IBBY Yamada 2015: Mongolia

In many regions of Mongolia the economic focus is on mining and short-term profit to the exclusion of sustainable rural development or social and cultural development including children’s education. IBBY Mongolia has organized several reading promotion activities in recent years and received funding to organize the reading promotion tour Only best books for children in mining communities in the southern and northern areas of Mongolia. The main objective of the 2015 project was to increase the awareness of rural parents, mining employees, librarians and school teachers about the importance of using good quality of books for teaching students and educating their children. In addition, children in the targeted communities were encouraged to read through interactive events. The tours were organized in Tsogt Tsetsii, Khanbogd and Dalanzadgad soums (soums are small administration units in rural Mongolia) of the South Gobi province and in a provincial centre of the Middle Gobi province and also in Altanbulag, Bayangol and Mandal soums of Selenge province in north-western Mongolia. In total, 7 soums were visited. Children’s books were also donated to main public and school libraries.