In December 2022, Lorinet Foundation hosted our annual partners gathering to extend appreciation to our partners for their cooperation and efforts this year. The convening also facilitated knowledge exchange on the linkages between Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) and Youth Employability.
The event was attended by the representatives of Lorinet Foundation’s Mongolia portfolio grantees and knowledge partners, including Zorig Foundation, World Vision Mongolia, One Sky Mongolia, The Asia Foundation Mongolia, BookBridge Mongolia, GerHub, Whyze agency, and UNICEF Mongolia.
Lorinet Foundation’s Mongolia Country Director Tamir Batsaikhan provided an overview of the foundation’s work in 2022 and facilitated a group discussion on “Supporting Parents: Synergies in Youth Employability and Early Childhood Care and Education”. The discussion was aimed at identifying the interrelations between providing nurturing care to young children and generating income for their parents residing in the ‘ger’ districts of Ulaanbaatar.
The participants reflected on a variety of structural, community, and family-level factors such as the inequalities in accessing the infrastructure and public services, lack of community engagement, and other contextual factors such as family planning that are inhibiting young parents to balance between providing care and early learning opportunities for their young children and securing and sustaining employment for themselves.
An area identified as having direct synergies between ECCE and parents’ (mother’s) economic empowerment is the cooperative childcare services, owned or enabled by community members. In addition, the participants highlighted the importance of existing community assets and the roles of various stakeholders and their participation, as critical factors that ensure sustainability and ownership of multipurpose, cooperative efforts.
The convening was closed with a networking dinner. It is pleasing to learn that our partners acknowledge our efforts in enabling knowledge exchange and collaboration among our partners and beyond.
Lorinet Foundation strongly believes in the power of collective efforts and thanks our partners for joining us in our journey of enabling long-lasting impact.
