Photo By Luis Delgadillo | First Lt. Greg Highstrom, from Cedarburg, Wisc., a platoon leader with Battery B, 1st...... read more read more
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By Sgt. Luis Delgadillo
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division
FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq - Many schools in the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division's area of operation have been rebuilt through the efforts of coalition forces.
There were a few schools though, such as the Manahel primary school in Kutimiyah, which had eluded coalition assistance.
In the last two months, Soldiers at Joint Security Station W-1, south of Kutimiyah, have reached out to the untouched area. They have opened routes into the community and begun to assess the needs of residents who felt left out of reconstruction efforts.
"They felt isolated because no one has been up there to start projects, but that's changing," said Capt. Richard Aaron, commander of Battery B, 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery, 2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div.
A recent route clearance operation brought Soldiers into the community, changing that perception.
The condition Soldiers found the school in struck a chord with 1st Lt. Greg Highstrom, from Cedarburg, Wisc., a platoon leader with Battery B.
Residents said al-Qaida insurgents used the school as a base of operations for conducting missions against Soldiers at JSS W-1. The insurgents destroyed the building when they left the area to prevent its use by coalition forces.
Highstrom said students who attended class at the primary school are now studying in a house lent by a nearby land owner. In five rooms, each not more than 40 square meters in size, children attend school five days a week from 8 a.m. until noon.
The seven teachers, helped move school desks into the temporary building; however, when the school year ends in two months, the owner of the house will return and the students will once again be without classrooms.
The ministry of education, alerted to the situation facing the students, has put in a request for government of Iraq funds to rebuild the school.
In northern Kutimiyah, the Tatwir School, which had also been damaged by insurgents, already has funding for reconstruction approved thanks to the Soldiers' efforts.
One of the biggest concerns for Manahel primary school's teachers, in addition to rebuilding the destroyed school house, is rebuilding a bridge which leads to the main highway into Baghdad from the south and connects the communities of Maderiyah and Kutimiyah.
Aaron, a native of Middleboro, Mass., said the bridge allow farmers of Kutimiyah easier access to markets where they sell their crops.
Though details of the project haven't been finalized, Aaron said people in both communities simply want life to return to normal.
| Date Taken: | 04.01.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 04.03.2008 16:04 |
| Story ID: | 18048 |
| Location: | ISKANDARIYAH, IQ |
| Web Views: | 100 |
| Downloads: | 85 |
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