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Mongolia

   
  
     
  
A young boy begs for money on the main high street in Ulaan Baatar, named 'Peace Avenue'. The number of children living on the street peaked in the 1990's at about 1000, however there are still approximately 250 living homeless today.
   
(Left) A homeless man lowers himself into a sewer where he lives with his wife. Many homeless people move underground where it is warmer, especially during the winter, when temperatures drop as low as minus 40 degrees Centigrade. (Right) An abandoned garage, within a normal residential area, serves as a home to one family of homeless people. With no heating, temperatures inside the garage are about the same as outside.
   
Battsetseg, 36, is a former nurse who ,10 years ago, was forced onto the streets when she ran out of money during the country’s worst economic recession in the 1990’s, following the country’s move to new democracy. She now lives underground, in a sewer that has hot water pipes running through it, which her and her family use to keep warm and escape the cold. "I was 26 years old when I began living on the street. I came to Ulaan Baatar as I thought life would be better in the city. At the beginning, it was better, but now it’s getting worse and worse. It’s very difficult for poorer people. Today for example, I got up at 3 to look around the garbage for bottles. I found enough to buy a loaf of bread for my children. I then go home, sleep a little and then walk around again. I worry about this evening’s food."
     
  
6-year year old Huyga, sleeping soundly, alone in the darkness whilst his parents and grandfather go out and search the street for bottles. Leaving their child is an obvious risk, especially as rumours abound about homeless children being abducted from the street in recent years.
   
Otguntugs ,28, scours the streets in the early hours of the morning looking for plastic and glass bottles that he can re-sell to recycling stations.
   
Battur (left),55, and Ounsuren (right),36, (grandfather and daughter-in-law) search for bottles through piles of refuse, mainly found outside apartment buildings throughout the city.
     
  
A morning’s work can yield around 100 bottles, for which they can get some 1000 Mongolian Tugrik. Barely US$1.
   
Huyga takes a rest in the family's garage-home. The family worry most about the future of their child. Street people suffer discrimination and social stigma from many areas of societyand find it almost impossible to find jobs. Huyga's future is uncertain but on asking what he wanted to be when he was older he revealed; "I want to be a lama [buddhist monk]. The life is good and I can get a lot of food".
   
Early in the morning the family lights a fire in order to boil a soup which consists of any food they have leftover from the previous day.The country is currently experiencing its highest inflation rate in over a decade, mainly as a result of rising fuel and food costs. This knock-on effect means the family can afford less and less food and the prices of the bottles, which they use to get money to purchase food, are losing their value.
     
  
Otguntugs (left) the father, Ounsuren (centre) the mother and their son Huyga eating breakfast.
   
Widespread unemployment has caused many social problems such as depression, alcohol abuse, domestic violence and crime.(Left - 8 a.m.) and (Right - 4 p.m.), the family use what money they have from collecting bottles to purchase cheap Russian Vodka which they drink in order to stave off the bitter cold that embraces Ulaan Baatar for large portions of the year.
   
The family together in their garage-home.
     
  
Battsetseg, 36, waits on the streets of Ulaan Baatar for her husband who went out looking for work earlier that morning. With no way of communicating with oneanother, she walks and waits, hoping to meet him. Life on the sreets is unpredictable however, so she spends many hours walking the streets alone, waiting.
   
Huyga collects rubbish near the family's garage-home.
   
“We have been living on the streets for 10 years and in this garage for 1 year”, said Battur,55, the grandfather of the family who, in his youth, studied Mongolian Language and Literature at one of the capital’s Universities. Divorcing from his wife in the 1990’s turned him to drink and hence onto the street.
     
  
Ounsuren stands and waits for food to be cooked near the family's garage-home.
   
A delicate bracelet hangs from the wrist of the grandfather Battur. He is among 50% of Mongolians whose religion is Buddhist Lamaist.
   
Ulaan Baatar is the coldest capital city in the world, with winter temperatures dropping to as low as minus 40 degrees Centigrade. With no heating in their garage-home, the family must huddle together as much as possible in order to share their body heat.
     
  
The family's day revolves around a cycle of walking the streets, collecting bottles, drinking vodka, finding any food they can and just making it through the day.For the country’s 1 million people who live below the poverty line, the world’s reaction the global financial crisis in the coming months and years will have huge direct significance on their lives and their basic ability to survive.