Children and youth from Sukhbaatar Province actively participated in the pitch event to receive funding for their mini-projects offered under the “Entrepreneurship-Focused Socioemotional Skills for the Most Vulnerable Youth in Rural Mongolia” project and 17 projects were selected for the next round of the competition.

A. Anujin confidently said from the podium that “There are more than 1,100 medicinal herbs in Mongolia, but people mostly use chemical medicines. Therefore, we will process herbs such as roseroot and buckhorn plantain, which are common in our province, in an organic way and deliver them to the people at a reasonable price”. She is an eighth-grade student at a general secondary school in Munkhkhaan soum, Sukhbaatar province. Anujin participated in the ESEL program offered at her school this spring to discover her strengths and improve her skills in teamwork, presentation, and research. She teamed up with five students who attended the program with her and decided to do a project pm “Healthy Body-Eco-Herbs”, which they presented in front of more than a hundred teachers, students, parents, and soum residents at the Soum Cultural Center.

This 25-year-old man is named Sumiyabazar. He lives in Erdenetsagaan soum, Sukhbaatar Province, and has participated in the ESEL program through the Lifelong Learning Center in his soum. Participating in the training has helped him develop and make friends. After hearing about the funding opportunities available to ESEL graduates to carry out mini-projects, he decided to enter the competition. He and his two friends who had participated in the program formed a “Link of Friends” team and pitched their proposal for a project entitled “Heritage” that they had written together for the grant competition. The goal of this team is to establish a leather strap manufacturing industry in their soum and create a local value-added brand. During their presentation, both team members presented their raw materials, market analysis, and marketing plan to the judges of the competition. Although it was challenging for him to speak in public for the first time, the enthusiastic applause from the audience gave him a lot of encouragement and confidence.

Anujin and Sumuyaabazar are representative of 200 children and youth from the four target soums of Sukhbaatar Province, who participated in the “Pitch” event to give funding grants for selected mini-projects organized by the “Entrepreneurship-Focused Socio-Emotional Skills for the Most Vulnerable Youth in Rural Mongolia” project. This time, 14 projects from Munkhkhaan soum, 7 projects from Erdenetsagaan soum, 2 projects from Ongon soum, and 9 projects from Bayandelger soum participated in this competition. A total of 17 projects met the requirements of the competition and are expected to compete in the final round of funding competition.

B. Batbileg, head of the Ongon Soum Governor Office and chairman of the Project Soum Council, said, “In general, the projects proposed by the students are more about improving their learning environment and solving their problems than about doing business and making money”.

In the pitch event, M.Enebish, Director of the Lifelong Education Center of Sukhbaatar province, B.Munkhbat, Director of the Provincial Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ts.Ulziijargal, Senior Specialist at the Department for Standardization and Metrology of Sukhbaatar Province and Head of the Youth Association, B.Tsogtjargal, Head of the Service Sector of the Vocational Training Center, and Kh.Delgerzaya, Administration and Human Resources Manager at the Save Children served as a judge for the competition. The judges asked each team questions to clarify their activities and plans and provided valuable advice on how to improve the project, including detailed pricing of products and raw materials, and defining management responsibilities. Furthermore, the local authorities of the project target soums pledged their support and partnership in implementing the projects selected for the final round of the competition.

T.Majigsuren, Director of General Secondary School in Bayandelger soum, Sukhbaatar Province, and Secretary of the Soum Project Council said “I am glad that 6 out of 9 projects pitched today from our soum have been selected for the next round of the competition. Teachers, students, and members of the Soum Council paid great attention to this event and prepared intensively. We provided step-by-step information about the project and the grant competition so that many people in the local community actively participated in today’s pitch competition.”

Sugarjav, one of the parents whose children participated in the competition, said, “Today’s event was very interesting and well organized. I was very happy to see these children and youths. At first, I did not know how to pronounce “entrepreneur” and I did not understand what my daughter was doing. Now I understand that this ESEL training and grant program is necessary, timely, and good. There are unemployed and uneducated young people in our soum as well. These young people who participated in the program are showing examples for their peers and the younger generation that children and young people can discover minds and develop themselves.”

Maral Umirkhan, the Project Coordinator at Save the Children in Sukhbaatar Province, said that “This is the second time that Pitch event has been organized in Sukhbaatar province, but it has become an exciting activity not only for the children of our target soums, their parents, friends, and teachers but also for the soum and local authorities. We see this as a result of the high level of cooperation and coordination among our target schools. Most importantly, the children’s presentation and teamwork skills have improved, as has their growth mindset. Our goal is not to select many projects, but to make our children, who are our future, learn more from all these processes, apply them in their lives, and develop the attitude that “challenges are the key to development” which has been the greatest achievement of the project."

The grant competition for the “Entrepreneurship-Focused Socio-Emotional Skills for the Most Vulnerable Youth in Rural Mongolia” project was held from May to June 2022 in 25 soums of 5 project target provinces. The project is implemented by Save the Children in Khovd, Zavkhan, Uvurkhangai, Govisumber, and Sukhbaatar provinces with funding from the Japan Social Development Fund and under the management of the World Bank.

The news was developed by Delgermaa Altangerel, Media and Communications Officer at Save the Children. For further information on the implementation of the project in Sukhbaatar Province, please contact maral.umirkhan@savethechildren.org.