Clothing Project

It is with a heavy heart that F.I.R.E. announces the end of the clothing project. The logistics and expenses (mainly high fuel costs and import taxes in Mongolia) associated with the clothing project make it unrealistic to maintain while building our educational and medical projects. The clothing project costs over $60,000 a year to maintain operations in Flagstaff, as well as to ship and distribute the items in Mongolia.

This has been a very difficult decision for the Board of Directors to make. The clothing and packing parties have created a direct and valuable link with the community of Flagstaff. We have been moved beyond words from the opportunity provided by the clothing distribution trips to assist thousands of people literally on their doorsteps. Ultimately, we feel we have the opportunity to leave a more lasting effect on the people of Mongolia through the development of our medical and educational projects. We cannot thank everyone enough for the support and donations that have been sent to F.I.R.E. over the past 10 years.

While we will not be doing a clothing distribution trip in 2008 and are no longer accepting donations of used clothing, we currently have enough winter clothing packed and stored for a final clothing distribution trip in 2009. We will continue to accept hand made items for the Dulaan Project, which will be distributed during the 2009 trip and our future trips.

Clothing Trip 2009

This will be our last clothing distribution trip. We will ship one, 40-foot container full of 12 tons of winter clothing and hand knitted items. A team of volunteers will pay their own expenses to travel to Mongolia, meet and distribute the container to 1,000 families. It is our intention to work with the member of Parliament from Nailakh to distribute the aid in October 2009. We will use social workers to guide us directly to the doorsteps of the neediest families.

F.I.R.E. is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. All contributions are tax deductible.