Mongolia

Project: Ensuring Access to Education and Health for Children with Cognitive Disabilities in Rural Mongolia Category: Education for mentally challenged children

Where?

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south, east and west. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest city, is home to about 38% of the population. Mongolia's political system is a parliamentary republic.

 

Why?

Data available from the Ministry of Education Mongolia indicates that 8%, or 34,000, school age children are disabled. Although, statistics in this field are limited, anecdotal evidence suggests that many children with disabilities remain unregistered because they are either hidden by their parents because of social stigma attached to disability or not detected because of lack of early diagnosis. In Mongolia most health care and education services for individuals with disabilities are centralized in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, where only 18.8 percent of all registered children with disabilities live. Early intervention services such as early detection and early health and education interventions are limited in most of the country’s provinces due to the absence of a formal referral mechanism, lack of knowledge of health, education professionals and parents, lack of resources, general attitude of public service providers to people with disabilities, and low priority of disability issues in the public services. Children with autism, cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome and other common cognitive disabilities have very limited or no opportunities, especially in rural areas, to get proper early diagnosis and treatment.

 

What?

The specific objective of this project is to accomplish that children with cognitive disabilities in two rural districts, Bayankhongor and Zavkhan, are accepted in the community and supported by health and education systems.

 

How?

The project will address this through early intervention; public awareness on education and health rights of disabled; and strengthening of self help organizations of people with disabilities.

 

Who?

The project is co-financed by the European Commision and ADRA-UK.

 

When?

The project starts on the 1st of March 2010 and will last 36 months.