Good Father Project

In my last year of Peace Corps service I spoke with one of my community friends and we talked about the importance of fathers in the lives of their children. We decided to create a project to recognize good fathers, inspire the community and create good father clubs to help support fathers moving forward. Here are our original project website and Facebook group.

A Little History

For thousands of years Mongolian men have ridden horses, lived in remote gers in the countryside, and looked after their families and herds of animals. As Mongolia has developed, with particularly rapid growth in the last two decades, the role of the man has been evolving as well. Unfortunately, it is leaving many men lost in a free market economy where they are unemployed and wondering about their next step. How do we encourage men during difficult times, especially if they are unemployed? One answer we arrived at as a community is to recognize the unsung heroes – the amazing men who are good fathers, regardless of income or professional status.

What is the Good Father Project?

We created the Good Father Project, or Sain Aav Tosol in Mongolian, to acknowledge the wonderful fathers in our small community in the eastern steppe of Mongolia. The Good Father Project is founded on the idea that by recognizing these men we can honor, support and empower them as they raise their children and support their families. Now, we would like to spread the Good Father Project across Mongolia to increase the recognition of wonderful fathers in our country.

Our simple idea became a very popular concept in our community. We conducted several contests aimed at honoring fathers and we worked with local community members to develop relevant curriculum to provide support and fun for fathers.

How does the Good Father Project work?

Essay Competition

Our community team believed that the best people to nominate Good Fathers are their children. So we worked with the local schools in our province to host an essay competition led by the Department of Education. We advertised our competition with free local television airtime, advertisements in the town square, and with the help of teachers who explained the contest to each classroom in their schools. Then, we waited as the essays poured in.

Each essay began with “My father is a good father because…” and our young writers did the rest. They explained the sacrifices and challenges that their fathers face daily, spoke to their character and integrity, and much more. In our first year we received over 230 essays coming in from all over the province, written by students from first grade all the way to college, often including drawings, poems, and even photographs of their fathers. One photo in particular had a note attached that read, “Please return this photo to me, it’s the only photo I have of my father and it’s very special.”

In the second year, we again asked students to write about their fathers. Over 250 students responded, telling us about "My Loving Father." Our selection committee of male community leaders selected 10 outstanding essays from all of the submissions. We honored the 10 children and their fathers during that year’s Children's Day Festivities on June 1st.

PHOTO COMPETITION

In our second year, we ran a photo competition at the same time as our essay competition. We asked everyone, children or adults, to send us their photos of their fathers. We received nearly 50 photographs of men working, playing, and just being dads. One of our selected winners submitted photos of her recently deceased father, taking advantage of the opportunity to honor him for the life he had led. All photo submissions were displayed in the large electronic billboard in the square during the weekend of Children's Day. Many were also used through GFP to continue promoting fatherhood.

AWARD CEREMONIES

The Good Father Project collaborates with the local Department of Education and Children's Day to honor fathers during the province’s International Children’s Day Celebration on June 1st. Each year, 10 Good Father Award Winners and their children received awards and recognition in front of the entire community. Good Fathers recognized included the mayor of a local village, a herdsman who traveled hours into town to receive his award, a police chief, local business owners, stay-at-home dads, and a local writer from a distant village. The men were visibly proud to receive their awards as they hugged their children and families when they were invited onstage to join them. If you'd like to see all the fun pictures from these events, you can visit our facebook page here.

For Long Term Impact: The Good Father Clubs

The ultimate vision for the project was for Mongolian men to gather in small community based groups to spend time together and discuss issues that are important to them, their families and to the community. Good Father award winners were asked to start clubs that would meet together monthly and use modules designed by local professionals and Peace Corps Volunteers to discuss in their groups, including:

• Health & Nutrition

• Alcohol Awareness

• Tobacco Awareness

• Domestic Violence Prevention

• Human Trafficking 

Each of these modules consisted of multiple sessions, including some designed for participants to bring family members to, such as group family bonding activities like a movie or game night.  Others were exclusively for the men. The final session of each module was designed to provide a space for reflection on the material covered in the module or could be used to draft an action plan for how men can share the information they learned with the rest of the community. The men also received individual certificates of recognition for each completed module.

The project was a huge success thanks to many community partners and Peace Corps Volunteers over many years. It inspired other projects in Iraq, the United States and other communities across Mongolia. The simplicity of the model and the community member-focused approach makes it easy to replicate and one of those projects I continue to reflect on more fondly on each year.