The purpose of this initiative is to create a more healing environment for Mongolian children and their families at the MCHRC, the central pediatric hospital in Ulan Bator.

This project consists of 3 central goals:

1. Improve the physical plant of the hospital with paintings, photographs, murals and wall-hangings.
2. Organize an exchange program of artwork and letters between pediatric patients in Ulan Bator and Los Angeles.
3. Engage the children of the MCHRC in art projects. There are currently no art, play or entertainment programs to occupy the patients of the MCHRC, and for many their stay in the hospital is without family and friends. As children of nomadic herders, they must often wait for weeks or months while their families travel through the countryside to pick them up from the MCHRC in Ulan Bator. An art program would greatly add to their healing experience in the hospital. There are 3 groups of Mongolian children who would ideally become involved in such a project:
     a) In-hospital patients
     b) Recovered patients at the MCHRC who are waiting to rejoin their families in the countryside
     c) Healthy siblings of patients, many of whose families have temporarily       relocated to Ulan Bator from the countryside to seek treatment for their       child.

The long term objective is to create a fully functioning art therapy center and program, as there are currently no such facilities at the MCHRC. This would be administered by an art therapy team of trained Mongolian therapists, assisted by traveling artists and art therapists from around the world. An exchange
trip of professional artists and Girl
& Boy Scouts from the U.S. is currently planned for the summer
of 2003, to implement the first phase of the Child to Child Art Project. This group will be working with local Mongolian artists and the Mongolian Art Federation to bring both artwork and music to the children of the MCHRC.