Over the project, which began in November 2018 and ran for more than six months, neonatal units in the Gobi aimags were equipped with more than ₮370 million of modern equipment. Crucially, the equipment was supplied on the basis of a prior survey of the hospitals and their real needs, so the results are tangible.

The first aimag, Govisumber, received ₮77 million of equipment for its general hospital in January 2019, and the equipment lacking in the hospitals of Dornogobi, Dundgobi and Umnugobi was handed over this month.

Each aimag received equipment that is not supplied or available through the state budget, or is in short supply even when available — including neonatal incubators, monitors, phototherapy units, infusion pumps and bilirubinometers (devices that measure jaundice directly, without the need to take blood from the newborn).

Given that on average 1,000 children are born and around 2,000 children are treated each year in a single aimag centre, this improves the availability and adequacy of medical equipment for more than 10,000 children a year in the Gobi region.

In remote local hospitals, the absence or shortage of even the most basic equipment still leads to newborn deaths, delays in medical care and worsening illness. The key value of the project is that it provides real support in changing this difficult situation.

G. Otgontuya, social responsibility manager at Energy Resources:

“Last year, for the 10th anniversary of the start of the Ukhaa Khudag project, we set out to do work that would be genuinely useful to society and the public rather than simply holding celebrations. So we began delivering, together with the Healthy Children Bright Future NGO, a project to provide the equipment most needed by hospitals in the Gobi region for the treatment and care of newborns. It is good to see that, as a result of the project, the availability of treatment and services in neonatal units has clearly begun to improve.”

B. Bat-Enkh, Executive Director of the Healthy Children Bright Future NGO:

“Our non-governmental organisation has been working for ten years to increase the opportunities for Mongolian children to be treated and recover in their own country. Within that aim we have delivered many projects for children. A few months ago we first travelled to Dornogobi aimag to survey the medical equipment most needed there. We studied the real equipment needs of all the hospitals in the project and selected devices that are most needed in Mongolian conditions, easy to use and well supplied with spare parts.”