Photo By Master Sgt. Peter Morrison | A girl dressed in traditional Kosovo Albanian clothes offers chocolate to Tracey Ann...... read more read more
By Ardian Nrecaj
Public Affairs Specialist, Multinational Battle Group East
KAMENICA, Kosovo - The primary job of U.S. soldiers deployed in Kosovo as part of NATO’s Kosovo Force is to keep the peace. As part of its humanitarian efforts in eastern Kosovo, KFOR also made sure that 800 students of the vocational high school Andrea Durrsaku in Kamenica will feel warmer this winter. They made sure that the roof will not leak anymore, that the school’s electrical system is safe and that all the doors were replaced with new ones.
All this was a part of a $100,000 school renovation project that was funded by U.S. European Command’s Humanitarian Assistance Program, which was coordinated and implemented by the U.S. Embassy in Kosovo and the U.S. Army Europe Area Support Team from Camp Bondsteel.
On the school’s 20th anniversary celebration May 2nd, Tracey Ann Jacobson, U.S. ambassador to Kosovo inaugurated the project. She praised the cooperation between the Embassy, USEUCOM, Kamenica authorities and the Area Support Team from Camp Bondsteel.
“Improving the conditions at the school for 800 high school students will directly impact the development of the future of Kosovo – its youth,” said Jacobson.
The project started when the U.S. Embassy Office of Defense Cooperation contacted the contracting team from Camp Bondsteel and asked for help.
“We agreed, because that is the reason we are here, we are here to support the people of Kosovo,” said Lt. Col. Jacob Wimmer, a contract management officer for the 1938th Senior Contingency Contracting Team from Camp Bondsteel.
The contracting team put together the solicitation, got all the proposals, and monitored the locally selected vendor’s progress on the project.
A final inspection of the project was done April 24 by Wimmer and Maj. Jason Smith, engineer for KFOR Multinational Battle Group East out of Camp Bondsteel, and Mr. Qamil Qehaja, principal of the school.
Smith said the contractor did a great job in a very short time, completing 90 percent of the work in a week, and then it took another week to finish the little things.
“The school now has better insulation, a roof that does not leak anymore; it has safer floors, better doors, has better security and has safer electrical standards” he said.
The improvement of the school infrastructure will directly influence the quality of the education we are trying to provide for our students, said Qehaja, and added “for next year I expect that we are going to save 50 percent of the budget for heating, because of the new insulation that was put on the school.”
“US KFOR has done an amazing job, they did all the administrative procedures and have overseen the project,” said Qehaja.
Wimmer was excited that the project was successfully finalized, and said that “when we started the project we had a lot of people that were hesitant that the project will not get done in time, and the work will not be as good, but this is more than we could hope for, the school looks great.”
“This turns out to be a great project, if you look at pictures how the school was before you can see the difference,” said Smith. “The kids left for their spring break, and basically came back to a brand new school.”
“I would like to express my gratitude, and thank everybody,” said Qehaja. “Not only because of the changes to the school but for giving us the opportunity to work with US KFOR and learn from them.”
| Date Taken: | 05.02.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 05.10.2013 09:27 |
| Story ID: | 106718 |
| Location: | KAMENICA, ZZ |
| Web Views: | 279 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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