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KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan (January 24, 2008) - With Task Force
Saber paratroopers acting as a continuing liaison with schools in
Afghanistan's Kunar and Nuristan provinces, a partnership that
began in May is helping educate Afghan children.
The partnership links children and schools in Afghanistan with
children and schools primarily in the United States, Italy and
Germany to provide Afghan children with pens, pencils, paper,
chalk, notebooks and pen pals.
The paratroopers, from the 173rd Airborne Brigade's 1st
Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment, provide updates to the partner
schools on the progress of the Afghan children through pictures and
letters.
"Being in the U.S., it is hard to visualize the lack of
resources they have here," said Army Capt. Jay S. VanDenbos, 30,
from Tahlequah, Okla., assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters
Troop, 1st Battalion, 91st Cavalry. "Ninety percent of the schools
are open-air schools, which are sometimes a tarp and a dirt floor.
They'll have a rock that they use as a chalk board, and kids sit
underneath the tarp and learn."
VanDenbos said Afghan children are eager for education. "They
yearn for knowledge," he said. "Any time anyone goes on patrols,
the kids are screaming to 'Give me pen; give me pen.' They don't
have anything they can use to learn."
The partnership program is important because the Afghans don't
have money, said Army Staff Sgt. Larry D. Gormley, 39, from
Livermore, Calif., assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Troop,
1-91st Cavalry. "An American school sending them paper, pens and
pencils is helping to educate the Afghan people," he said. "And
educated people are not the kind of people that strap a bomb to
themselves and go and try to blow somebody up."
The benefit of the partnership between the schools goes both
ways.
"For the American kids, it gives them a little bit of cultural
awareness of the rest of the world," Gormley said. "I think the
mission is great. Kids are getting school supplies, and it's
improving their level of education."
Afghan teachers, who have seen their facilities destroyed over
the years, are firmly behind the program and appreciate the
benefits of it.
"Coalition forces are always giving school supplies to the
students, and I support the coalition forces for helping the
children," said Pacha Gul Aulfat, 36, an Afghan teacher. "It makes
me really angry that we do not have school buildings, but coalition
forces are building schools for us.
"Most of the past generations are uneducated, but my plan for
the future is to teach," Aulfat continued. "I will provide the
students of the next generation with an education. Now is a time
for education, and all of our attention must be given to
education."
The program benefits children like 10-year-old Ibrahim, who
lives nearby and is spending his winter break learning English from
a cook at Forward Operating Base Naray. Ibrahim said he likes
school and has very good teachers. He has been attending school for
only a year, but proudly says that he passed his year-end exams and
will advance to the next level when school resumes.
"Whenever I get an education in the future, I would like to
become a doctor or engineer," Ibrahim said. "Whenever I grow up and
I become older and older, I would like to serve my country. I love
my people, and this is my mission, to complete my education and
serve the people of my own country."
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