This building was built 18 months ago and is already showing signs of decay.  They cannot open and clothes windows (etc.) because they are built on top of a very high water table.

 

This is the room that they do homework in.

The damaged computers:

Some of the boys:

This is the youngest boy at the home, he turned 7 on June 1st.

This is the boy that suffered the accident and needs surgery:

Savio Children Home

A little History-

For many years street children have been a huge problem in Mongolia. The government has never recognized as even existing. As money is hard to come by for any type of programs. Thousands of children reside inside the sewer system where they form gangs to survive. Manhole covers are removed on almost all the entrances so the kids have access. During the very harsh winters the children are at least kept from freezing to death inside the tunnels. Many of these children are orphans, many have run away from abusive homes and some are forced onto the streets, as their family cannot provide for them. Just very recently though the government has started rounding the kids up. If the kids have family they are forced to return to them, in the countryside or not, if it is a healthy situation or not. If the kids have no family to return to they are put into these mission centers. It is a building that provides beds only to the children…

The Salesian Brothers are a Catholic order started by Father Dom Bosco. Thanks to a lead from the Keatings (BRAFF Family) given to me some time ago, we met a truly blessed group of individuals, doing God's work on a shoestring budget! The orders primary goal is to protect youth, educate them, and make them independent members of society. They have many missions across the world.

To learn more about them here is a link

http://www.salesianmissions.org/aboutus/links.html

We met the most wonderful Priest Father Paul Leoung. He along with two other priests manages a facility that takes in street children, trains them and prepares them to be independent. He currently has 24 boys and 2 girls and is completely out of room. We met the youngest of the residents as the older kids were all out on job training. The job training is at their vocational school for electricity, plumbing, carpentry etc. The youngest resident just turned 7 yesterday- he is precious!

We also met an older boy (17) who suffered from an electrical explosion several years ago and it fused his fingers together. He lost two fingers but the other three are frozen. He is constantly cutting them as they get caught on his work- he is a carpenter. He desperately needs surgery to straighten the fingers as not only does it make it hard for him to work- no prospective employer will hire him. Father Paul is going to send him to the surgeon to see what this surgery will cost.

The facility they currently live in is a mess. It was built on an old riverbed and all the buildings are shifting so bad they cannot open the windows etc. They also suffered a fire 2 weeks ago that wiped out the boiler.

Very soon they will move everyone into the vocational school where they will live for at least a year until the new facility on new land is ready. The new facility will place the children in families of 8 kids with an adult and try to simulate a family as best as possible. Father believes this will foster their emotion and physical development much better than the current living style. Everyday the police ask him to take more orphans but he can’t yet..When the new building is done he hopes to be able to take on many more.

They had 6 computers for part of their training and they were all fried out by an electrical shock. Last year the electricity went down for 2 hours which in 40 below weather is long enough to have pipes freeze (the compressor wouldn’t kick on)..Father Paul is the sweetest man who has placed his life in Gods hands and although he is constantly dealing with one crisis after another, he is committed to keeping these children safe in his care.

BRAFF has a desire to help educate some orphans in Mongolia. It will not exactly be like the HOPE program in Russia because the Russian Government has many programs they offer to aid orphans ..But it will be HOPE MONGOLIA.

Getting into a state University in Mongolia is very very difficult. No Orphans to date has ever passed the entrance exam. This is most certainly due to the fact that there are two types of high schools here- one is college prep and one type is not. All orphans are sent to the inferior high schools. The entrance exam requires a second language, proficiency in calculus and a lot of science knowledge. Tomorrow I am meeting with the deputy Prime Minister who has all the children and education matters under him. I keep being told how lucky we are to have a meeting with him! He is interested in our hopes to educate orphans and has the power to really help us! I hear he will offer to use government money to pay tuition for the orphans should they pass the exam.

So how do we get an orphan to pass the exam??? If we can work with Father Paul to steer these children in his care down the path of college prep schooling we may have a chance. Father Paul is working on fine-tuning a sponsorship program where for approx 100/month American Families can sponsor children for their needs (food clothing and education). I feel totally confident that Father Paul will help these children with homework and he is totally committed to helping the children gain an education. Right now in Mongolia ALL the good jobs go to graduates from the state Universities.

I feel as if I have met a new person who will be very important in my life. Please keep Father Paul and all these beautiful children in your prayers.