CHF International is in the process of spinning off its work of assisting small and micro businesses to get up and running in the urban areas of Mongolia. This work is primarily in Ulaanbaatar, the capital, where about half of the total population of 2.5 million Mongolians live. It is my assignment to be a consultant to the new non-profit organization that will be continuing the work of CHF. I will be working with the staff and the Board of directors of this newly formed non-profit, during this transition period.
Today, I met with the new CEO, Serjmaa Bavuudorj "Seegii" and her Program Director, Altanbagana Bayarsaikhan "Bagana" . Both of them have come up through the ranks of the CHF program and have been doing this work for several years. The challenge of course is to make the new nonprofit organization financially stable with the ending of the grant from the Agency for International Development under which CHF has been funded during the past 6 years and ends at the end of March. There will, however, be some transitional funding and CHF will be working here for another two years in a different type of program and providing some assistance to the newly formed organization.
Both Seegii and Bagana are very nice folk and both speak relatively understandable English.
Seegii and I will be meeting for one hour everyday this first week. We will then shift into work on Business plans and work manuals. She has a nice office with about 7 people on the staff in the corporate office and then probably twenty people working from Satellite offices both in and out of Ulaanbaatar. We had our first meeting today and I think it went exceptionally well. I asked a lot of questions and listened to her explain her hopes and dreams about the organization and the challenges of making it financially feasible while holding to the mission of working with the very small businesses. She has also not staffed a Board of Directors before jumping into this position but I think she will do fine.
I hope this provides a little better understanding of what I am doing in Ulaanbaatar besides the big bucks they are paying me to come over here and work in the middle of winter.....oh I forgot, this is a volunteer position isn't it.....
Well....this is what I am doing anyway.
