Development work in Mongolia February 21, 2012
Posted by Jeff Riley in : international development , trackback
Adrienn Gecse, was a Masters student at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), in London and is currently completing a PhD. She has kindly written to us about her experiences of finding paid work and volunteering opportunities in Mongolia. Thanks Adrienn
“I hold Master’s degrees in Tibetan, Mongolian and African studies and I did the African studies course at SOAS. My PhD is in Tibetan and Mongolian studies at the Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary. I am in the final stage now of writing my dissertation. I always get asked why I do both African and Inner Asian studies but it’s not as strange as most people think. I am interested in what’s going on in the world as a whole. To me it doesn’t make much sense to focus only on one country or people, don’t mind me. You can get a much better understanding of a country or a continent if you know those parts of the world too it is connected to historicaly or any other way. You can hardly separate Asia, Africa and the rest of the world nowadays. I have been asked to choose many times in recent years but I wouldn’t like to.
“I came to Mongolia with the primary aims of doing field work, learning the language and also to gain work experience, preferably within development and ideally within development in research/writing. When I started my research regarding development agencies most people suggested I should wait until I am in the country because there is no chance to find anything through the Internet. However, I decided to contact people and I got very positive answers. Not from bigger agencies who would have been happy to employ me as a volunteer, but wouldn’t have been able to give me a salary. Because I couldn’t afford to work for free I continued looking.
” LinkedIn and the SOAS Alumni Office was a great start. Through the SOAS alumni group I managed to find a gentleman who has worked in Ulan Bator for a while, within development. He was kind to give me his colleague’s contact who I had a little chat with and who offered her very generous help. I have tried to contact the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts in Ulan Bator before but I didn’t get any answer. This lady offered to take my CV to the Museum’s Director, personally. It doesn’t happen every day that you get this kind of help. To my surprise, they were happy to hear from me. My dissertation topic is related to their work and I am starting work for the Museum next week. For a salary! It’s a chance for some crucial work experience -within my fields it is tough to get the necessary experience. This will definitely help my dissertation as well. I will work part time as a start so I still have time for other things as well as my dissertation.. The work I have been offered will also help to improve my language skills a lot, and this was also one of my aims.
“At the moment I would have so many opportunities to take that it is difficult to decide. All the other work would be volunteering, but that’s fine now that some basic money is secured with the Museum work. Since I am interested in education, its effect on both the individual and the society, it was obvious that I should contact agencies working within education. They either help street children by giving them a sense of family and trying to guide them back to school. Others may work with the youth trying to show the disadvantaged they still have a future despite their background. The majority of organisations I I came across during my research, work within this field in some form. I have been to Mongolia twice before, and my first time was shocking. I saw so many kids on the streets sleeping rough and spending the winter nights in the tunnels of Ulan Bator. That is the only warm place during the harsh winter next to the hot water pipes. Even now, in the middle of February it was -27 celsius this morning. I was here in 2003 the first time. Since that the city has changed a lot, but the issue of homeless children still exists. The city becomes overcrowded, people come here for a better future but turn to alcohol when the city leaves them disappointed. As a result, kids run off home, leave school behind and seemingly they have no prospects for a healthy life. The gap between cities and the countryside is huge. Many NGOs are trying to bridge this gap.
” There are also opportunities for English language teaching if you want to earn some money, but as I’m not a native English speaker I won’t do that. Having said that, many people do do, even if they have a very low level of English themselves. There is a big demand, especially as mining, unfortunately, is a huge business here. I say ’unfortunately’, because I would not recommend working with mining. I disagree with most forms of mining techniques as they tend to cause irreversible harm., But everyone can make their own decisions about this.
” Right now I am deciding between two opportunities. One is working with children in an orphanage. They have an office in London too, that’s where I know them from. The other possibility would be a chance to help in research and writing articles for another NGO, also within education. Seemingly two different jobs but related in the sense that they both work for the future of the next generation.
” Once you are in Mongolia you can contact places and organisations easily. It is really easy to approach anyone. I haven’t experienced this kind of attitude anywhere in Europe. For example one of my friends just asked for directions in an office and she now might start working for them doing administration like emailing and secretarial type work.. There are lots of different types of organizations doing environmental or conservation work and if you are interested in this area it is worth looking into as there are some really interesting projects going on.
“FinallyI would really recommend finding local agencies. You need to see the reality to get close to a country and to understand its problems. When an organisation is affiliated with a big international agency and you work with other Europeans you might spend more time partying together than getting to know the country you live in, its customs and traditions. Without this level of knowledge I think it is impossible to do development work properly. I say come here with humility and an an open mind.”
Read another post about Mongolia here http://www.careers.lon.ac.uk/blog/development/?s=mongolia&searchbutton=go%21
Comments»
Adrienn – you are a demonstration of what is possible for a person. You clearly believe in what you do and this passion resonates throughout the article.
You have many success orientated strategies in place and I particularly acknowledge you for your personal courage to place yourself in a country and culture to assist with their evolution.
Congratulations!