Help Us Build Khusvegi Museum & English Library

CAMPAIGN UPDATE - JULY 2023: We are delighted to share that we met the first phase of our fundraising thanks to the generous donation of the tourism organization, Crooked Trails. The funds led to the full renovation of the building as initially planned. Now we are moving towards PHASE 2!

SUPPORT OUR PHASE 2:

My co-founder, Bakhitgul Altay, and I are raising funds to build the very first Eagle Hunting / Nomadic Culture Museum and English Library in Sagsai (Western Mongolia).

In June 2022, we launched the pilot program for Khusvegi English & Nomadic Culture Camp- a 100% women-founded, 30-day slow tourism initiative led by the eagle hunting community of Sagsai which has a mission to create language equity and preserve the eagle hunting and nomadic traditions.

In its pilot program, the camp had five foreign teachers from the U.S. and Germany who taught English with three local teachers. For 30 days, the foreign teachers lived with nomadic families in Sagsai where they learned first-hand about the traditions and cultures of the Kazakh nomads and eagle hunters as part of the cultural immersion component of the initiative. Our camp taught a total of 50 students, ages between 5 and 18. The project gained the support of the 5000-person community of Sagsai, the Mongolian Parliament in Ulaanbaatar, and the local government and school in Sagsai.

Khusvegi English & Nomadic Culture Camp is the winner of the 2021 Social Entrepreneurship Competition in Tourism - Launch Track, hosted by UNWTO, ITB Berlin, Travel Massive, TUI Care Foundation, SINA, and Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. Khusvegi Camp aims to achieve the following UN Sustainable Goals: Quality Education, Reduced Inequalities & Partnerships for the Goals.

With the success of the initiative, we hope to organize the Khusvegi Camp every summer so the children can continue learning English as they become the storytellers of their own culture and traditions while also preserving them.

As our next step, we believe that building the Khusvegi Museum and English Library will help us get closer to attaining our mission of creating language equity and preserving eagle hunting and nomadic culture. The museum and library will be managed 100% by the community which will serve as the focal point of local tourism in Sagsai as it inspires the younger generation of nomads to work as guides and storytellers of their own history and culture within the tourism industry. The museum and library will welcome tourists by showcasing artifacts belonging to eagle hunters and nomads of Sagsai, as well as, serve as a space for community members to learn English all year round.

Location and building for the Khusvegi Museum & Library

We have identified an empty building that we can use for our project which is located near the current location of the Khusvegi English & Nomadic Culture Camp. The building requires renovations inside and out. As a start, we would like to raise $2000 to renovate the entire building. Any additional money will go towards furnitures, purchase of English books, curating the displays for the museum, hiring a curator and the purchase of gers and other necessities for our classrooms.

What the budget covers:

The $2000 would be enough to fully renovate the building which covers the following expenses:

Purchase of the following materials:

2 big windows

2 doors

living room floor

extra floor fixing - under floor/cloth (main lobby area)

wood for kitchen floor

new fire stove

fire stove wall fixture

cement - 2 bags

electricity line outside

electricity line inside

lighting fixtures

paint for indoor and outside wall

repair of the broken wall outside

salary of two construction workers (10 days of work)

delivery fees

We would love for you to be a part of our mission towards creating language equity and preserving eagle hunting and nomadic traditions - all led by the nomadic community of Sagsai. For those who don't have 30 days to join our camp, this fundraiser is a perfect opportunity to directly support the Sagsai community and its efforts to preserve its culture and traditions on their terms.

Photo credit: Hattie Watson