Orphanage volunteers Mongolia | Teaching volunteers Mongolia

Volunteer MongoliaLove Volunteers has teamed up with a local NGO in the fascinating and friendly country of Mongolia to offer a variety of placements. Volunteering in Mongolia means branching out to a perhaps previously unthought-of destination where it is possible to make a small difference to one of Asia’s poorest countries. Volunteers can choose to work with children who, without intervention, were destined for a life on the streets. Another option is the physical labour involved in a house-building program where volunteers work alongside the future occupants.

Comprising mainly high, cold, dry terrain, Mongolia sits between China and Russia. The most striking feature geographically is the high mountain ranges. Its numerous nomadic tribes and large open spaces (including part of the Gobi Desert), not forgetting yurt-dwelling Mongolian herders all come together to create the rich tapestry that makes up this fascinating country. Meanwhile, the cities in Mongolia are growing exponentially, and it is here that much of the volunteer efforts are concentrated, trying to aid people whose personal resources are scant or non-existent.

Placements volunteering in Mongolia are for everyone – from gap-year students or recent university graduates to people between jobs or looking for a more fulfilling holiday. Volunteers get to see the real Mongolia, experiencing at close hand the culture of this country while providing a genuinely needed service for people in urgent need of help. Reasons to volunteer in Mongolia include the prospect of experiencing the warm hospitality for which the country is rightly renowned while gaining the satisfaction of directly impacting on the quality of life of the people here. You may find that you experience strong emotions as a volunteer and that you develop as a person.

For more information about this amazing country check out Lonely Planet's Mongolia Guide.

volunteering in Mongolia

Start and Duration

Volunteers in Mongolia can choose to stay for a period from one week to six months. Placements in Mongolia have entirely flexible commencement dates.

Volunteer Requirements

Volunteers in Mongolia must be at least 18 years old at the start of the placements. The only other prerequisites are a desire to help the people of Mongolia, a flexible attitude, self-motivation, openness to a new culture and a willingness to learn. Apply to volunteer in Mongolia now!

Project Descriptions for Mongolia

Health Care

Volunteers are placed in the Ulaanbaatar area, where the Family Hospital has a pressing need for extra helpers. The work is interesting, not least because two or three days a week, depending on the community's needs at the time, there is the opportunity to accompany the mobile clinic as it tours rural communities where medical facilities are scarce or non-existent. The mobile facility enables medical attention to reach an orphanage and day care centre, among other places. At other times during the week, volunteers in Mongolia are deployed in giving basic medical assistance to children at the Family Hospital.

Among volunteers’ responsibilities are the following: registering patients, giving first aid, treating wounds, administering tests, giving medicine, assisting at the medical centre’s laboratory, helping to deliver physiotherapy and contributing to health awareness education.

Construction Work

Volunteers are invited to take part in the construction of homes for low-income families in Mongolia. In a country with as many as 780,000 people facing inadequate housing, the help that a volunteer can provide in the construction field can make a small but very tangible difference. Best of all, this project provides volunteers with an ideal opportunity to form a close bond with a Mongolian family while working alongside them, as they build a house together.

Tasks range from making sun dried bricks to painting walls, each of these bringing a local family closer to an improved quality of life.

Orphanage Work and Community Development

Opportunities exist to make a difference to the lives of children living on the street in Mongolia. Compelled by their families’ dire state of poverty, children leave rural areas and congregate in cities where they are exploited for their labour or become destitute. The Government has introduced some provision for these homeless children, including centres that offer primary medical care. Basic educational programs prepare the children for re-introduction into schools or into further education institutions which provide vocational training.

For volunteers in Mongolia, this is a challenging option to sign up for; there are often behavioral difficulties which present significant hurdles. But for those with the determination to forge bonds with the young people, the rewards are immense.

Volunteers in Mongolia assist by educating the young people at centres in Ulaanbaatar, primarily by giving English lessons. Equally valuable is participation in extra-curricular activities, including health education, games and art.

The program embraces other aspects of community support, such as assisting the elderly who live in ‘ger’ areas (encampments comprising traditional yurt homes, called ‘gers’). The tasks assigned are often practical ones, for example, chopping wood or fetching water.

Teaching English

Love Volunteers is looking for native English speakers to help teach and improve the knowledge of English to communities in Mongolia. English is taught from an early age in Mongolian schools and language academies. This means that native English-speaking volunteers are a hugely sought-after resource. Volunteer English teachers are deployed in two ways: delivering English teaching at all levels and across all age groups, predominantly within the range 8 to 16; and enhancing the work done by the teachers, both by improving standards of English which they speak and by giving advice regarding the methods being used. Additionally, by using English language while helping to run other fun activities, volunteers in Mongolia contribute greatly to the children’s assimilation of a language that will help them with future training and job prospects.

Business Management, Marketing and Development

Management and Business placements offer volunteers the opportunity to develop useful skills while taking part in an interesting and worthwhile project. While experiencing a totally different culture, volunteers can gain first-hand experience within their chosen field of expertise, which can be any of the following: finance, accounting, law, architecture, human resources, marketing, advertising and property development, interior design, engineering and sales.

The volunteer’s role is to improve the staff’s competence in using English, particularly Business English. Volunteers can also teach aspects of Western management techniques to help modernising the work environment.

Normally, the volunteers shadow members of staff in different departments during their first week as part of the induction. After this they will settle into the teaching work they've been allocated, which may involve working alongside senior managers.

Media

The media project amounts to an internship with Mongolia’s premier television network, enabling volunteers in Mongolia to take part in many aspects of TV programme creation. Volunteers in Mongolia may be involved in creating music videos, designing sets, shooting and editing documentaries and working on the studio floor during live newscasts. Having existed for only six years, the TV channel is more than happy to have hands-on assistance from volunteers whose help with English pronunciation is greatly appreciated.

English Summer Camp

At a summer camp which primarily aims to teach English as well as cultural programs, volunteers assist the Mongolian teachers to deliver basic conversational English to 10-16 year olds. The emphasis is on delivering education differently to the way it is taught at the pupils’ normal schools. Volunteers in Mongolia also help with the organising of such activities as sports, performing arts, creative art and environmental conservation.

Mini Volunteer Program - Two weeks - US$1295

The Mini volunteer program provides a superb opportunity to combine volunteer work with four days of travel. The schedule comprises an initial stint as a volunteer in Ulaanbaatar, followed by a few days travel which combines visits to Mongolia’s major tourist destinations with horse-riding. On their travels, participants get to see nomadic remains and the famed grasslands of the country.

As is the case with the Community Development program, volunteers in this mini-program work at a Daycare Centre, attended by abandoned or orphaned children and the elderly. The work with the children includes devising and supervising fun activities, such as painting, singing and games. They also provide some instruction in basic English usage. Volunteers in Mongolia are also likely to lend their assistance to the elderly, with an emphasis on practical tasks around their homes.

Program Costs

Love Volunteers is a not-for-profit organisation and is one of the most affordable ways to help out in a developing country while being immersed in the local culture.

Fees for volunteer programs in Mongolia start at US$250 (€189) for the first week, which includes accommodation, three meals a day, an airport pick-up (if required), orientation and 24/7 in-country support.

Volunteer period [weeks]	1	2	3	4	6
Healthcare	US$265	US$385	US$505	US$625	US$835
Construction	US$265	US$385	US$505	US$625	US$835
Orphanage and Community Development	US$265	US$385	US$505	US$625	US$835
Teaching English	US$265	US$385	US$505	US$625	US$835
Business Management, Marketing & Development	US$265	US$385	US$505	US$625	US$835
Media	US$265	US$385	US$505	US$625	US$835
English Summer Camp	US$265	US$385	US$505	US$625	US$835
Mini Volunteer Program	-	US$1295	-	-	-

Volunteer period [weeks]	8	12	16	20	24
Healthcare	US$1205	US$1570	US$1990	US$2410	US$2830
Construction	US$1205	US$1570	US$1990	US$2410	US$2830
Orphanage and Community Development	US$1205	US$1570	US$1990	US$2410	US$2830
Teaching English	US$1205	US$1570	US$1990	US$2410	US$2830
Business Management, Marketing & Development	US$1205	US$1570	US$1990	US$2410	US$2830
Media	US$1205	US$1570	US$1990	US$2410	US$2830
English Summer Camp	US$1205	US$1570	-	-	-
Mini Volunteer Program	-	-	-	-	-

Other volunteers periods available. Please, contact LoveVolunteers for pricing of other periods.

A Love Volunteers registration fee of US$235 (approximately €170) is charged in addition to the program fees and covers any placements you undertake for twelve months from the start of your first placement. The fee is refundable if you choose not to volunteer more than three months prior to the start of your initial placement. This fee ensures 24/7 pre- and post-placement support from Love Volunteers, checking and vetting of local organisations, a comprehensive information pack, as well as administration and marketing costs. Given Love Volunteers is a not-for-profit organisation we also ask volunteers to cover any bank charges incurred by international money transfers.

Food and Accomodation

Depending on the placement location, accommodation is ideally with a local host family, offering a superb opportunity to experience Mongolia culture and family life at first hand. The accommodation will be modest, but pleasant. All volunteers in Mongolia are supplied with breakfast and dinner.

Mongolia’s large numbers of nomads are reliant largely on sheep, cattle, camels, yaks, horses, as well as goats, and sometimes game, as their source of proteins and fats, which is particularly important due to the cold winter temperatures. Milk, cream and cheese also feature in the traditional diet.

Cooked mutton is a great favourite, often in a stew, which is sometimes cooked by adding hot rocks to the cooking vessel, in a process called Khorkhog. Also popular are the meat-filled steamed dumplings known as buuz, as well as the boiled variety, or bansh.

Traditional Mongolians drink include Airag, which is fermented mare’s milk and Shimiin Arkhi, a distilled yoghurt.

Orientation

Whether arriving by plane at Buyant-Ukhaa International Airport, Ulaanbaatar, or travelling on the Trans-Mongolian Express, the volunteer is met by on one of our partner NGO’s staff members. A one-day culture orientation and language course then follows. The morning is devoted to intensive language and cultural training, held in the capital city Ulaanbaatar. During the afternoon, the volunteer visits an ethnic minority community and participates in various cultural activities. (For those on placements of one month or more orientation phase lasts two days).

A Typical Week

In Mongolia, the volunteer working week lasts from Monday to Friday, with 25 hours typically worked in total. The pattern is approximately as follows:

Weekdays: After rising between 8am and 9.00am and having breakfast, the volunteer proceeds to their placement where the working day normally runs from 10.00 until 16.00. Subsequently, leisure time can be spent chatting and passing the time with staff, other volunteers in Mongolia and some of the kids from the volunteer projects. Touring the sights of Ulanbaatar is another popular option. Well worth visiting is the Gandan Monastery, with its Tibetan appearance and 27 meter high statue of a Buddhist bodhisattva. The Zaisan Memorial stands in a commanding position on a hill with outstanding views of Ulanbaatar. In the city, Sukhbaatar Square resembles Moscow's Red Square. The State Department Store is popular for purchasing items made from cashmere. Restaurants and cafes are numerous and varied, and include vegetarian eateries. In the evening, you will dine with staff, or possibly accompany friends to a local restaurant.

Weekends: A raft of unique activities comes as part of the volunteer experience in Mongolia. These include: a visit to a ‘ger’ (tent-house) district, hiking through Mongolia’s highly distinctive landscape, watching and taking part in cultural dance, a trip to Terelj National Park (well-known for its rock formations, camels and horse-riding), as well as visits to the Gandan Monastery and Natural History Museum or Museum of Fine Arts.

About the Country

Mongolia is a country where traditions steeped in history seem to have remained unchanged for centuries. At the same time, however, since the fall of Communism, huge efforts have been made to add Western gloss and modernity. It has a heady concoction of scarcely-traversed, seemingly-endless stretches of Gobi Desert, snow-peaked mountains and gleaming fresh lakes. Yurts and nomadic settlements dot the Steppe. Alongside this, the capital Ulaanbaatar has sophisticated bars and shops.

As one of Asia’s few democracies, Mongolia has an increasingly liberated population, but it is nevertheless one of that continent’s poorest countries. Despite this, there is on-going celebration of the country’s traditions. Among the most notable events is Naadam, a two-day-long sports festival that is held in Ulaanbaatar each summer. At the Gun-Galuut Nature Reserve, the two-day Nomads Festival takes place in September, while February sees the Thousand Camel Festival. Above all, however, it is the Mongolians’ famed hospitality that bowls the visitor over.

Apply now! Or check out the FAQ or contact page for more information.

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