Mongolian Prime Minister's Visit to Open Web Center

March 31, 2000

Libraries that can offer little to children for reading, problems handicapped kids face in their everyday life, conductors who mistreat children from the capital city outskirts not able to afford bus fares, sincere confession of school drop-outs, questions on how to have regular access to the Internet in rural areas, cases of corruption at schools. These were just a few of the topics raised during a teleconference on the Internet with the participation of children between 10 and 16 who gathered at twelve locations to get response from Prime Minister R.Amarjargal and other officials, including representatives of the National Children's Centre, UNDP, UNICEF, and Soros Foundation. The Open Web Centre run by the Mongolian Foundation for Open Society and the ISP Datacom provided their services to organize this direct communication on the Net between the Mongolian Premier and children from Ulaanbaatar, Dornod, Orhon, Bayanhongor, and Umnugovi aimags, which was the first one in a series of Internet discussions to be conducted within the framework of the Year In Support of Child Development announced by the Mongolian Government in 2000. Although, it was almost impossible to cover all topics of concern, both the young and adult enjoyed greatly this opportunity of a 50-minute on-line communication. Some of the students proposed to continue such a dialogue in person.

Photograph 1 | Photograph 2