About us

 

 

 

 

 

CAMDA was first formed in 2000 by John Pirie when, on learning of the severe hardship caused by the dzud that year, he determined to do whatever possible to bring relief to herders whose livelihoods had suffered from the loss of so many of their animals.

A chance meeting between him and a Mongolian vet who was completing his studies at Reading University, provided him with a more detailed picture of the hardships facing large numbers of Mongolia's herding communities. Many had been forced to give up herding altogether having lost so many animals, but there were very many more with little choice but to continue as best they could. At that period of time Mongolia was still in the painful throes of transition to a market economy after 7 decades of close alignment with the Soviet Union. Its departure from a centralised command economy had left the new democratic government with insufficient funds to meet the special needs of its rural herding citizens who had benefited from the former state-managed livestock husbandry.

With funds gathered from a number of UK supporters which then including ILPH and SPANA, John visited Mongolia to see at first hand how help could be provided. Hay and fodder were in short supply and what little donated money he had was spent providing these resources to families in Dundgobi, a province severely affected by the dzud. His meetings with families in this semi-desert location, and seeing how hard their life was in such a harsh environment led him to set up a charity for the sole purpose of aiding herding families in need of support.

He was a regular visitor to MIASU - Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit - which is part of the Department of Anthropology, Cambridge University. On becoming a MIASU member he came into contact with its then Director - Dr David Sneath - who agreed to become Chairman of the charity John had created, naming it CAMDA, with himself as Secretary and CEO.

After his death early in 2010, CAMDA continues to provide support in just the same way as in the past, by the provision of material or financial support to the poorer sectors of Mongolia's herding communities, in an effort to help sustain livelihoods in harsh and demanding circumstances, retaining the same unchanged intentions and in the same spirit as John set out to do 10 years earlier.