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LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Afghan National Army leaders in Logar province are instructing their soldiers in literacy and cultural and religious awareness to secure a better future for the soldiers and, ultimately, all of Afghanistan.
Nearly 300 Afghan soldiers from the 4th and 5th Kandaks and the Garrison Support Unit of the 4th Brigade, 203rd ANA Corps in Logar province are also students, taking literacy classes as part of an Afghan department of defense program. These same soldiers also receive instruction in cultural awareness and religion through a local ANA initiative using ANA officers who volunteer to teach these lessons to their soldiers.
“I am teaching them the cultural advising ... and also the literacy programs until we get more instructors ... I am able to help my soldiers out, because they are like my family,” said ANA Capt. Habib Raham, cultural and religion officer for 4th Kandak. “They really like to join the class; that is why I am trying to help them out for their own futures. When they go back home when they are done with the army, at least they can get jobs for [improving] their own ... lives."
“In Afghanistan, there is a lot of war going on,” Raham continued. “It is all about education. Most people, they do not have any education; that is why they are always fighting between each other. We try to advise them through the classes, through the different channels for Afghanistan soldiers, that they become educated.”
ANA Lt. Col. Hayatullah Mamand, brigade cultural and religious advisor for 4th Brigade, 203rd Corps, said their literacy classes started about a month ago. A representative of the Afghan defense department responsible for literacy programs all around Afghanistan visited Logar province and handed out books and notebooks, and that is when the literacy classes began, he said.
The brigade has plans to divide the ANA soldier students into two groups for both the literacy and the cultural- and religion-advising programs, said Mamand. ANA leaders want to obtain the supplies and tools needed to teach lessons to both Pashtu-speaking and Dari-speaking soldiers in their own languages simultaneously in the same classes.
“If we had two boards [so] that we can write on two boards in two different languages like Dari and Pashtu, it is going to be really easy and helpful too,” said Raham.
ANA leaders are making do with what they have to conduct literacy and cultural awareness classes. The classes are conducted every day and last about an hour each; but both Mamand and Raham said they are lacking sufficient space, supplies and instructors to meet the needs of their students.
Mamand said they use dining facilities and a mosque tent to conduct classes. In addition to the volunteer ANA officers who instruct, there are two Afghan defense department-provided professional civilian Afghan instructors to teach literacy to ANA soldiers in Logar province. Another has been hired, said Mamand.
In addition to the more than 250 ANA soldiers now taking these classes, there are about 200 more soldiers in Muhammad Agah district of Logar interested in taking literacy classes, said Raham.
While ANA officers say they desperately need help with these things, the literacy program does receive support from outside sources.
“The literacy program is supported by NGOs, non-government organizations,” said Mamand. “They provide us with instructors and, hopefully, they provide us notebooks, pens and blackboards - all of the materials we need in the class.”
Like Raham, Mamand is very serious about assisting ANA soldiers along the road to literacy. In fact, he views this help as a humanitarian, Islamic and military obligation.
“It is really important for all humans that they can learn and read. That is part of Islam too,” said Mamand. “For example, I am an educated man, and I have to teach my soldiers and teach my noncommissioned officers. The knowledge which I have, I have to share with them [so] that they become educated too.”
Raham said the students will probably undergo examinations at the end of this year, similar to final exams.
For the literacy classes, these would be one-time exams. If students pass the exams, then they are promoted to the next higher literacy class. If they do not pass, they stay in the same class, said Raham. For the cultural advising classes, students will take two examinations. If they pass their exams, it is the same as with the literacy class, he said. If not, they stay in the classes and keep learning.
“As soon as they graduate from the schools ... their chains of command are going to send them certificates [proving] they graduated from the literacy classes,” said Raham. “That should be really helpful.”
One such student who hopes to earn graduation certificates is ANA Staff Sgt. Abdull Jan, an intelligence soldier assigned to 4th Kandak.
“This class is very helpful for our future - for Afghanistan’s future, because if we can study sometimes, we can have a better Afghanistan and build a better future for ourselves too,” said Jan, who said he has been an ANA soldier for almost seven years. “Personally, I really like the class ... and this class is really helpful for my own future.”
Jan thanked his cultural advisor for providing the types of classes that are going to help him and his comrades be better soldiers for Afghanistan. “I really like that these are really helpful, good classes; and we are going to be better soldiers in the future if we are educated,” he said
Jan said he has a message to share with his “Afghan brothers,” whether they work for National Defense Service, Afghan National Police, ANA or are civilians.
He advises they try their best to go to school and learn as much as they can so they can become doctors or engineers and so they can help Afghanistan in the future.
“My country, my government, they need me. And all Afghan people essentially are my friends,” said Jan, who has served with the ANA in Logar province for nearly four years. “As...[long] as I am alive, I am going to be with the army. [When] our country, our government stand on our own feet, then I can retire at that time; because my country, in this time, they need me.
“Afghanistan right now is in a really good situation,” Jan continued. “Those people that are educated, we need them, the government needs them, our country needs them. It is really good to have education.”
| Date Taken: | 02.09.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 02.16.2011 14:38 |
| Story ID: | 65539 |
| Location: | LOGAR PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 31 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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