As result of illness, Aigul’s mother died in 1999, when Aigul was just 7 years old.
An uncle took her in, as he was the only family member she had left. The uncle was a widower with 5 sons, all older then Aigul. Until her mother died, Aigul was a grade A student in school. Living with her uncle, she was put to work in the household, where the boys treated her as a servant and beat her severely. So did the uncle. The uncle insulted her, chased her out of the house numerous times and beat her.
In 2004, after several visits to the hospital due to the beatings, the situation became so bad, that a representative of the school organized for Aigul to move to a school dormitory. In 2005, she had to leave the dormitory. Her uncle declared he could not take her back, so Aigul was without family and homeless. Due to the efforts of the representative of her school Aigul became part of the Children Custodianship Program of World Vision International. She has been living at their center with 16 other girls since July 14, 2005. She will have to leave that program when she turns 18, in March 2010.
Since 2007 Aigul is a sophomore at Mongolian University of Culture and Arts. She is studying tourism and leaning Japanese. She will graduate in May 2008.
Because Aigul was mainly under the supervision of World Vision, I have only vague details.
In the fall, one of her distant relatives, an aunt who Aigul didn’t know, showed up in Ulaanbaatar. She had heard from another relative that Aigul lived in the city, in a World Vision dorm. World Vision did a background check on the aunt, and all the information she had given turned out to be true. She took Aigul home, and apparently Aigul was very happy about these unforeseen developments. Her new home is somewhere in the western of Mongolia, where her family was originally from.
Moogii from World Vision checked on Aigul after two months and got some good news. Not only did Aigul find a home, apparently she is working at the local TV station. She always wanted to become a reporter, so maybe her dream is coming true.
There are unforeseen happy endings in this world!
Before Aigul left, she was chosen to be a ‘poster child’ for World Vision. I was quite surprised to drive through the streets and see an oversized Aigul smiling at me. A little bit of her stayed with us in UB!
Aigul was not very responsive. She didn’t want to answer our questions, nor did she want to sit next to me. I tried to have a conversation with her, but I think my cheery attitude just annoyed her more. The only time I got a smile out of her was when I asked if she still wants to be a journalist.
Unfortunately she will not be able to return to her school, as the school closed permanently. Mogy, from World Vision, is trying to get her into another school, but obviously Aigul needs to want that!
I had the feeling she was a bit disillusioned. Maybe she expected more from us, me, maybe she allowed herself to dream, after we met her and found herself on a dead end street. She was talking about her uncle, who apparently contacted World Vision and said he’d bring her home, as soon as he had the money to make the trip from the western part of the country to UB. I asked her if she wanted to go back home and live with her uncle, she just shrugged her shoulders. When I pointed out that this was the same uncle who had beaten her so severely that she ended up in the hospital and was forcibly removed from him, she just shrugged again, saying she didn’t know if he had changed. That really scared me. I can’t imagine that this would really be her choice; it may be her helplessness speaking.
It was sad to sit next to her without getting through to her. I finally asked her if she’d like to write another essay, as she had done last time, and again, she lit up a little bit. Let’s hope this will break the ice a bit and will it make possible to communicate with her.
I am worried about Aigul and I can understand why she is acting this way. She is in that odd in-between state of being cared for, without a real perspective for the future, as the care will end the day she turns 18 and she will have no place to go and nothing to call her own.
Aigul is still in contact with the Kazakh family, who befriended her in the spring. They sometimes talk on the phone. Unfortunately that family lives quiet far away, therefore their contact is limited.
This is where it becomes brutal: when you have to pick and choose whom to help. How can I justify helping a girl who is housed, fed, clothed and schooled, when there are so many who have nothing? Selenge once pointed out, it’s often that the ‘middle class’ that gets neglected the most, because their distress is less visible, dramatic and colorful. But what is the answer?
I don’t know what happened, other than - she is a teenage girl.
Ayurzana & Khosoo did make the effort to introduce her to a Kazakh family, who Ayurzana knew from his time as police chief in Nalaikh.
As with so many aspects of this endeavor, we really never know if something works, until we do it. I thought it was a great idea to motivate her to find a job and save money. I do get the impression that she doesn’t need much motivation, Aigul is very hungry and active and really tries hard to find solutions to her problems. But she needs help, so I guess we have to figure something else out.
Aigul wants to be a journalist; she wants to write. I gave her a first assignment: to write an essay about her life and her dreams. Her essay, called "My Happiness", in bloomy Mongolian, contrary to its title, is rather sad.
After learning of her situation, my friend Selenge and I racked our brains for how we could help Aigul. We had an idea. If she could find a part-time job once or twice a week, Ayurzana would open a bank account for Aigul, and what ever earnings she deposited, we would double. We presented this idea to Aigul, which she was very excited about, but World Vision thought it was an unlikely proposition because part time jobs are not common in Mongolia. However, as time worn on, everyone slowly warmed to the idea. While we are still looking for a job for Aigul, she remains very proactive and pursues all of her contacts weekly. She’s not an easy one to deter once she's been given a goal!
