Save the Children implemented the “Promoting Inclusive Education for Every Last Child in Mongolia” project in 2018-2021. The “Differently Different” advocacy campaign was launched in 2019 and 2020 to demonstrate the understanding, knowledge, attitudes, methods, and skills of children with special educational needs, and the information was disseminated to more than 4 million audience engagements on social media.
Mongolia’s legislation and policies incorporate equal inclusion of children with special needs, but the level of implementation is low. Many factors contribute to this, one of which is the negative attitudes of teachers, parents, and the community. According to the survey conducted by Save the Children, 82 percent of parents said it would be effective to send children with disabilities to special schools. However, Mongolia and other countries in the world are committed to the principle of providing equal access to mainstream education, so our schools, teachers, parents, and the community need to change their attitudes and recognize that everyone grows and develops differently. Save the Children therefore launched a social campaign to influence public attitudes. Through our campaign, we disseminated good examples of how people with disabilities can learn, develop, work, and contribute to society. As well, we reached out to parents of children with disability through creative posters, success stories, and advocacy posts that encouraged them to discover and develop their children’s talents and discouraged hiding them at home.
As a result, the following outcomes of the “Differently Different” Advocacy Campaign were achieved:

• The number of parents who understood the need for inclusive education increased by 2 percent.
• The number of parents who believe that a child with special needs should attend a regular school with other children increased by 5 percent.
• The number of children who feel proud of helping children with special needs has increased.

You can watch the campaign’s contents on Facebook and online using the hashtag #ӨөрӨөр.