Lantuun Dohio NGO - Project for children

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (Canada Fund) provides modest funding for small-scale, high-impact projects in more than 120 countries around the world. The projects are planned and implemented mainly by local organizations, and are selected and approved by the Canadian Embassy.

Canada Fund began its activities in Mongolia in April 1997. Since then it has provided grants totaling CAD 7,154,497 for the implementation of 434 projects that benefited 6,069,799 people in Mongolia. More specifically, 273,700 children and young people, 68,330 girls and women, and 26,650 families benefited in all provinces of Mongolia. Around 62 percent of the projects were carried out in rural areas and the other 38 percent covered the capital city, Ulaanbaatar.

The Fund’s primary goal is to contribute to the economic, social and cultural life of developing countries. Within this goal, eight projects selected by Canada Fund were implemented in Ulaanbaatar and Darkhan-Uul, Sukhbaatar, Dornod, Selenge, and Uvs provinces in 2019 which benefited over 2,500 people. Specifically, 4 projects aimed to improve the quality of life of persons with disabilities and empower them for better social participation, one project was implemented to protect children and fight violence, one project directed to improve the journalists’ skills and knowledge, and one project aimed to provide improved knowledge and awareness on mental health education to people and social workers living in rural areas.

One of the most remarkable projects from last year was the project implemented by the Innovation Development Center for the Blind NGO which aimed to empower people with vision impairment using advanced information and communication technologies. The project was implemented not only in Ulaanbaatar, but also in Sukhbaatar, Dornod and DarkhanUul provinces. As part of this project, equipment that allow visually impaired people to get information from the Internet were installed at libraries. Librarians at these libraries also took necessary trainings. The project opened up a wide opportunity for visually impaired people to receive the most up-to-date information online while visiting their local libraries.

Another important project was the one implemented in Bulgan to improve the quality of health care services for children with disabilities. As a result of the project, a child rehabilitation room was set up at the aimag’s central hospital and local health care services for children with disabilities were improved with training and cognitive activities.

2019 projects of the Fund also aimed to deliver comprehensive child protection services by providing children at shelters and development centers with mental and other health care and legal services, and nutritious food aid. The Fund’s projects also aim at the advancement of cultural and economic situation in the country. Therefore, a project from 2019 supported the capacity building of business journalists. Canada Fund projects make significant contributions to the improvement of public education, public services, and people’s quality of life. The Fund will support projects in Mongolia this year as well.