Our work
Severe winter is a big threat to herder livelihoods. PIN helps herders develop resilience to upcoming dzud episodes through the improvement of reliable information sharing about the weather and training on disaster risk reduction measures for livestock protection. PIN also works to raise awareness of the dangers of air pollution and the importance of “green building” to prevent further environmental degradation. PIN promotes the use of organic, environmentally friendly construction materials, such as sheep wool for insulation, which is a sustainable thermal retrofitting option for the housing sector.
Mongolia experiences dzud, a natural phenomenon characterized by a dry summer and extremely severe winter every 10 years. However, dzud occurrences have become more frequent since the 1990s, killing hundreds of thousands of livestock and threatening herders’ livelihoods. As most herders are not able to protect their livelihood without support, and the government has no capacity to respond on an adequate scale, People in Need provides immediate emergency assistance when a dzud occurs, supporting the most vulnerable herder families with livestock feed and cash grants to support basic household needs.
To access primary medical care in rural areas of Mongolia, people usually travel for hundreds of kilometers. Emergency treatment, good diagnostics, and professional check-ups are often unavailable in remote rural areas. That is why PIN mobilizes vans that are equipped with modern medical equipment and staffed by trained medical personnel. In three years, PIN deployed ambulances in 6 out of Mongolia’s 21 provinces, saving hundreds of lives each year. To further strengthen the subnational healthcare system, PIN and Caritas Czech Republic have developed a methodological guideline for Provincial Health Departments on how to implement Mobile Health Services, and also participated in the successful incorporation of Mobile Health Services guidance into the national regulatory framework.
Strengthening the education system is one of the top priorities for People in Need. We support vocational schools and have organized short-term skills trainings, including beekeeping, pig farming, gardening, animal husbandry, wool processing, and much more. From 2012 to 2015, working together with schoolteachers, PIN raised awareness of human rights and human trafficking, as well as sexual abuse, domestic violence, child labor, the importance of inclusion for people living with disability, and similar topics. Since 2016, PIN has built on some larger development projects to improve the quality and relevance of higher education.
People in Need, and our partners, believe that the key to rural economic development lies in the empowerment of the private sector. Therefore, PIN works with entrepreneurs, cooperatives, local authorities, and civil society organizations (CSOs), to help them develop common strategies. One area of focus is improving cooperation and building their capacities. Within a 3-year window for a project that started in 2016, PIN and its partners have been empowering ten CSOs representing producers’ groups, cooperatives and various business entities to participate in the development of rural economic strategies and in Soum Development Fund programs.