Training Results & Social Work in Mongolia

My training went wonderfully. Chimge, my supervisor and co-worker did a great job translating and it was truly a success.  I know it was successful based on what Chimge said, and the comments from those who could speak English. Also on Saturday afternoon, they were supposed to cover another topic and they chose to put it off to another time, so we could have more time to cover my topic.  I was definitely the lead trainer, so thank goodness I do know that material well.  I also learned a lot.

It is hard being a social worker working with abuse in any country, but it is exceedingly hard in Mongolia.  Until the 1990’s Mongolia was funded and run by the Soviet Union, and so social problems were covered by government funds and there was not much acknowledged need of problems existing let alone for social workers, or social work as a profession. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the transition to a market economy has been very hard for Mongolia.  The poverty rates rose drastically, along with many social problems that had not been acknowledged during the Soviet rule.  Violence, alcoholism, unemployment, street children, abuse, and human trafficking all skyrocketed. 

Mongolia like so many developing countries put laws on the books but the institutional infrastructure and funding are not in place to implement the laws, let alone meet the needs of victims.  Social work only started as a profession in Mongolia in the mid 90’s with a lot of support from the Open Society Institute and the Soros Foundation.  My co-worker Chimge was one of the first Open Society students and she came to my school to get her Masters in Social Work, even though her undergraduate degree is in engineering.  She is an awesome social worker. 

So with social work being so new here people do not have specific training in practice modalities and effective ways to remedy problems. And on top of that the government adds laws in order to be able to tell the international organizations such as the UN that they have the laws, but there is no way to enforce them or train police, or provide adequate support to social workers or victims.  My training was held at the National Center against Violence here in UB.  They deal with 10 victims each day, an astronomical number for a shelter to take in; and that does not count their centers around the country.  And yet, they have no government funding and private Mongolian funding does not exist.  So they rely primarily on international aid, which is not predictable or guaranteed. 

I was honored to share my knowledge and experience with these amazing people who work so hard to improve the lives of people who have been horribly victimized.  I was able to help them understand and grasp the penetrating consequences of sexual abuse, whether as a child or an adult.  It was amazing because one social worker said that she just thought the women were behaving horribly and she had no idea that their behavior was a normal response to sexual abuse.  I watched her move to a sense of compassion for these women.  And then I later moved the discussion to even though people have been victimized; they are responsible for making decisions to create a new future for themselves.  That was great, because the same woman had an Ah-Ha moment saying I only thought of them as victims and no wonder when they left our shelter they went back to the same situation; we need to help them make new choices, and move beyond being only a victim.  

 

Also, the shelters here are such a new concept and not based on former experience that they do not have the necessary rules and guidelines in place for shelter operations. We talked a lot about rules and realizing that women, mostly teenagers who have been victims of sex trafficking may come to the shelters but until they are ready to change, you cannot help them.  So for the safety of others, shelters must have rules, structures and boundaries and be willing to make people leave the programs if they will not comply.  Several of the social workers said this was extremely helpful and they were going to develop more rules and structure for their shelters.  All in all, 2 days very well spent. 

This week I was able to attend a meeting at the United Nations office here in UB.  My organization, Center for Social Work Excellence presented the results of an extensive research study they completed on Gender Based Violence in Mongolia.  It was a great learning experience for me, watching the group dynamics and the dynamics around language.  I will also be meeting for coffee with two of the UN workers so that will be fun.

Here are a couple pictures of my training.  One is the door to the National Center against Violence.  This is a typical entrance in UB.  Even the UN building desperately needs paint.  I asked my co-worker today as we walked past some student dorms that really need work if when the Soviet Union ran the country were things painted?  She just laughed at my question and I never got an answer.  I will have to ask again tomorrow.  Chimge my co-worker and translator is shown with me in the pictures.  We had about 20 people on Friday and about 10 on Saturday, all crowded into this one room.  Thanks for reading my thoughts, Margaret