surgery to reconstruct Bolorchuluun’s arm.

“How can we find a surgeon in the Mongolian desert capable of performing such an intricate surgery?” wondered Karen. The first person she thought of was her friend Oyuna Tsedevdamba. Karen e-mailed Oyuna to ask if she knew of any Mongolian plastic surgeons in the capital of Ulan Bator. The reply came back: “No.”

But, Tsedevdamba, understanding the importance of the situation, and knowing that she was Amistad's best resource for this type of information, began calling the hospitals in her area until she found one with a burn unit. Tsedevdamba was amazed to learn that a team of French plastic surgeons was arriving in Ulan Bator a few days later and would be doing free plastic reconstructive
surgeries for burn victims.

Bolorchuluun was accepted as a patient by the French medical team, and underwent a successful scar release surgery. Her “new” arm is doing so well that she is now learning how to be a seamstress at a Gobi trade school, thanks to an Amistad scholarship. She and her family are incredibly thankful for the willingness of the French surgeons to operate on her, and have sent messages of immense gratitude to Amistad for our help.