The Mongolian Women’s Farming Association (MWFA) was established in 1999 by a small group of women trained in agriculture. These women were determined to train and support some of the poorest communities in Mongolia in sustainable agricultural techniques. Since MWFA was founded it has assisted more than 4500 families to increase their income and access to an adequate supply of food. The women have been able to do this through grassroots training techniques in predominately vegetable growing and chicken husbandry but have also embarked on a number of other projects including community based tourism and tackling domestic violence.

The first MWFA branch was established in the Bayankhoshuu Ger district of Ulaanbaatar (UB) which is about 30-40 minutes North West from the city centre. This is the branch that I live and work at. There have since been two other branches established; one to the East of UB called Bayanzurkh and one in central Mongolia in Bayanhongor which is near the Gobi desert. The branch at Bayanhongor serves as a base from which to provide training to other provinces of Mongolia. The branch enables families to continue living in remote areas of the country and therefore preserving their unique way of life.

In recent years thousands of Mongolia’s traditional nomadic herders lost their livestock to disastrously cold winters and dry summers. Many of the herders moved to UB in search of work and the Ger districts were formed. Consequently, unemployment rates of nearly 30% have been created. Further more, schooling in Mongolia is criticized for being inadequate because of:

• Lack of resources.
• Unaffordable school and university fees.
• Children having to drop out of school in order to supplement the family’s income.

Due to these factors many people find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle of a lack of skills, unemployment and poverty. Surviving in these conditions, especially if the family is single parent headed (usually by a women), is a real struggle.

Many of the people that come to the MWFA for training are very poor, have very low incomes and live in the Mongolian traditional Ger. Customarily a Ger is set in its own plot of land and this ‘garden’ type area is called a hashaa. One of the key ideas behind MWFAs work is that even the poorest of family’s can be supported in utilizing the hashaa to grow vegetables, feed their families and possibly increase the families income. The small scale and sustainable organic farming techniques taught involve the whole family. This approach means that it is an affordable option for even the poorest of families and that the knowledge is passed to future generations.

Training

MWFA provides communities training in growing vegetables, fruit trees, trees for wood, chicken husbandry, rearing rabbits, water management, agricultural technology such as greenhouse and root cellar construction. The MWFA recently had two handbooks printed that provide clear and detailed information and instructions regarding all of the above activities and more. They hope to sell the handbooks to larger organizations and also provide some for free to poorer families.  MWFA is now approached by International organizations to deliver training to communities on their behalf. I believe this is because the methods that MWFA use are so effective and founded in grassroots initiatives.

Soup kitchen

Over a third of people in UB live under the poverty line and many consume less than half the minimum calorie intake that the World Health Organisation recommends. Malnutrition affects children much worse than adults, especially when the temperatures can drop as low as -30 in winter. Any assistance the children can get is vital. MWFA provides children from the Ger district with a hot bowl of traditional Mongolian soup everyday. As well as this, MWFA engage the children in activities and competitions that encourage them to stay in education or gain practical skills that will enable them to break the poverty cycle.

Warm greenhouse

In principle and theory I understand and am a great supporter of wind and solar energy! Unfortunately, the technology that it takes to do this project completely confounds me when it comes to putting it into practice. Mongolia is famed for the amount of days of clear blue skies it has, so solar should be widespread here right? Especially in a country where the pollution can be intolerable. I don’t know the statistics but Mongolian people must be suffering some respiratory problems as a consequence of the smog. I spoke to someone recently who explained that if solar panels take off in Mongolia they should be placed on the sides of buildings as opposed to on the roofs. This (I think) was because the sun doesn’t get so high in the sky all year and that putting them on the side would maximize the panel’s intake of light. Interesting point that I’d never have considered before.

The other technological brick wall I constantly hit in regards to this project is keeping the soil frost free. How would you do this? Underground central heating maybe? The water in the pipes would surely freeze though right? Someone who seems to know a lot about these things told me that it wouldn’t be feasible to heat the soil all year round. He said it would cost more money than would be recuperated and take too much energy to keep the pipes warm enough to not freeze and grow vegetables in the soil. Therefore, he suggested using the technology to extend the growing period by a couple of months but not try and take on the Mongolian winter. Even extending the growing season could have lots of positive impacts on MWFA. All of the organizations activities would be able to be extended such as providing training for longer and as a result the farms income could increase some more.

The greenhouse has been made possible and funded by a link the previous volunteer created with the Women’s Institute group in the U.K. A women’s group in Mongolia was created and met regularly to discuss the issues that affect their lives such as income generation, issues with their husbands. The group in the U.K. also held discussion groups and they would correspond with one another making comparisons and asking questions. I believe that this was a really empowering process for the women. I am keen to try and support this group and the link to continue.

Community based tourism project

The community based tourism (CBT) project was launched at the Bayankhoshuu branch this summer, 07. From what I understand it was a bit of a test run but a successful one.  The CBT tourism project at MWFA invites tourists to come and stay in a Ger in the Ger districts of UB. This project is the first Ger tourist provision in the Ger districts of UB. As well as staying in Ger the tourists are invited to help out on the farm and get involved with local community initiatives that aim to improve the lives of poor people living in the Ger districts. Further more, the vegetables for the tourist’s food are organic, have been grown at MWFA and are picked right out the ground minutes before they are prepared for you. So the food is fresh, not a supermarkets version of fresh but fresh!! The money made this summer was enough to cover the initial costs of setting and sustaining the project this summer.

MWFA has every intention of running the project again this year so if you find yourself in Mongolia or know someone coming this way tell them where it is they need to be staying!

New building

Despite all the excellent projects that MWFA is involved in there is one main problem that it faces. Once people have been trained and grow vegetables they are unfamiliar with how to access the markets and sell their produce. Unfortunately this seriously inhibits the sustainability of all the training. Even though the families are able to grow vegetables to feed their families as a result of the training they are prevented from advancing from that point.

One of the key ideas put forward to tackle this problem has been to construct a building that would house a small shop. Families would bring their vegetables to the shop early in the morning and MWFA would buy these from them for a fair price. MWFA would then distribute all the vegetables to restaurants and shops across Ulaanbaatar. We also aspire for the building to contain a new and bigger training space

Recently, we have also discussed the idea of putting some computers in this building for training but also improved access to the internet for local people. Currently, there is no internet or computer services provided in the Ger districts of Ulaanbaatar which means having to travel into the city for any of these sorts of provisions. Originally, the idea was that the computers would allow us to provide young people with training so that they can increase their chances of employment and a better quality of life. However, the more we thought about it the more we realized that everybody in these Ger communities could benefit from basic I.T. training and access to the internet. If we had set times when the computer room was ran like an internet café it may also bring some extra funds to MWFA projects.

Green Streets project

The green streets project is one of the projects that I am striving to get funding for. This is the first proposal that I have supported the MWFA in writing but we won’t know whether we have got the funding till at least next March.

The Green Streets project is striving mostly to improve the income generation of poor families living on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar. However, the project also hopes to achieve further benefits to the communities such as decreasing the air pollution and improving the aesthetics of the local community. The project will work by being centrally organized by six families that live and work on one hectare of land. These six families will produce cuttings for sale and donation every year. Each year MWFA and these families will choose twenty new families that live on the same street to receive 20% of the cuttings. These twenty families will then receive training and support to enable them to increase their family income.