Making Strides in Mongolia for Migrant Families

OneSky’s work in Mongolia has grown steadily since 2018 when we piloted our first training program for caregivers serving young children in a state-run nursery in Ulaanbaatar.

In August 2020, despite pandemic restrictions, we launched the OneSky Family Center as a demonstration, community engagement, and training space for caregivers to strengthen their understanding of how quality early care and learning opportunities can help their children thrive.

Unfortunately, during several lockdowns throughout the Covid pandemic, the trainings were temporarily halted – but they are now back up and running and eagerly attended.

In partnership with public kindergartens and local NGOs, we are training and supporting parents to provide quality responsive care for young children, ages 0-4, using leading-edge, evidence-based family skills curriculum.

With support from Mongolia’s Ministry of Education and Science, OneSky is expanding our program to transform the lives of more children across low-resource ger (hut) districts, including establishing further training partnerships with public kindergartens.

We have also formed partnerships with local organizations, including the “Lantuun Dokhio” NGO, also known as Magic Mongolia, which provides a community center for children to learn and develop in a loving and safe environment, and where OneSky trains child caregivers.

This year, we launched two new initiatives to support local families, including a pilot distributing educational toy and book kits to parents and caregivers. To date, 169 parents have used the kits with their children at home to support their children’s development within their families. Additionally, a new Cooperative Play Care Group was launched to build community and to provide, what we hope, is the first step toward setting up cooperative childcare in the future.

Regular community days were instituted at the Family Center in 2022. During these events, parents who have participated in our training come together to get to know each other better and to learn how to play with their children by making homemade toys to support their children’s development.

Last month, after almost three years of Covid-related travel restrictions, OneSky CEO Morgan Lance was able to visit Mongolia and see our programs in action, first-hand. “It was an incredible visit,” she said, noting that our Mongolia team is making a “real difference in the community” and that there is much potential for the future.

Shortly after her visit, a Mongolian national television channel filmed a news story about early childhood education at the OneSky Family Center. During the segment, Gereltuya Tsegmid, OneSky’s Program Director in Mongolia, discussed parent skills training while several parents were interviewed about what they had learned from the training.

“I realized the importance of talking with my child and can already notice many positive changes. The OneSky trainers were great in showing us how to observe and recognize children’s needs depending on their age,” shared one parent who had completed OneSky’s caregiver training program.