From the village to the world

WhatsApp Image 2022-08-29 at 08.12.56

From the village to the world – Filling the gap on media literacy in Mongolian rural area

 

WHERE WE ACT


The project plan an intervention in the province of Sukhbaatar, in the east of Mongolia, an area where ASIA has been working since 2016. In particular, the activities will be carried out in 4 soums (township).

 

WHY WE ACT


In the last 20 years, Mongolia has been characterized by a very strong internal migration. In a country of about 3 million inhabitants, more than 30,000 people who each year decide to move from the provinces to the capital.

Migrants frequently end up marginalized on the outskirts of the city without any expendable skills and with very low chances of integration that increasingly lead to alcoholism, poverty, unemployment and domestic violence.

In 2017, the Mongolian government’s response to this trend, it prohibited migration by not releasing more residence permits, initially until 2018 and now until 2020, to those who move from any province to the capital without an insured occupation. The result, as it is easy to hypothesize, is not the stop of migration but only an increase of the individuals in the capital without regular permission.

To try to stem this situation and give more concrete answers to a population “fleeing” from the countryside, the government is currently trying to propose solutions and actions to reduce the immense gap that divides the capital from the rest of the provinces, but with still poor results, also due to the lack of funds. Specifically, what we are trying to do is to make the suburbs areas from which we should not migrate in order to seek a better life but in which opportunities can be created and the best possible education can be obtained.

While the western part of the country attracts thousands of tourists every year, the province of Sukhbaatar does not attract international tourism and even most of the international aid that is mainly concentrated in capital. From this province, according to official data, every year a thousand people migrate to the capital.

One of the problems that leads to the marginalization, unemployment and poverty of those who go to the city is the total lack of skills to adapt to the new and technological capital. Intervening by filling the technological gap between the capital and the rest of the regions is therefore fundamental. Not only to train individuals who, if they decide to migrate one day, will be able to adapt in the city but also to create the conditions for which migration is no longer the only option.

 

PROJECT OBJECTIVES


The promotion of education is one of the priority areas of intervention for ASIA, which it believes should be implemented through activities that strengthen local skills in the face of current challenges, while respecting local cultural integrity.

The general objective of the project is to promote the development of the inhabited centres of the remote areas of the Province of Sukhbaatar and to reduce migration towards the capital. This objective will be achieved through the specific objective of improving IT skills and internet access for teachers and students in 13 districts of Sukhbaatar province in Mongolia.

 

PROJECT ACTIVITIES


The project intends to train at least 30 teachers from the 13 districts of the province and provide IT tools for each selected school. Furthermore, following meetings with teachers and with director from the Department of Education of the Capital of the Province, in June 2019, 4 pilot schools were identified in which 1 multimedia library will be established.

 

BENEFICIARIES


Direct beneficiaries of the project: 30 teachers from 13 districts of Sukhbaatar province and at least 1290 children from selected schools.

Indirect beneficiaries of the project: at least 400 families from the province of Sukhbaatar