Overview
The Lotus Children’s Center is a Mongolian non-profit, non-governmental organization working with vulnerable children and families in Ulan Bator to provide the basic human rights of shelter, food, education, and healthcare. The goal of the Lotus Center is to provide primary and developmental care to all attending children so that they can break free of the poverty cycle. At the Lotus Center, we aim to give each child a quality education, counseling, tools for building self-esteem, and access to life skills.
Lotus Children’s Center Home
In 1993, an Australian yoga teacher living in Ulan Bator, was affected by the plight of children living on the streets. She founded the Lotus Children’s Center, which is now home to up to 65 children. It carries out many children and family support activities targeting personal and community resilience and sustainable poverty alleviation.
Lotus Children’s Center Kindergarten and Primary School
The Lotus Center views education as one of the most important tools in breaking the cycle of poverty. For this reason, Lotus Center founded its own kindergarten in 1997.
The kindergarten evolved into a primary school program in 2004, which enabled Lotus to provide a comprehensive academic education for all children in its care up to fifth grade.
The school incorporates a program for children with special needs, as well as a vocational training program. After fifth grade, Lotus children are encouraged and helped financially to attend different high schools in Ulan Bator depending on their individual skills and interests.
Solar Energy
With 260 sunny days per year, Mongolia has huge potential for the use of solar power. Currently one of our largest running costs is heating which comes from our coal-fired boiler house.
The Lotus Center is also very aware of the challenges Mongolia faces with regards to pollution from coal fires. Therefore, we hope to bring in solar energy equipment to start converting sunshine into electricity and heating. Funds are in place for the solar panels and fundraising is underway for an electric boiler to replace the existing coal-fired boiler.
