By Air Force Staff Sgt. Beth Del Vecchio
Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan Public Affairs
KABUL, Afghanistan — The lieutenant colonel entered the Zabuli school for girls and women preschool student room with hopes of positively impacting at least one of the young Afghan girls.
Lt. Col. Laura Saucer, an individual mobilization augmentee deployed from Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., was one of nearly 70 service members visiting the school as part of the Volunteer Community Relations program at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan. The program offers camp personnel the opportunity to travel to different parts of the city to deliver donated items to the local community.
During this trip to the all-girls school, the team dropped off backpacks full of pencils, pens and notebooks. The school is less than a year old.
"There is hope for all those little girls now that they are finally able to get a good education," Saucer said. "I would love to come back to Afghanistan in 10 years and see the difference education will make in their lives."
The colonel learned about the VCR program while attending a church service after arriving in Afghanistan in November. She went on her first VCR trip a few weeks later. She said she was hooked and since has made two trips per month.
"I have always enjoyed doing missions work with my church at home," she said. "It's nice to know with some simple things, you are impacting the lives of many."
According to the colonel, this trip was different than the other trips she has taken.
"I went on one VCR trip in the winter to a refugee camp and I have never seen such poverty," she said. "I couldn't help but cry when I saw babies with bare bottoms, red from exposure to the cold."
"This trip was a nice change of pace and I really felt like we made an impression on the young girls," she said.
Saucer is the chief nurse mentor with the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan command surgeon. She is presently developing a one-year nursing course for the Afghan national army.
The Camp Eggers VCR program is an all-volunteer program made possible by donations of new and gently used clothing, shoes, toys, blankets and school supplies. If you would like to donate, e-mail charity@afghan.swa.army.mil for more information.
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