Taliin Tuurai (Steppe and Hoof)

Our Mission

Taliin Tuurai or (Steppe and Hoof) is a non-profit organization which has been set up to help herders and their animals in Mongolia. From a total population of 3.2 million Mongolian people, only about 169,000 nomadic families remain today. Mongolian herders are one of the last group of the pastural nomads left on earth. For a millennium these nomads have lived on the steppes, grazing their animals on vast grasslands while passing their culture virtually unchanged from generation to generation. But today, their traditional lifestyle is under threat. Climate change, desertification and rapidly evolving economics inside of Mongolia are contributing not only to a dramatic reduction in herders and arable land, but also to the rapid migration of families away from their life in the countryside to the cities. For the last several decades thousands of herder families have moved to the cities. Life in the countryside can be harsh. A particularly bad winter, called a Dzud in Mongolian, is an extreme weather phenomenon which regularly results in massive livestock deaths which in turn forces herders to abandon their nomadic way of life to look for work in the cities. With already very high unemployment, job prospects in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar are very few, often forcing these once proud and independent people into poverty in the ger districts surrounding the city. The ger districts have almost no modern services like running water and basic infrastructure. Our goal is to try to save the unique traditions that are part of the Mongolian nomadic lifestyle. With our programs we are striving to preserve the unique tradition and culture that existed for so long in Mongolia while giving herders modern tools, services and training to make it possible for them to succeed in today's world.