A Warm Place to Learn

There wasn’t any fuel to warm the Red Stone School in Mongolia this winter, but you provided just what kids needed to get warm!

It’s wintertime in Mongolia, where on the worst days temperatures can drop to 40 degrees below zero. These low temperatures are dangerous — deadly, even — to the children who live here.

The Holt-donor supported Red Stone School is a shelter from the cold for 52 of these precious children. It’s a special informal school just for them — children who live and work near the city’s largest garbage dump.

But this year, as winter approached, teachers and Holt staff didn’t know how children would stay warm. Even though the children could come to school each day, they didn’t have any fuel to heat the school building.

They needed coal. But coal is expensive, especially this year due to rising costs because of the coronavirus crisis. And for a building the size of the Red Stone School, they’d need at least one bag of coal a day to keep the room warm. November is the beginning of the coldest months in Mongolia, and time was running out…

But right in time, in early fall, Holt donors sent a shipment of $1,000 worth of coal to the Red Stone School! That’s enough to last three months! A huge shipment of coal was delivered straight to the school, just before the coldest time of the year.

Thanks to generous Holt donors, all 52 children at the Red Stone School stayed warm at school on the coldest of Mongolian winter days. They learned without shivering and wrote without their fingers going numb. They’re staying healthy, and school continues to be a safe and comfortable place.

UPDATE: Ulaanbaatar is currently undergoing another phase of city-wide lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19. While children are not in school currently, this safe — and well-heated — learning environment will be waiting for them as soon as school is allowed to resume!