Robaird O’Cearbhaill
Hong Kong Correspondent
One third of Mongolians lived below the minimum poverty level, the World Bank latest report states. That level is only US$ 796 per person per year. “Furthermore, 15% of Mongolian citizens hover above this line and are in danger of falling beneath,” the NGO reported, too. But it is the children who are hardest hit.
Borgen’s report on Mongolian poverty, often referring to the World Bank report, also, emphasized the desperate struggle of poor, working children to help their families.
“Two out of five poor people are youths under the age of 15. Children who work to support their families closely match the hours of adults, averaging about 13 hours a week. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), about 56,000 children from ages 5 to 17 are involved in child labor, and over half of them working in hazardous conditions.”
The most terrible situation of these children are the homeless in the capital of Ulaanbataar (Ulan Bator) who live in sewage pipes to keep warm. In Mongolia, long winter temperatures can drop to -40C or -30C in the capital; there is nowhere else for the abandoned misfits to get near heat at night.
Fortunately, beginning in the 1990s, 32 children’s charities started to operate in the city. Four established ones care for homeless kids providing shelter as well as education and health.
The Verbist Care Centre (VCC) opened in 1995 by the missionaries of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM Fathers). Begun in Belgium in 1862, the founder, Fr Theophile Verbist, aimed to care for children in China, where he served in Inner Mongolia briefly in the 1860s. Their presence in Mongolia was interrupted until 1992.
A brief summary about their center explains that it “provide(s) a home for vulnerable and runaway kids who roam the streets of Ulaanbaatar during the day and seek shelter and warmth at night in the rat-infested underground ducts of the hot-water system of the city.”
It added that “VCC wants to assure them a better future by sending them to kindergartens, primary, secondary schools and tertiary education.”
VCC supervisor, Fr. Simon Mputu, a CICM priest, described “unbearable” poverty in a hard, and terrible Mongolian climate. However, their provided VCC info says that they have taken great strides to solve the childrens’ dire problems.
“At the moment we have 65 children living in the VCC and about 30 students. The 65 children living in the center all attend classes. Their ages range from 1 year nine months to 19 years old. Some of these 30 students study in Technical and Vocational Colleges in and around the capital and some study at Private and State Universities in Ulaanbaatar.”
Along with VCC, homeless children charities which are making a significant impact are: Christina Noble Foundation (Noble is an Irish Catholic self/started childrens’ benefactor) another by a Korean Christian founder too, Japanese, Dr. Eiko Takamizawa, Chair of the Mongol Kids’ Home Project. Moreover, founded like VCC in 1995, Australian yoga and meditation teacher, Didi Ananda Kalika, runs the Lotus Children’s Centre.
Takamixama was inspired spiritually by a Japanese TV documentary on these homeless kids: “When I was watching this TV show, the following Scripture verse came to my heart in the most vivid way: the Lord said to us, ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ (Matt. 25:42-43, NASB). Immediately, I felt the strong urge to take action, for I was convinced that I need to take personal action to do what I can to help.”
Christina Noble’s vision to help poor kids came from TV about street children in Vietnam. She succeeded there and in Mongolia: in 2016 a Guardian feature article on her ran: “Christina Noble: the woman who transformed the lives of 700,000 children.”
Kalika at the Lotus Children Center used to be “caring for around 150 children including many abandoned babies. Now the economic situation in Mongolia is better and young children and babies are abandoned less and less. This is reflected in the fact that we now care for just 65 children directly, mostly young teenagers. The age of the children in our care today ranges from a few months old up to 18 years,” Lotus’ website explains. (Photo from Verbist Care Center Facebook page).
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