Local school receives school supplies, approval for renovation

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

06.13.2011

Story by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jared Walker 

NATO Training Mission Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Members of the Afghan National Police and NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan passed out school supplies such as pencils, pens, crayons, markers, paper, scissors and other materials to female students at Bibi Hawa School, June 13.

Bibi Hawa School, a primarily school, was chosen for this effort due to the school’s lack of resources, and the priority of educating females in the wake of the Taliban’s strict rule.

This school came to the attention of U.S. Navy Lt. Britta W. Christianson, NTM-A’s ANP Fields Officer and her people after ANP Brig. Gen. Ahmad Rashad Mahboob, Ministry of Interior Support Command and his men showed them the school.

“It’s pretty bad over here. The buildings are falling apart and they don’t have any windows or doors, the bathrooms are awful and their well doesn’t work,” said Christianson. “General Rashad wanted to see if we could help them out.”

Rashad said the donation is important because the students and parents are poor and they are not able to get the materials they need, like books and pens.

“Personally, I was very happy to be here at the school with the advisers and hand out the school supplies to the students,” said Rashad. “Seeing the smiles on the student’s faces as they were getting their supplies made this a very happy and special occasion. The reason why the ANP was here is to prove that we are in service of the people and the community.”

The Headmistress for Bibi Hawa School, Rahima Noori, thanked both the members of NTM-A and the ANP for the supplies and their support.

“It is good to see the police serving the people of Afghanistan,” said Rahima. “Today, they provided support and were here for our girls.”

Part of the counterinsurgency effort and building the Afghan National Security Forces in Afghanistan, such as the ANP, is helping to hand out school supplies and fixing schools believes Christianson.

“I think it’s really neat that the ANP came to us with this idea and asked for our help,” said Christianson. “This helps foster good relations between NTM-A and the Afghan security forces but more importantly between the Afghan community and their own security forces, which helps the Afghans to trust their own country, government, and police. This is essential because in the future if they have a problem they can go to the ANP for help. Building good relations between the ANP and the children are also key because for a long time it hasn’t been safe for the children to walk the streets or go to school”.

While at the school, NTM-A and ANP also announced that they would soon be renovating the school facilities.

“After General Rashad spoke to me, my team and I put in a proposal to the Commanders Emergency Response Program,” said Christianson. “The proposal was to fix the 21 classrooms, build a new 8 building classroom, and fix the bathrooms and drill a well.”

Storai Jalal, the Chief Project Manager with California Women Construction, a division of Gulzad Group, which is an Afghan-woman owned business, will soon run the construction and renovation of the school.

“This project gives an opportunity to the students to have an actual classroom, supplies to write with, books to read, chalkboards to learn with instead of classrooms with no doors, windows and air conditioning” said Storai. “Given an opportunity the students will want to come to school when they have a proper learning environment. Once there is a classroom, teachers will be more willing to come and teach, students will be more inclined to come to school instead of bailout and be on the streets and parents will encourage their children to come to school”.

“Also keep in mind as soon as the school is built and more classrooms are available more students within the area will be able to come and study here,” she said.

The renovation of Bibi Hawa is set to begin around the end of June and will take around four months to finish. During the mean time whether it is Christianson, Rashad or Storai Jalal, they will continue to go around Kabul and the surrounding areas to help improve the conditions of the Afghan schools.

• Date Taken: 06.13.2011
• Date Posted: 06.15.2011 11:54
• Story ID: 72119
• Location: KABUL, AF