Street Children of Ulan Bator, Mongolia

The only way of the street children to survive in Ulan Bator, is by living underground in the sewers. Help is urgently needed to provide shelters for these street children.

Street Children of Ulan Bator, Mongolia Host: It’s not much, another meal scavenge from the streets above. Fourteen-year-old Mancu and her best friend Moncel (ph) lived on the ground. Outside, it’s well below freezing but here in the Suez of the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator, there is some warmth given out by the city’s hot water pipes. Child: The worst thing about life on the street is that we get hungry and often do not have enough clothes to keep warm. Host: Throughout this city, as the temperature continues to drop outside, thousands of young homeless children are gathering next to the underground heating pipes. Ten-year-old Ankia (ph) emerges from the darkness of the tunnel carrying a bundle of spare clothes. Child: I washed these clothes over there at a big tap and dried them on a warm pipe nearby, where I live. Host: Up to two thousand children live in the city of Suez and for most of them life under the streets is their only hope of survival. They arrive here from sheltered families. They will probably never go to school again. A very unlucky to get work and will inevitably get drown into crime. Child: I’m afraid of getting beaten up by my parents when they get drunk. So I live down here. Host: Mancu and Moncel spend a lot of their time here at Ulan Bator’s largest market where they inhabited twilight zone of petty crime. Mancu’s childhood follows a depressingly typical model for Ulan Bator street children. Her mother and stepfather live in one of the cities felt tent areas. These are the poorest suburbs where migrants from the countryside have arrived and set up their traditional living accommodation. Female: The children’s stepfather drinks a lot and is very strict, that is why life is so difficult. Sometimes he beats my children and sometimes he beats me. I am afraid of him. Host: The number of street children in Mongolia is rising. It’s a direct result of the dramatic changes that have taken place in the country since the fall of coming zone. The last government embraced the free market economy and now the side effects of soaring prices and rising unemployment are being felt. The new rich drive the streets of Ulan Bator in ignorance of the children living beneath the traffic. Joan Zook: Economic times are getting worst. They are not getting better yet and it maybe a long time before they do get better. So, more and more children will end up on the streets because more and more families cannot afford to feed them. Host: There are centers where the street children can get help. Some are run by charities and church missions. Here the children will be given accommodation and food. The state also places its part in trying to rehabilitate the children by providing shelters for them. But it’s desperately shorter the funds needed to tackle the problem. Enkhusetsig: Our country has few financial resources to deal with the street children problem. Many of the projects we are involved in have been made possible only with foreign aid. Host: Father Gilbert Siles, a priest from the Philippines spends many evenings with the street children of Ulan Bator. He hopes to run a Catholic Center which provides food and accommodation for them. He has come to realize what’s driven these children here, but realizes there are no easy solutions. Fr. Gilbert Siles: I think the best thing for the children is to cut the cycle of poverty that they are in now by probably sending them back to school or give them some basic training of carpentry or you know any skills or cottage industry works. Host: Mancu who gets to live on a passing bus to take her back to her underground home. Mongolia’s government insisted the pain of its economic reforms would be short lived only if that’s true when Mongolia see the end of scenes like this.