Since my contact with Canada was unsuccessful this week, I chose to study the effects poverty has on Mongolia. Historically, Mongolia was not part of the former USSR, though relied on the Soviet trading. After Mongolia joined the World Trade Organization, the country became an open economy. The rapid change in the economy caused unemployment and prices increased (Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre, 2012).
Even though the economy in Mongolia is more consistent, the gap continues to widen from those benefiting from the market and the ones who are not. Families living below the poverty line have increased in the 1990's. Many of the children which live in poverty are in families where the female is the head of the household or children birth to age sixteen. Social Services in Mongolia was very accessible and high quality (Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre, 2012).
Currently, the health care system has many restrictions which does not allow for the people who need it to have access. Health care services are horrendous. More babies are living and the mortality rate has gone down. Over half of the population does not have clean drinking water (Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre, 2012).
Education suffered due to major cuts to the budget. Children living in poverty do not have the opportunity to go to school in order to receive an education. The Mongolian government has stopped investing in education. The people of Mongolia are extremely concerned about their children's future (Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre, 2012).
Many children and their families are not receiving the necessary support from the state. Older siblings take care of their parents to go to work. This means that children do not attend school or drop out. Children which live on the street has dropped especially since Mongolia experiences extremely low temperatures during the winter months (Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre, 2012).
Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre is doing research to assist families in poverty migrate into urban areas. They view the effects of migration on children's education and techniques for families to get out of poverty. It will give the families an opportunity to find jobs and better education for their children. Since education in the rural area is very poor, many families do not understand how education can provide their children more options. As a result, children in poverty are being left behind which causes the gap between the rich and poor to become wider (Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre, 2012).
References
Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre (2012). Mongolia. Retrieved from www.childhoodpoverty.org
"It takes a village to raise a child." -African Proverb-
Wow! It appears to be a sad state of affairs in Mongolia. It is hard to imagine that a country would stop investing in education. People without education cannot compete in the global market. Many things that you shared about Mongolia are also happening in Poland. Grandparents are expected to raise the grandchildren until they are old enough to go to school. Young people are choosing not to have children because the conditions are so bad.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the information about Mongolia. I look forward to hearing more about it.
For this assignment I researched Kyrgyzstan which was a member of the USSR and like Mongolia, since the separation of the countries the living conditions have just diminished. The open economy is causing a lot of strain on those who can not afford to live. Hopefully with more government help, these families will be able to survive and the children will be able to get back to school and make a better future for the country.
ReplyDeleteThis was so interesting Thank you for sharing. I did my assignment on India. Like Mongolia, India also has a large amount of children living in poverty. But there are many children who are able to get an education.
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