Children became able to stay warm in kindergarten in Uvs province
We are overly excited that our children got an opportunity to study in a kindergarten with heating by the upcoming year. As a result of raising our voices associated, we were able to include overhaul costs worth 226,378,400 MNT in the Uvs provincial budget for 2023.
As referring to the kindergarten story, this is 9th kindergarten of Ulaangom soum, Uvs province. The kindergarten operation started in 2012, but there was a heating loss in the right aisle through the window part and the nearby wall caused cracks due to the insufficient construction quality done by the vendor company. About 150 of the 279 children in the kindergarten study in this part of the building, and even though the heating is very good in winter, the children still study in an uncomfortable and cold environment due to a lot of heat loss. This situation adversely affected the health of teachers and children, and they have been suffering constantly from diseases such as colds and flu. Although parents are well aware of this situation and complain about it, they have not been able to find an optimal way to solve the problem and band together.
In November 2022, I read the information about getting citizens' comments in the local budget approval process. There was a draft booklet named “Citizen budget” issued by the governor’s office which is published in a comprehensible and readable format for people within the framework of getting citizens’ comments by the support of the Mainstreaming Social Accountability for Improved Transparency and Participation in Mongolia Project (MASAM II).
After reviewing the booklet, I saw the budget amount of Uvs Province and the information on the investment activities to be done in the next year. Furthermore, I introduced the booklet to my teammates during the meeting as I emphasized that having budget information and a timetable is essential for planning. Then we decided to involve the parents agreeing that everyone needs to give comments in order to solve the most pressing problem which is the local kindergarten overhaul. All teachers encouraged the parents as distributing the polling link and e-version of the booklet through the social network to make the purpose completed. Since the parents were aware of the building heating loss, all of them participated in the process very actively and they understood very well that the massive participation is highly effective to get support for the proposal.
In Ulaangom city, a workshop “Citizens monitor the budget” was conducted on November 28, 2022, in order to inform the budget transparently and listen to the citizens’ voices. During the workshop, the province governor Mr. Chimed.Ch presented the operation reports for 2020-2022 and got the citizens’ comments and feedback. In the past, the local community had never received citizens’ feedback in such ways online and in person when discussing the budget, and they welcomed the opportunity to poll on the budget and participated in the discussion together with parents representatives to present their construction issues to the leaders and express their desire to resolve them.
Local television broadcasted the meeting of citizens' representatives of Uvs province to discuss the local budget on Livestream, and we all listened attentively to the proceedings of the meeting. B. Erdenesuren, head of the provincial finance and treasury department, presented the results of the proposals submitted by the citizens to the representatives and presented that the overhaul of the 9th kindergarten was ranked first with the most polls. We heard the good news that all the representatives of the meeting agreed to support the work that got the most polls, and the kindergarten overhaul cost was included in the 2023 budget. After the kindergarten break in the spring, the overhaul process will begin, and in the fall, we will welcome our children to a comfortable and warm place for the new school year.
Therefore, I call on all citizens and the public to be active and responsible citizens, to raise their voices to the new projects implemented by the state budget, and to work together for the development of our country.
We would like to express our deep gratitude to the staff of the MASAM II project funded by the Swiss Development Agency and GPSA and the staff of the Ministry of Finance for providing this opportunity.
