If you’ve visited Mongolia with OAT, chances are you stopped in at the Ger District Kindergarten also known as The Art of Living Rightfully.

The kindergarten, on the outskirts of Ulan Bator, is a combination of community center and orphanage providing support to the more than 100 people (half of whom are school age children) living in 14 gers nearby.

This community is comprised of former alcoholics, former inmates and people with disabilities, all of whom now face difficulty in finding jobs.

Mr. Zagdaa, the founder of the kindergarten, is a former alcoholic who’s now dedicated his life to helping others by teaching them his carpentry and using the profits from his carpentry to support the kindergarten.

When Grand Circle Foundation first partnered with the kindergarten in 2017, they needed to renovate 2 rooms into al library and kitchen to accommodate the 10 orphaned children that were now living at the kindergarten permanently.

The next step was to renovate the bathrooms and main rooms, to allow for the increase in the number of children studying there and the installation of a low-pressure steam boiler to satisfy the needs of heating the rooms, as Mongolia is very cold in the long winters.

Most recently we were asked to help in transportation for the children who attend school nearby.  The schools are almost 1.5 miles away and the staff were walking children there every day, not an easy feat in the winter crossing slippery roads.

The brand new minivan we helped purchase, now makes 4 runs every day to take the 36 children to the primary and middle schools they attend.

We would not have been able to do this without your support.  Thank you from the children who can now get to school more quickly and comfortably and from Grand Circle Foundation.