Agency's Participation in Global Youth Service Day 2008: Youth Sports Tournment Weekend (Darkhan Community)

Global Youth Service Day

Organization
Sun Children (formerly, “Asian Child Foundation”)

Description
The orphanage was in desperate need of a fitness facility. The only thing it already had was an old basketball court with broken hoops and an empty backyard. Not so much as an inflated ball. The youth expressed this need to the Agency’s staff members back in September 2007. Sports instill a sense of camaraderie and self esteem. It transcends the cultural, language, and age barriers that inhibit communication. Prior knowledge of the rules of the game are not need to play and participate, one only has to observe. In addition, sports and fitness advertises a healthy body image. Thus, we, as an Agency, felt this idea was an excellent one. With the help of the United States Marine Humanitarian Civil Action program in conjunction with the US Embassy in Mongolia and the 330th Mongolian Army (based in Darkhan), the orphanage received financial and labor assistance to renovate the existing basketball court, build a volleyball court, and soccer goals; the funding for materials and the purchase of the materials took place in October 2007, while the building of the sports field was in late November 2007. Continuing with their goal, the youth gutted out an unused second kitchen in one of the three buildings on the orphanage compound to build a fitness room/gym; the planning and labor of this phase took place in December 2007.

For the third and final phase of our project, youth will host a “Sports Tournament” weekend during GYSD on the weekend of April 26-27, 2008. Between the months of February to April, youth will assist in the planning of this day that will include have meetings to determine additional subjects/topics for classes/presentations during GYSD, make invitation flyers to pass out to their fellow classmates (in their respective schools in the community), speak to local area business for support and donations (i.e. refreshments, tournament prizes, additional community member volunteers), and advise the GYSD event (e.g. making a radio advisement announcement). The already determined classes/presentations are:


• Trafficking in Persons (TIP) in Mongolia
• Environmental Conservation (pollution base; air pollution and littering)
• Fitness/Healthy Exercises
• Art and crafts projects; uses of recyclable items (i.e. plastic bottles, bottle caps, shards of broken glass, aluminum cans, cardboard boxes)

We anticipate 37 additional children from the community in addition to our youths making the total amount of participants to 74 youth ages 11-18 and 18 older youth and adult volunteers. The above listed classes/presentation topics will be given by 6 of these older youth and adult volunteers. Leading up to the weekend of GYSD, youth will participate in all areas of preparation including the setup of rooms for classes/presentations, food preparations, and opening and closing ceremonies.

Date/Time
April 26, 2008 at 11am-5pm

Location
Sun Children's Orphanage
Darkhan (New), Mongolia
Mongolia

RSVP Information
Name: Yoomie Huynh
Phone: + (976) 957-423-48
E-mail: yoomiehuynh@gmail.com