Needs Assessment

According to our Peace Corps job descriptions, while my primary job is working as an English teacher and Ashlee's is to help at the Health Department, we are also both "community development workers." What this means is that the Peace Corps wants us to identify needs in our community and work with people within the community to meet those needs. Identifying and meeting these community needs is what PCVs refer to as "secondary projects."

Secondary projects can be small (offering free English lessons to the community) or big (our sitemate Laura has put together a pretty impressive English library at her school that is open to the entire community and another volunteer I spoke to recently told me how he helped supply his town's shower house with hot water). The point of these projects, though, is to make sure that it is something the community actually needs and/or wants. Stories abound of volunteers who forget this and charge ahead with projects -- like collecting trash or putting together an English resource room -- that fall apart the second they leave.

So yeah, definitely the hard part of putting together a successful project is conducting this needs assessment. You are supposed to talk to people in the community and pick their brains. The problem with doing this, however, is you find out that people want things that you cannot help them with. For instance, a major problem in Olgii is unemployment. There simply aren't enough jobs. We have a couple of young friends who both have degrees and who both speak English almost fluently and they have been looking for jobs for over a year. But how can we help with that? Whenever I ask around my school about possible projects, I hear the same thing: computers, photocopiers, projectors, and various other electronics. Again, I realize the value of such equipment, but unfortunately I don't see how I can help procure the stuff.

Just yesterday, though, I had a small break through. A fellow teacher of mine asked me about something that I can actually help with! Apparently the classroom that he teaches in has been stocked with the poorest desks and chairs in the entire school. I mean, I have never been impressed with the quality of furniture here in Mongolia (i.e. our mesh hammock beds and the fact that the total lack of lumbar support is probably ruining my posture forever), but I looked at Agii's classroom and I agree, the situation is bad.

The desks and benches are all pretty rickety and they are full of sharp edges, splintered wood, and hanging nails. The students frequently snag and tear their clothes. A few of the desks are from the local primary school...so they are a bit small for these high school students.

I asked Agii what his options are. He said the school doesn't have money to purchase replacement furniture and that while he could ask his students' families for money, he is reluctant to do so -- many of our students come from poor families who don't have money to spare. I asked about fundraising options (there I was thinking of car-washes and bake sales) but it seems to be a foreign concept.

Basically we decided to take pictures of the classroom, price out replacement furniture, and approach third parties asking for donations. There is a local branch of World Vision that Ashlee and I have worked with before that I think may help, and I also have the option of submitting a grant to Peace Corps and other funding sources.

Now I know that helping get some new tables and chairs for a classroom might not be as glamorous as the idea of starting up a womens' sewing collective or beginning a micro-funding campaign, but I realize that it is something that people in my community actually need. So why not help out? Also who knows, if we are successful in getting new stuff for his classroom, maybe it will turn into something bigger. Maybe other teachers will get involved and get the students motivated into a fund-raising effort. Only time will tell.

Here's a few of the pictures I took yesterday.