Mongolia street children are young children orphaned and forced to live homeless among the streets. They are typically a product of social upheaval caused by alcoholism, rapid urbanisation, and poverty. Its a sad but all-too common story out in the ger districts of Ulan Bator: a destitute nomadic family has lost their stock to drought or zuud (i.e. a harsh blizzard) and been forced to move to the
city to search for employment. The father gets about 30,000T (US $20) in monthly welfare -funded by a Government deal with an American mining company-, but with little other support in terms of education or skills development. A bottle of 'moonshine' vodka costs about $1; he starts drinking. Domestic violence is common. Families break apart, Mongolian orphans are the end result. The cycle continues as these orphan's children are also highly likely to become Mongolia street children. Living underground
Street children in Mongolia are often forced to 'go underground' during winter: they live in city's heated sewers and underground pipes to avoid the -40C temperatures outside. During summer they wonder the streets, begging and sometimes stealing in order to get there own meal. In Mongolia, estimates given by various agencies and studies put the numbers of street children from 3,700 to 4,000 (cf. Juvenile Justice Report:2002, Mongolian Adolescents Needs Assessment Survey Report:2000 and World Bank Report:2000). A national survey conducted by National Center for Children in 1997, put the numbers at 3,700 and applied a broader category of street and unsupervised children as those who spend their time on the streets,
those living and working on the streets and those in care shelters. The quotation of this figure has remained remarkably consistent over time in various reports, but the validity of these numbers is hard to substantiate. The public and media perception in Mongolia is that large numbers of children are on the streets, and the majority of street children are clustered in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, although there are reports of street children in other urban centres such as Darkhan, Dornod and Selenge. To date the street children remain predominately male adolescents, although the numbers of girls has gradually increased. Street children can be as young as three years old. this information is from Street and Unsupervised Children of Mongolia, written by UNICEF
