Live and Work with Nomads in Mongolia

This project is perfect for any person wanting to experience a different and more traditional way of life. It will also suit you if you want to embrace adventure and step away from the modern world for a while.

You don’t need any experience for this project. If you’re willing to help and learn, you’ll have an exciting and memorable time in Mongolia. We recommend taking the initiative to get involved, and your host family will be happy to teach you about their day-to-day lives.

This kind of experience can add value to your CV. You will gain a broader outlook of the world, and learn about the importance of preserving different cultures and traditions. This is also a great conversation starter!

This project runs all year round, so you can join whenever it suits your schedule. The best time to join the project is during the animal breeding season between March and April. The nomad families appreciate the extra support when it comes to looking after newborn calves and lambs and you may even assist with the birthing process!

A typical day on your cultural immersion project in Mongolia is different to any other project we offer. You will wake up around 7am, have breakfast with the family and then your day begins.

After a hearty meal, you will help with daily chores. These depend on the time of year and needs of the family at that time. You’ll help milk cows, herd sheep, goats and cattle, or walk to fetch water from the well. Wearing shoes you don’t mind getting dirty, you’ll also help clean the animal pen and collect cow dung for fuel.

You can spend your afternoons relaxing and having some quiet time. You can hike, read, play with the children, or nap. You can also teach the children a few basic English phrases, or learn some Mongolian from them.

Evenings are dedicated to food preparation, milking the cows again, and sitting down for a meal with your nomad family.

Every two weeks, Projects Abroad staff will take you on the trip to the city. You should use this time to meet up with other volunteers, shop, or explore the city’s tourist attractions.

Please be prepared for the fact that digital equipment like mobile phones may not work at your placement. Quality phone signal cannot be guaranteed where your nomad family lives. The families do have phones with a special mobile dealer to contact Projects Abroad staff if needed. You can charge your devices or reconnect to the world when you return to the city every two weeks.

The aim of this project is to give you a chance to live and work with nomads in Mongolia, while getting to know a different culture and way of life.

You’ll have direct experience of a way of life that has not changed for many years, and is sadly becoming less common. This is because of many factors, but climate change is the biggest one. Scorching heat and harsh winters kill livestock and crops, which makes life very difficult for nomad families. They then move to the city in hopes of finding work to support their family, which means leaving behind their way of life.

The Mongolian nomad cultural experience is perfect for people who like the outdoors, and love to learn how people around the world live and work. Mongolian nomads are some of the oldest and longest living nomads, as their way of life has survived for a very long time.

Take part in our nomad cultural experience and take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity to immerse yourself in it.

You can expect to be fully involved with a nomad family’s daily life in Mongolia. Here are some of the tasks you can expect to do:

• Help your nomad family with chores and activities inside the house and out in the field
• Teach basic English to nomad children and their family, while learning a bit of Mongolian yourself
• Learn about the nomad way of life from the adults, but also from the children