By Uyanga Ayurzana, President of ASSITEJ Mongolia
Twenty-eighth of June of this year has been an indescribably important day for TYA in Mongolia. We have held our very first Board of Directors meeting and ASSITEJ Mongolia is now an officially registered non-governmental organization.
As the founder of Bamboo theatre, a small private mobile TYA in Mongolia, I was super happy to find out in 2019 that there is a global community called ASSITEJ which supports people like me who are passionate about TYA and theatres like ours, and which advocates the importance of TYA in children’s lives and in the communities around us. After discovering and becoming an individual member of ASSITEJ International in 2019, Bamboo Theatre has partnered up with The Mongolian State Puppetry theatre and The Arts Council of Mongolia to build a national center of ASSITEJ Mongolia in 2020. This, of course, would not have been possible without the support of Board of ASSITEJ International, especially the support of Louis Valente, the Secretary General of ASSITEJ International.
During the last two years we have participated in several events and meetings in person and online, and every single time after attending these events I felt warmth, energy, closeness, and a sense of belonging. These meetings were also immensely inspiring and prompted us to set up a partnership with a profoundly talented Danish theatre, Batida, whom we invited to perform in Mongolia. During their visit in October 2019, Batida gave 16 performances to Mongolian children in both urban and rural areas in just seven days! Soon, it will be our turn to visit Batida and perform our work to children in Denmark.
It is my honour to be actively engaged in this wonderful community and to have been instrumental in establishing an official ASSITEJ Mongolia and to have been elected as the Chair of the newly established Board. The Board, which consists of 13 dedicated people from various backgrounds including the arts, media, and business, has set the statute and membership policies, and approved future goals.
The journey of ASSTEJ Mongolia has just started and there is a long way to go! I am sure there will be bumps on the way, but our dream is endless and the aim of providing equal access to quality TYA and performing arts to Mongolian children is so meaningful that we will be unstoppable. We have the whole family of ASSITEJ International to support us achieve this worthwhile goal. We truly wish to spark joy in the eyes of children across the world with theatre and performing arts.
