Urna

A children’s day for the marginalised

International Children’s Day is celebrated on June 1 around the world. The idea is to promote the welfare of children and in Mongolia family ties are traditionally strong. The irony today is that in the capital Ulaan Baatar many are rejected or neglected by their family because of alcoholism, poverty or some social ill.

This year a group of children and their mothers met at JCS to celebrate together and stem the tide of rejection and neglect. The women were prostitutes and pimps – the unloved and unwanted of society and many have been rejected since they were children.

Amongst them was Urna (standing in front of John with big sunglasses on), 35, who is deaf and unemployed. For the last seven years she has worked at the Ulaan Baatar Hotel selling herself to men. The only problem was she hated it, she almost never got paid, she was beaten, abused, forced to take drugs …

But at children’s day she decided she wouldn’t return to the UB Hotel again and threw her makeup away. Now she meets weekly with Alimaa from Streams in the Desert (a JCS partner ministry which outreaches to prostitutes) to read and pray. And she’s ready to start a new life.

Unfortunately for Urna she’s met bad people all her life who abused her deafness and inability to speak. Her story is heartbreaking. It’s sad to see how vicious and cruel people were; a policeman who turned his back as 10 men attacked her and stripped her naked and doctor’s who refused to treat her. Thankfully she has now found people that care and are trying to help her.

Alimaa is attempting to translate Urna’s Mongolian to English for our interview but she can’t always understand Urna. They write on notepads, mime and use sign language but it’s slow and frustrating sometimes.

Urna was born in Dornod aimag, in far eastern Mongolia. When she was five years old she had an accident that affected her hearing and ability to speak. Her mother taught her to read and write. She worked as a cook for six years but the salary was just 40,000 tug rug/month (USD $35). She turned to prostitution between 1999 and 2007 as a way to make better money.

However her pimp boss Boldma sold her to men that forced her to take drugs, drink alcohol and smoke. Many beat her, one punched her in the mouth and another ripped out her earrings. She often received no money – the pimps themselves abused her. On a piece of paper she writes the name of the women who sold her. It’s a sobering moment as we realise she can’t even speak their names. No wonder they took advantage of her.

These women would come to her house and beat her if she didn’t go down to the hotel. Even her brother would tell her to go and get money if he came home and there was no food on the table. She has since moved but the pimps still come and hassle her mother to find her. Her mother’s story is also sad – her husband left her with four children and she was recently hit by a car and lost two legs and one arm.

Urna now lives with her sister. There are eight people in just one room and neither she or her seven year old son Belag are happy there. Her sister’s husband hits her and orders her around. When she reads the bible he asks why are you doing that?

From the first time she met the Streams team (John Koehler, Khash and Alimaa) they really touched her. She said Khash would telephone to tell her not to go to the hotel, to quit smoking and only drink milk tea!

Urna is happier now and enjoys praying.

“Usually when we pray she cries,” said Alimaa.

“I think the situation needs to change for Urna and she needs to meet different people. When I meet with her my heart is always so sad. She has always met bad people so I try to help her meet nice church women. She has no job, no money, no clothes. I tried to give her some clothes but she’s bigger than me.

“She’s more comfortable in her spirit now but she needs work. It would be good if she could clean for a Christian family because it’s not hard and they could pray together. But she wants to be a cook.” Urna had tried to get jobs but was always told her speech inability made her unemployable.

Alimaa hopes they can find her a one room apartment or ger (USD $500) and a hearing aid.

Today Urna carries the photo taken at children’s day, the day she changed her life. She stands in the back row next to Khash. She’s not the most grim faced in the photograph but you can only hope she has something to really smile about by next June.

[Editor's note: Urna has recently been given a ger by another organization, completed a cooking course, and is looking for a job as a cook.]