Fighting Livestock Starvation and Managing Pasturelands in the Steppes

The Board of Directors for the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Mongolia recently held its annual meeting in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar for a review of 2021 operations. 

Local leaders attended in person, including the eight board members and the chair, Mongolia Mission president Han Suk Hee. Leaders of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD) and ADRA Asia attended by videoconference, including NSD president Si Young Kim, acting secretary Richard Sabuin, treasurer Joel Tompkins, and ADRA Asia regional director Mark Webster.

Country Director Report

The new ADRA Mongolia country director, Windell Maranan, reminded those attending the session that the “ADRA Mongolia team remains focused on its purpose as a faith-based organization in serving humanity, so that all may live as God intended, while recognizing the dignity that is inherent in each person and the disenfranchised without regard to their ethnic, gender, political, or religious affiliation.”

Maranan emphasized that amid intermittent lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Mongolia, the team was inspired by what the apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:7: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Because of the strong support from ADRA Asia and donor agencies, he said, the team has been undeterred by the challenges. ADRA has continued to make sure the implemented projects in different parts of Mongolia have been properly monitored and are on track without sacrificing the safety and security of individuals.

During the board meeting, much emphasis was also given to reviewing and adopting new policies as part of ADRA accreditation and licensing. ADRA Mongolia has been accredited and licensed to operate for the next five years as part of the network’s internal standardization in doing humanitarian and development work.

Programs Highlights 

In 2021, ADRA Mongolia served 11,453 vulnerable individuals and beneficiary partners in three provinces, including the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. Through working with donors and other stakeholders, the team also made an emergency response to the dzud phenomenon. (Dzud is a Mongolian term for a disaster in the steppe, semi-desert, and desert regions in which large numbers of livestock die, primarily due to starvation because of extreme winter weather conditions.)

ADRA also received an additional funding grant of US$505,580 for 2021 to implement a new project on pastureland management funded by two provinces in Switzerland, in close partnership with ADRA Switzerland. The funds were also applied to a small project on yak milk development by Help International. Currently, ADRA Mongolia has five projects (including a small project initiative) implemented in four provinces in the country with total funding of US$2,140,077, leaders reported.

“I praise God and feel overwhelmed and quite impressed by the work of the ADRA Mongolia team as a faith-based organization to make sure that its purpose is felt by the underserved and those who are in the most need,” Hee said.  

The original version of this story was posted on the Northern Asia-Pacific Division news site.