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Bal-Bobek Kindergarten Project, Sogog Bag,
Mongolia Bayan-Olgii
 The
Bal-Bobek Kindergarten Project was conceived in January 2006. The main
objectives of the project are to open a Kindergarten to serve 103 preschool-age
children and to create employment opportunities in the Sogog community.
The kindergarten will allow the herder families of this region the opportunity
to educate their children at an early age. This project aims to eliminate
the discrepancy between the children's educational level in the countryside
versus the city. The project will develop the children's skills, interests,
talents, and enthusiasm to study. The kindergarten will provide the children
with the academic and social/emotional skills required to transition into
Primary School. Finally, in the first year the Kindergarten will aim to
create seven new jobs for the residents of the Sogog community.
 The
kindergarten will open for the 2006-2007 academic year. During the first
year, the kindergarten will have one class with 25 pupils. The Bal-Bobek
Kindergarten Project intends to expand from serving 25 pupils in the 2006-2007
academic year to serving 103 pupils by the 2009-2010 academic year. Each
year, the school will add one class consisting of ~25 pupils to its roster
until it reaches 103 students by 2009. In doing so, the school will be
expanding, thus adding more employment opportunities. When the school
reaches 100+ students, there will be a need to expand the size of the
building. The school intends to gain its funding for the yearly expenses
and building expansion from the Mongolian government, student tuition,
community fundraising projects, and external donors. The main objectives
for the project are:
The Sogog Community
 The
Sogog community is located in the far-western region of Mongolian near
the Russian and Chinese border. The people of Sogog are Kazak, a minority
in Mongolia. Most of the population speaks Kazak as their first language
and Mongolian as their second language. All the families living in Sogog
are herdsmen. There are 240 families with a total population of 1080.
Of this population, 103 are preschool-age children. There is a secondary
school providing Grade 1 to Grade 9 education.
The Sogog community had requested funding from the government because
they were concerned about the early childhood educational needs of their
children. The request was denied due to the lack of funding. The Sogog
community decided to pursue the opening of a kindergarten independently
and fund the school at a community level. The community has already refurbished
an abandoned public building. However, due to the low income of Sogog
they decided they would slowly save money from community donations and
any extra secondary school funding they could save. The Bal-Bobek Kindergarten
Project was developed to assist the Sogog residents in opening a kindergarten
sooner than it would otherwise be capable of and to provide more resources
than initially planned. With funding and donations from outside sources,
Sogog will be able to open their kindergarten in September 2006.
How can you help?
 Bal-Bobek
Kindergarten has created a Wish List for the new kindergarten where you
can donate materials to the school. We are especially in need of stationary
and toys.
The project is relying solely on donations
for the educational materials and supplies. We are pleased to inform you
that we have found sponsors for nealy all employees for a 6 or 12 month
period. The sponsorship ensures that the employees will receive a salary.
The Kindergarten teacher has obtained a
sponsor who is willing to commit to paying her full 12 month salary. As
well as sponsors for the following staff, the assistant teacher ($58 USD/month),
part-time music teacher ($21 USD/month), cook ($42 USD/month), cleaner
($42 USD/month), Guard ($42 USD/month), Maintenance worker/collects dung
for heating and cooking ($42 USD/month), and bus driver ($42 USD/month).
We do need a sponsor for one more employee,
we need an accountant. Mart is a certified accountant and a mother of
one, her baby has Cerebral Palsey. Mart is a certified accountant and
she has no relatives in Sogog. Her salary for a 12 month contract will
be $32 USD or 40.000 tugrug/month.
The next step is finding sponsors for the
children whose families are unable to pay the 2500 tugrug tuition (for
9 months). This works out to be about $21 US for the year. We have about
18 families who are not able to pay the tuition. All the families in the
kindergarten will donate food but they will only give what they feel they
can afford.W
We have two families in Sogog the local
community who are going to sponsor 3 children to attend the kindergarten
which is fantastic news
We want to thank everyone that has helped
Bal-Bobek Kindergarten Project, without your support we would not be were
we are today.
For more information email tanya@antfoundation.mn
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