Naraa Dash created Fondation Sentier d’Action following the call for help from her brother, governor of Malchin in The Province of Uvs in Mongolia, facing the terrible dzud of the winter of 2010.
A dzud in Mongolia is a particularly harsh winter characterized by heavy snowfall and intense cold, usually occurring after several very dry summers. This leads to a sharp reduction in grazing resources, resulting in a massive loss of livestock. A third of Mongolia’s population still lives on livestock, so a dzud is obviously devastating for herders.
In 2010, more than 20,000 animals died and 50 families were starving and without wood to heat themselves as outside temperatures dropped to -52°C for more than 10 days. In total, more than 600,000 people were severely affected by the situation in Mongolia. The European Commission estimated the loss of head of cattle at more than 6.5 million that year.
Thanks to a chain of solidarity set up through contacts in France, Naraa managed to collect 26 tons of fodder for 652 families, delivered less than a month after the call for help from her native Mongolia. This amount of fodder has helped feed the surviving animals as well as the newborns, allowing them to wait serenely for the return of the warm season.
But the disasters caused by the dzud are only part of the serious shortcomings in education and health, making living conditions still precarious in rural Mongolia. Fondation Sentier d’Action has therefore concentrated its efforts in the fields of agriculture, education and health. The actions deployed in Malchin, Mongolia, have helped to…
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