In August seven of our SmithCorp employees travelled to Mongolia to embark on a charity project. The school our team worked on is based in Altanbulag in central Mongolia which is quite a rural area and is one of many that do not receive enough support from the government. This tends to force families to move into the City where they struggle to gain proper work and can end up in very poor circumstances. Funded by the SmithCorp Charitable Trust the aim of this project was to build an outdoor stage and shelter for the local school to use for ceremonies, plays and presentations, and also to generally improve their facilities which gives the children more scope with what they can achieve.
After a 17 hour journey our team were met with lots of rain, though it did nothing to dampen their spirits as they got acquainted with Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar and readied themselves for their adventure ahead. They then travelled out into the country where they met their host families who would be sharing with them their home, food and shelter for the next 10 days.
We got to stay in yurts for two weeks which was an interesting experience to say the least! We were quite literally in the middle of nowhere…
True nomadic families living in traditional yurts is as close to the Mongolian culture as you can get and our guys experienced it first hand. It was extremely basic living conditions with no showers and the families all have to tend to their livestock, make their own dairy products and get their water from a well, and our guys got involved too!
With dryer and much hotter days ahead of them, the team started their hard work on the task at hand. This involved the team laying foundations, mixing and laying cement (by hand), making large wooden frames and building the entire roof along with painting and re surfacing. There was a lot to do and the team managed to get it all done and competed by the end of their trip which is a great achievement!
When we got there it was a bit run-down and it was clear that a lot of work needed to be done.
In-between working their socks off, milking cows and spending time with their host families (sometimes going horse riding), our team got some time in the class room with the children where they imparted some of their knowledge and had fun with the kids. Then with the building work done and some very tired backs and bones, they got 2 days exploration and relaxation time where they hiked up a mountain to explore an old Buddhist temple and went to a national park and got extremely close to some of the wildlife.
Every day a few of us took a break from the building project to teach English to the children, which was really rewarding as they were all so enthusiastic and eager to learn!
They have all returned home and settled back in bringing with them their experiences and memories of what they achieved, and have reported back that it was an eye opening experience and they had an amazing time. It has been a very successful and immersive trip where everyone got to sample a very different way of life.
The team is currently creating a video to show at the Charity Ball in April 2020, which will detail the project in full.
The team; Ellie Rogers, Sophie Tomlin, Chris Povey, Grace Allen, George Lacey, Paddy Lawrance and Leanna Goldsworthy.
Thank you for putting in all your efforts and hard work to complete the project, and getting out of your comfort zone to help improve the lives of others who don’t have all the luxuries and opportunities that are available to others elsewhere.