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CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan - The town of Now Abad opened its first school, May 5, with the assistance of Afghan National Army soldiers and coalition forces.
The village has high hopes for the 50 students expected to attend.
“In a society that there is no school, there is no education. It will be dark like night,” said ANA Lt. Col. Haje Obied Ulla, an education and religion officer with the 215th Maiwand Corps. “Education is like light, which brightens everything in the present and the future. This elementary school we established today will give the chance to the people to study. Become teachers, doctors, engineers and officers. Our people need everybody and it would be possible via education and knowledge.”
The idea of a school being built was first thought of by ANA troops. After the initial planning, they proposed the idea to Marines with 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment. It was then that the U.S., British, Danish and Afghan troops began working together to make the idea a reality.
“Our only wish is to pave the way for our kids and youths to study,” Ulla explained.
The classes will be held in a pre-existing building, with the permission of the Now Abad village elder. Children will attend class with others of the same gender, boys going in the mornings and girls in the afternoons, explained Maj. Christopher Toland, commanding officer of Headquarters and Service Company, 1/23.
“This has been in the works for about two months, ever since we arrived into the [area of operation],” said Toland of Houston. “We’ve been working on it with the ANA as our partner and talking to some other people over here on Leatherneck, regarding what kind of resources we can provide.”
Toland, a 1992 graduate of Texas A&M University, continued to explain how coalition forces have been working closely with the ANA troops to allow the Afghans to begin taking the lead in their country’s plans and future.
“We’ve tried to make sure they’re part of everything that we do,” he explained. “While we’ve been doing a lot of work on the school project, we’ve made sure that the ANA is taking the lead on it so that when we do at some point have to move on, they’ll be able to take over and run this thing.
“So they’ve been working with us greatly. They’ve got a great attitude, very professional and the Marines like working with them, so it’s been a win-win situation.”
Both ANA soldiers and coalition forces hope to build more schools in the future in the surrounding areas of Now Abad.
| Date Taken: | 05.06.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 05.06.2011 11:48 |
| Story ID: | 69980 |
| Location: | CAMP LEATHERNECK, AF |
| Web Views: | 522 |
| Downloads: | 6 |
This work, Lone Star Battalion helps Afghan troops open villages’ first school, by Cpl Katherine Keleher, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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