PROJET DÉCHETS
PROJET ÉNERGIE / CONSTRUCTION
© 2018 par Ecosoum
ASSOCIATIVE TEAM
Ecosoum is the fruit of an initiative by a French-Mongolian couple from Khishig-Undur. Since the association's creation in September 2018, its members have been working to develop a community dynamic around Ecosoum, in order to involve as many people as possible among the inhabitants of the soum.
EMPLOYED TEAM
NARA
PRESIDENT AND WASTE PROJECT COORDINATOR
After spending her childhood in Khishig-Undur, Nara went to the capital to study International Relations. After this she spent nearly three years in Jerusalem, from where she returned to Mongolia with a Master's degree in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. Having also worked for ten years as a tour guide, Nara discovered her country as much as she could and she has been dreaming of contributing to the solutions for the challenges she has always witnessed in rural Mongolia. Her encounter with Pierre then led her to France, where she completed her studies at IRIS Sup' with a Humanitarian Manager Master’s degree. After five months of internship at Action Against Hunger’s headquarter, she was finally ready to go back to Khishig-Undur in order to found Ecosoum.
PIERRE
DIRECTOR AND TECHNICAL SUPERVISOR
Pierre started his professional career in an environmental engineering company. Three years later, he left his native France to embark on long journeys around the world. The ecological and socio-economic problems that he observed everywhere, including in Mongolia, led him to want to reorient his activities towards the international cooperation sector. Upon his return to France, Pierre joined IRIS Sup's Master’s degree in International Programs Management, at the end of which he returned to Mongolia for a few months in order to join Nara and write a thesis on the Mongolian agro-pastoral system. He then worked in Paris at Doctors of the World’s headquarters and participated in the writing of a book about food and agriculture policies for over a year before to finally return to Khishig-Undur with Nara to found Ecosoum.
DULGUUN
ECO-CONSTRUCTION PROJECT COORDINATOR
Dulguun spent her entire childhood in Khishig-Undur. After finishing her high school there, she completed her B.A in Management and International Trade at the National University of Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar. Her topic of research was “Developing small and medium businesses and attracting foreign investment”. Although she started working in a private business organization, she wanted to be involved in the humanitarian sector. Thus, she redirected her career and worked for 4 years for the NGO World Vision Mongolia as a development officer on projects to improve the livelihood of young families, child care, and health. After joining Ecosoum as a remote volunteer, she decided to quit her life in Ulaanbaatar to move back to her home village and take a full-time active part in Ecosoum's work.
BATBOLD
WASTE PROJECT TECHNICAL OFFICER
Batbold was born in August 1989 in Bayan soum, Tuv province, and studied at Setgemj school in Ulaanbaatar between 1996-2005. He then studied construction engineering before to serve the National Army for a year. After his service, he worked for “Narkhan Tsaiz” Co. ,Ltd for 5 years as a construction engineer. In 2014, he got married with a woman from Khishig-Undur and settled permanently in our soum with her and their two children. From then on, he worked as an independent constructor in the village. Full of enthusiasm, he first decided to join Ecosoum as a volunteer in the hope of contributing to the development of Khishig-Undur and leaving a brighter future for all our children. When the opportunity came up to join our employed team, he stoped all other activities to dedicate himself fully to the association and its projects.
GANJARGAL
FINANCE AND AGRICULTURE PROJECT COORDINATOR
Ganja was born in Khishig-Undur in 1994. After she graduated from the village secondary school named after Gaadamba, she completed her B.A in Business administration at the National University of Mongolia. She used to work at the Erdenet mining industry until she started living with her husband. Then she changed her job and became a manager at 4-star hotel in Ulaanbaatar. When she was a senior at university, she had worked on the research about sustainable development in hospitality industry. Since she moved back to Khishig-Undur soum, she has been occupying the Finance and Accounting officer position within Ecosoum and has also been directly involved in many project activities, especially regarding waste management awareness-raising.
NARANBAT
ECO-CONSTRUCTION PROJECT TECHNICAL OFFICER
Naranbat was born in Khishig-Undur in 1992. He studied at Sports university until he started working in manufacturing sector. He gathered a lot of experience in several manufacturing industries by occupying divers positions such as technical assistant in Gyalalzah Orgil LLC, carpenter in Shangri-La from 2016-2017, and technical assistant at VESTAS GDD LLC in Umnugovi province. He understood the importance of eco-construction during those enlightening years. Since his relatives always remained in Khishig-Undur, he decided to settle back in our soum with his family and joined Ecosoum team on the new eco-construction project. He's also been taking an active part in other projects, mainly waste management.
NYAMSUREN
PROJECT OFFICER
After graduating, Nyamsuren went back to her hometown and started working for various development projects under the supervision of national and international professionals. She’s been keen to discover every single corner of the vast country of Mongolia and, inspired into it, would love to contribute her involvement in the local community as much as she can. After working for several NGOs, she made the decision to join the Ecosoum team, based on the vision, value, and potentiality of the organization. Her nature-lover personality also brought her to Ecosoum, as she loves to spend time in the countryside, observing wild animals and plants, and doing outdoor activities as it a part of her daily lifestyle.
RAVJIKH
AGRICULTURE AND WASTE MANAGEMENT OFFICER
Ravjikh was born on April, 1974, in Khishig-Undur soum, Bulgan province and studied in the secondary soum school between 1982 and 1990. After that, he has worked as a herder for Khishig-Undur LLC and done his own animal husbandry for a while. In 2010, he got married and he’s been living with his wife and three children in Khishig-Undur soum until now. From 2018, he worked for the soum hospital as a stove-setter, before to finally join Ecosoum in 2022. During the first year, he started working as an agriculture project officer and had the responsibility to start Ecosoum’s "model" farm. Then, he joined our waste management team and he’s been mainly working in Ecosoum’s facility since then. As a native of Khishig-Undur, he aims to contribute his skills and experience to the development of his soum.
KHALIUN
ADVOCACY OFFICER
Khaliun earned her journalism degree from the University of Humanities in Ulaanbaatar, and began her career as a journalist at NTV, a local television. When Mongolia experienced significant economic growth in the 2010s, Khaliun seized the opportunity to hone her journalistic skills by covering her country for international publications. Then, she also had an epiphany: as economic growth increased, so did waste and she realized Mongolia lacks waste management. Khaliun writes about human rights, the environment, and sustainable development. She contributes to numerous international media and Agence France Presse and Nikkei Asia publish most of her work. Besides journalism, she is dedicated to promoting gender equality volunteered with human rights NGOs, and served as a full-time Gender Equality Program Manager for Women for Change. In 2023, she decided to join Ecosoum as Advocacy Officer.
BOARD
CHOISUREN
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
Choisuren was born and raised in Khishig-Undur. He graduated from the local high school and then went to study State administration at the School of International relations at the National University of Mongolia. He is now doing his Master’s degree at the same school. He is fond of traditional wrestling and won the soum Naadam championship twice: once for himself in 2015 and second time as Ecosoum's proud champion in 2019. Choisuren is now working as a general contract research officer at the E-commerce and Information and Technology departmeent of Mongolian Government Agency-Public Procurement System of Mongolia. He was elected Chairman of the Board when Dulguun stepped down from the position.
MANDAKH
BOARD MEMBER
Mandakh was born and grew up in Khishig-Undur. After she finished high school in the soum, she left to follow her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in architecture at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology in Ulaanbaatar. While completing her second degree, she decided to focus her future studies on sustainable construction that benefits both the environment and humans. She published her studies on the subject and continues to research further. At the moment, Mandakh works at the Building Energy Efficiency Center in Ulaanbaatar but she was very motivated to join Ecosoum as a volunteer in order to contribute to the development of her hometown. She has been very active in the search for solutions to improve energy efficiency of Khishig-Undur’s buildings, as well as in the design of the soum’s waste management platform.
ANAND
BOARD MEMBER
Anand lived in Khishig-Undur soum since his birth until he graduated from high school . He started his education in Ulaanbaatar and graduated as an economist from the School of Economy at the National University of Mongolia. He is now an economist at Mongol Bank research and statistic department. Since he believes that in order for a sustainable life in the countryside, rural communities should be producers, they should be independent and there should be a pleasant environment to live in. That’s why he decided to join the team of Ecosoum, to offer what he has to the effort of like-minded people to make some change. He has been involved in volunteering activities within the association and is currently leading the English speaking club he set up to help Ecosoum's members to improve with this language.
UNDRAKH-ULZII
BOARD MEMBER
Undrakh was also born and grew up in Khishig-Undur. She finished her high school in Khishig-Undur and left to Ulaanbaatar to study Economy and Statistics at the School of Economy at the National University of Mongolia. She is now working for Practical LLC, an insurance company, as an Institutional insurance officer. She has always been concerned about her hometown development, healthy and safe environment to live in and sustainable living in general. Undrakh joined Ecosoum's volunteers team and Board with a hope of contributing to a wider and positive change along with the young, energetic team. She came to Khishig-Undur several times with our fellow Ulaanbaatar associative members in order to participate in different kins of awareness-raising activities.
MUNKHGEREL
BOARD MEMBER
Like most Ecosoum members, Munkhgerel was born and raised in Khishig-Undur before to move to Ulaanbaatar to study and get her Bachelor’s degree in journalism and her Master’s degree in Political studies. She started her professional career at TV5 and is now working as an information and public relations officer at Open Society Forum. The main goal of her work is to support civil participation in policy making and implementation, and to give the general public access to policy decisions related laws and decrees. Civil society development is an important leverage to increase monitoring to states and civil participation in decision-making stages. Thus, she hopes to get closer to her goals and contribute to this task through the work of Ecosoum.
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