manage these resources by combining spiritual principles with practical considerations. In 2007, there were six community banks with some 100 members operating in two different locations in Mongolia. It is coordinating funding and resources in the UK between Baháʼí sources and others still in 2010. Erdenbulgan gardening The 1997 Human Development Report for Mongolia, published by the United Nations Development Programme, pointed to nutritional issues being a serious widespread concern pointing to a lack of fruits and vegetables being a key issue. Governmental and non-governmental organizations are keenly aware of the problems posed by the limited diet. The national government proclaimed 1993 as "food year". In May 1995, the Baháʼí community of Erdenbulgan began to talk about undertaking some sort of local social and economic development project, coming up with a list of possibilities that included establishing a bread bakery, erecting a cultural center, sponsoring English classes and starting a vegetable garden. After further consultation, the Baháʼís decided in 1996 that the vegetable garden was perhaps the easiest to undertake immediately - and perhaps the most needed. They got permission in 1997 from the municipality to fence off a quarter hectare of land near the Eg River. And knowing it needed help, the community reached outside itself, asking the national Baháʼí office in Ulaanbaatar for advice and assistance. Officials at the national office knew about the presence in the region of Mr. Megit, a Canadian agricultural specialist who is also a Baháʼí and who had been working in nearby Ulan Ude, Russia. They invited him to travel to Erdenbulgan and consult with them, which he did in April 1996. Partly because of what he saw, Mr. Megit decided to relocate to Mongolia in late 1996, where he joined the staff of the Mongolian Development Center (MDC), a national-level non-governmental organization established by a group of Baháʼís to provide various forms of technical assistance to local communities. Maitar Tsend, the director of the Mongolian Horticultural Society, an independent NGO which has also launched its own campaign to encourage small-scale vegetable gardening, drew attention to the project in Erdenbulgan as a model for all of Mongolia because of the way it has educated and empowered local people. "Before, during the Communist period, it was prohibited even to have a garden, because it was regarded as private initiative. So people don't think they can grow vegetables themselves or they think that growing cabbage