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By Sgt. 1st Class Kerensa Hardy
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
CAMP STRIKER, Iraq – Relief International's Iraq community-based conflict mitigation chief of party visited Rakkasan soldiers March 8 at Camp Striker.
Tamra Hackett met with civil affairs and embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team leaders from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), to establish a dialogue and get suggestions on how to best offer assistance in the brigade's area of operation.
"You answered the mail," Hackett said.
ICCM sent out surveys in early February to PRTs and ePRTS across Iraq, and Hackett said the team attached to 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT), was the first to respond with complete information and provide a date for the initial visit.
"We're new, we've been on the ground for about a month and a half," Hackett said.
The ICCM is Relief International's first Iraq-wide, conflict-mitigation project. RI and Columbia University's Center for International Conflict Resolution have partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development to support the program. USAID has been operating in Iraq since 2003 doing humanitarian projects.
Hackett said ICCM is reaching out to the ePRTs to get "on-the-ground information" about the communities in which they operate.
The organization's information sheet states the goal of ICCM is to reduce violence and promote peaceful resolutions to conflict throughout Iraq.
The representatives from the Rakkasan brigade offered many suggestions about services needed in the Mahmudiyah Qada. Capt. Steven McGregor, the civil affairs officer for 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, suggested building a bridge to connect Al-Janabi and Anbari villages.
"The tribes are now working together, and we'd like to build a bridge to connect them," McGregor said.
Ideas centered on women's initiatives, child-development centers, vocational centers and an Internet facility for youths, among others.
"These are fantastic ideas," Hackett said. "We can do our best to leverage (our capabilities) with some of the other implementing partners."
Hackett will go out into the communities later this month to do a visual assessment. She plans to rely on the insight of those out among the local populace in conjunction with ICCM's assessment, adding that they can get more done by working together.
"You can count on full and total support from this brigade," said Lou Lantner, ePRT team leader.
| Date Taken: | 03.10.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 03.10.2008 10:49 |
| Story ID: | 17182 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 441 |
| Downloads: | 426 |
This work, Rakkasans meet with ICCM chief, discuss conflict mitigation project, by SFC Kerensa Hardy, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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