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U.S. Army Soldiers and U.S. Air Force Airmen from the Nangarhar Provincial Reconstruction Team met with the Nangarhar Information, Media and Culture Technical Working Group, Sept. 15, in Jalalabad.
Technical Working Group, or TWG, meetings give Afghan government officials and experts in different fields an opportunity to discuss challenges they are facing and ways to solve them.
According to U.S. Air Force Capt. Melissa J. Milner, the Nangarhar PRT information operations officer, the PRT takes an advisory role at the meetings.
"The meetings give these subject-matter experts an opportunity to sit down and discuss how they can help each other solve the problems that they are facing," Milner said. "It allows them to understand their own capacity to affect change, and then we can offer help only if it is really needed."
According to Milner, the TWGs were designed as a part of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy, and are tasked with improving informational, media and cultural program by the government.
The groups meet to prioritize projects and programming that is important to the region before the group's director meets with the provincial governor.
Awrang Sameem, information and cultural director for the group, spoke about several ideas in the meeting, including book and poetry festivals, youth programs, and journalist and novelist symposiums and training opportunities.
"We will not regain what we've lost in the 30 years of war we've seen," Sameem said. "But if we work really hard for the bright future of Afghanistan, we will see progress."
Sameem stressed to the attendees that having the PRT at the meeting was not a chance to ask for financial assistance, but an opportunity to discuss ways everyone can work together to preserve the culture and traditions of Afghanistan, develop a responsible media, and provide a strong program to educate the youth of the country.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Joy Mann, of Dover, Del., commander of the Nangarhar PRT, said the goal of the TWGs is to make development a local process, starting at the base of the Afghan government and moving up.
"We're trying to legitimize the Afghan government and bring the people in closer to their elected officials," Mann said.
Although the PRT was just there to advise, Sameem was pleased to have them at the meeting and expressed how much the Afghan people appreciate the work they are doing.
"Afghanistan has been destroyed over the last 30 years," he said. "There is still a lot to be done, but the progress over the last few years is awesome. The PRT is doing well. They are doing a good job. We like them."
| Date Taken: | 10.08.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 10.08.2009 11:05 |
| Story ID: | 39832 |
| Location: | AF |
| Web Views: | 380 |
| Downloads: | 274 |
This work, PRT advises TWGs as it rebuilds Afghan government, by SPC Eugene Cushing, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
