©InfoMyanganbuu, 50, knows all about Euro 2008 as he talks the universal language of football in the house that he built himself from cardboard boxes. He and his two daughters have just managed to get electricity in their tiny shack, and this means he can watch football on TV.
This is the sign of a much more profound shift in the livelihoods of this small Mongolian family from the Bayangol district of Ulan Bator. A Red Cross volunteer has been visiting the family since October 2007 thanks to a new injection of funding into the Mongolian Red Cross’ social care programme from the Land Rover G4 Challenge. As a result, the family are now registered to receive government benefits and the children can afford to stay in school.
The family moved to Ulan Bator from the northern Tob province in 1999 after the coal mine that Myanganbuu worked for went bankrupt. Finding a job in the city proved difficult, with unemployment rates at 38 per cent and men suffering from gender discrimination because of high levels of alcoholism among Mongolian males.
Harsh winters
Winters are the harshest time for this family, with temporary work hard to find and their cardboard house providing very little shelter from the unforgiving elements, where temperatures can drop to -40°C.
It is summer now though, and the Red Cross volunteer has helped Myanganbuu to find a job working in a car park. The children are going to school and working hard.
The family is very close to the volunteer. It is not only food and financial assistance that she provides, but also the small types of support that mean so much. If the children can’t attend a school party because they don’t have the fee required, she will bring them a little gift to lift their spirits.
Land registration
Myanganbuu, with the help of the Red Cross, is beginning the land registration process so that he can own the land he lives on. “It is a difficult procedure, and the volunteer is always encouraging me to stick at it and not to give up,” he explains.
Myanganbuu has a week of holiday and when asked what he is planning to do during this time, he replies: “I want to build a fence around the house.” This will mean that the land can not be reclaimed and will give the family some security in the precarious surroundings they live in.
More about the Red Cross in Mongolia