Mongolia Rally Helps Save the Children

Mongolia Rally Helps Save the Children        
Thursday, September 18, 2008.

SAVE the Children received about £100,000 raised by the Mongolia Charity Rally—not to be confused with the Mongol Rally. Participants in the 10,000 mile drive from London to Ulaanbaatar collected funds to support Save the Children’s National Rehabilitation and Education Center and a center for street children in Mongolia’s capital. “This money will help us improve the lives of thousands of vulnerable Mongolian children. The rehabilitation center will help improve the lives of disabled children by providing high quality physical therapies and a place where they can benefit from all the latest equipment. "The new child center we are creating for street children will be a massive improvement, meaning we can provide better services for more of the children who live under challenging conditions on the streets of Ulaanbataar,” said Mitsuaki Toyoda, Country Director of Save the Children in Mongolia.  

Save the children, which has worked in Mongolia since 2004, plans to turn over operations of its Rehabilitation and Education Center, located in Ulaanbaatar’s Bayanzurkh District, to local authorities. The organization hopes that the center will serve about 40,000 disabled children.  Save the Children’s new Street Children Center will be moved from a ger district in suburban Ulaanbaatar to the city center. The organization hopes that over 300 children will benefit from its counseling, skills training, and referral services, as well as its meals, health care, and sanitary conditions.

The Mongolia Charity Rally began this year. 55 teams participated, raising an estimated £150,000 for charity. Go Help, which organizes the rally, has planned its next event for the summer of 2009.  “Having lived and worked in Mongolia in 2005-2006, I saw the great work that Save the Children Mongolia is doing, particularly in the provision of facilities for disabled children in Mongolia. Go Help is delighted to support Save the Children in Mongolia’s projects and is keen to develop this partnership further. In 2009 Go Help aims to surpass funds raised in 2008 and be able to support more of its projects across Mongolia”, said William Dodsworth, Go Help Trustee.