Books on the move: reaching children with disabilities

Ochiroo with his younger sister outside his home

@UNICEF/2015/Enkhzul Altangerel

“This is a dog, and that one is a cat!” says 4-year-old Ochiroo, turning pages of a children’s book about animals. Ochiroo loves to read children’s books with his mother. He has learned many new words from the books, including names of animals and objects in the past few months. Learning is a special activity for Ochiroo, as he has not been able to attend kindergarten due to hip dysplasia, which made it very difficult for him to walk.

Supporting education of Tuvan ethnic minority children in Mongolia

A primary grade Tuvan girl reciting a poem in her mother tongue

©UNICEF Mongolia/2014/Gansukh Kh

Eight year old Bolormaa is a Tuvan girl who is in Grade 3 of primary school in a remote border soum, Tsengel, in Bayan-Ulgii province.

Located nearly 1,800 km away from Ulaanbaatar, at the skirts of the picturesque snow-capped Altai Mountains, Tsengel soum is home to around 1,600 Tuvans. These people are a “minority among a minority”, since Bayan-Ulgii province itself is predominantly inhabited by the Kazakh ethnic minority. In Tsengel soum, only around 20 percent of the population are Tuvans and the rest are Kazakhs.

Private and public sectors working together to improve children’s lives

Gavkar playing at kindergarten

©UNICEF/Mongolia/2015/Zetty Brake

The sound of laughter and children’s voices floats across the grounds at Kindergarten 152 in Nalaikh, a small city 40 kilometers from Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar. It is coming from the two white gers, Mongolia’s traditional, mobile home that sit in front of a multistory kindergarten building.