About Mankon Foundation

The UN  Educational scientific and Cultural organisation estimates that every year some 10 languages are extinct around the world; that between 50% and 90% of today’s languages will disappear during this century. A language is a vessel and a vehicle of the background and way of life of its people. The sound of disappearing tongues therefore jars with immediacy if one descends from one of the “vulnerable” cultures.

As economic globalisation presents new opportunities, some of the ramifications are felt by small cultures that have existed for hundreds of years tucked away from modern market systems and politics. Urbanisation and declining local populations are taking their toll on villages and tribes around the world as the young leave in search of more auspicious economic opportunities in cities. The older generations left back in the village are phasing out without transferring the culture to the young, and so go the language, traditional ways of living and the heritage that has come to define many of these small but culturally endowed communities.

Yet, the richness of the world lies in our differences in heritage, our multiple perspectives, and the flying colours of healthy traditions. And, of course, as we strife in a world segmented by individualism, we’re often reminded of the need for a community to fall back to, a backbone of our upbringing, a place to recharge. It is an individual responsibility and a collective duty to preserve the landscapes of our heritage, to uphold that synchronicity with nature, to carve the integrity of the ways of old into the stones of time, and to pass them on to the next generations.

The Mankon foundation is a body of programs aiming to preserve the culture and language of the people of Mankon, to develop the community, and to promote its lifestyle by providing it a context in the phase of rapid globalisation and transition. It is a non-political, not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation. Its activities cover the areas of Culture, Health, education and Development.