Photo By Sgt. Dustin Roberts | Students work "hands-on" while learning how to repair a generator...... read more read more
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By Spc. Dustin Roberts
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division
BAGHDAD – In a Dec. 23 training event in the Hurriyah neighborhood of the Khadamiyah District of northwest Baghdad, local contractors, in partnership with coalition forces, showed how their idea to train citizens in generator and heavy equipment repair is preparing northwest Baghdad for the future.
The training, part of a special funding project called Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, which focuses on two separate training classes directed towards military-aged males, released detainees and the Iraqi security forces-backed 'Sons of Iraq' in the repair of generators and heavy equipment, such as dump trucks, sewage pump trucks and trash-pickup trucks.
The class in Hurriyah, which started in August, is a four-month-long generator class with 10 students.
"Each day they work from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., six days of the week. They train in the classroom from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. After that, the students go outside to make treatment on the generators for hands-on training," said Basheer Ghalib Abdul-Kadom, general manager and engineer for the FIAFI company, the Iraqi-contracted company that trains the students. "The generators are supposed to be broken, and the students spend time repairing them."
A the end of each training period, the students receive a certificate of achievement, which gives them the credentials they need to find work in northwest Baghdad.
"We contract out Iraqi contractors, and we try to provide training that is convenient for the location," said 1st Lt. Justin Casey, the contacting officer representative from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad. "Baghdad, as we know, needs a lot of electricity; therefore, it needs a lot of generators. If we can train generator repairmen then that will help the community.
"We are working with the Belladiyah, the Neighborhood Advisory Council and the District Advisory Council in the local units to establish locations for these generators after each class. We are also keeping those names and their contact information for those trainees because we are going to need people to work on those generators after the training is through."
When the training is completed, more than 70 generators will be donated to northwest Baghdad and about 120 trained generator experts will be ready for jobs.
During the four-month block, the trainees are paid $300 a month, but are subtracted $10 for each day of class they miss.
The proper tools and equipment used in the training, to include protective eyewear, hard hats, shoes, ratchets and screwdrivers, are provided for the workers; if they graduate, they get to keep the equipment.
"There are even some few spare parts for the generators, so when the students need some new spare parts for generator repair, they will use them and make the necessary adjustments to fix them," said Abdul-Kadom. "When the students finish the course, they get to take their own set of tools with them to keep."
Although they get the proper training they need for job opportunity, Abdul-Kadom said it doesn't guarantee the trainees a job.
"As you know, we want them to work in the future," he said. "We cannot promise them that we can give them a job after the training; if we have another job open, then we will prefer our students because we trained them."
Many local citizens have been recruited from the 2nd BCT, 1st Inf. Div., MND-B subordinate units to be trained in both the generator and heavy equipment training.
"DDR is an opportunity to provide employment for young, unemployed males," said Col. Gerald Gibbons, embedded provisional reconstruction team, 2nd BCT, 1st Inf. Div. "They get to appreciate learning a marketable skill, and when they can be employed, it helps society in general."
| Date Taken: | 12.25.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 12.25.2008 08:40 |
| Story ID: | 28131 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 140 |
| Downloads: | 121 |
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