Just a year ago, Local Solutions ( an Ulaanbaatar based NGO) was the only member of the campaign "Let's Change Our Toilets". We produced a book with the same title. We traveled all over Mongolia to educate people. We created a fun and science-based curriculum to help people overcome a prejudice against the word "jorlon", toilet in Mongolian.

Twenty-two months after Local Solutions launched its nationwide campaign, "Let's Change Our Toilets", we have now turned into a modest member of a large and dynamic family of business entities , self-employed individuals, and a cooperative that work collaboratively to change Mongolia's dangerous and dirty, soil polluting pit toilets.

This new family is Mongolia's first toilet business cluster! Since its initial business operation, i.e. sale of the first dry toilet, only a month and a half has passed. But we have sold 50 units to date, which marks a success worthy to share with all of you.

At this moment, the worst seems to be behind. We were afraid that it would take a long time for Mongolians to accept the dry toilet as something that can be installed at home.

Today we have dry toilets installed inside homes, adjacent to houses and in separate cabins. The customers include city residents, organizations, tourist camps, and nomadic herder families.

Taboo against dry toilets has been successfully broken on the marketplace thanks to our energetic team members including Mini Solutions Cooperative (a network of salespersons and service providers equipped with a Facebook based phone app). vendors (TJNR company, UNIT company and private artisans), bond and loan providers (Ulaanbaatar Asset Mangement Compnay and Capitron Bank of Mongolia) and of course, the dedicated volunteers of Local Solutions.

More news to come in the months ahead...
For those who knows Mongolian: Our news is available on FB and Twitter. Use #ЖорлонгооӨөрчилье

Some of our developments are posted at www.jorlon.org, but our small crew often can't catch up with the developments and changes and I apologize for slow updates on our website.

Thank you for reading my post till the end.

Oyungerel Tsedevdamba
Chair of Board, Local Solutions

Here is another video with my speech on toilet:

Dear Sanitation friends,

I spoke at the Reinvented Toilet Expo on November 06, 2018 as a speaker in "Sanitation Change-Maker Speakers' Series".
Those who attended the Expo, co-organized by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Government of China, might find this video already familiar.

I am happy to share this link from the Gates Foundation's Youtube channel for those who are interested in hearing how we are trying to engage public in investing into the better healthier and environmentally friendly toilets.

Local Solutions Foundation, an Ulaanbaatar based NGO is releasing a new book "Let's Change Our Toilets" written by Oyungerel Tsedevdamba on World Toilet Day. The book will contain 32 topics including: 15 topics on toilet technological solutions, 10 topics on sludge management solutions and innovations, and 7 topics on policies and best community practices. The well illustrated book will be sold in all provinces of Mongolia and aims to offer Mongolians to learn about many sustainable solutions 'harvested' from FSM-4, SuSana website and other open source information. Written in the author's signature style of story-telling, Oyungerel's book also aims to stop the stigma attached to the word 'toilet'' and popularize the subject with a new business meaning. Local Solutions Foundation aims to conduct a year-around training on the book subject in all provinces and the capital city of Mongolia.