Photo By Sgt. Dallas Walker | YETHRIB, Iraq -- Captain Raad Faesal hands out a pair of pants to an Iraqi child in...... read more read more
By Sgt. Dallas Walker
101st Airborne Division Public Affairs
December 5, 2005
YETHRIB, Iraq " It may be the little things most taken for granted in life " having a pencil to write with or paper to write on. It was those little things that made one December afternoon a little brighter for a group of Iraqi children in the Al Fadoose village " one of the many small villages in Yethrib, Iraq.
Soldiers from 2nd Company, 3rd Iraqi Army Division, delivered a truckload of supplies, clothes and toys to the village schoolhouse Dec. 5.
"I am very happy to see these supplies being brought to our school," said Yusra Abid Ahmjeed, school headmaster. "We can't buy these things in our own [village] and we never have enough to last the school year."
Ahmjeed has been an educator in the village for 25 years and has seen the lack of supplies as a consistent problem in schools. She said the city gives supplies to each school once a year, and it is never enough to last.
"We divide it up as best we can, but it's still not enough," Ahmjeed said.
The IA Soldiers have been delivering supplies to all the schools in the Yethrib area with the help of U.S. Coalition Forces. There are 40 schools in Yethrib and the surrounding villages, according to Capt. Raad Faesal, commander, 2nd Company, 3rd Iraqi Army Division.
"We try to visit the schools monthly," Faesal said. "We saw a big change since the old government fell. We used to have a hard time coming to schools because they had a bad view of the military. Now, they come to us and ask us for help. They ask us to bring them supplies."
Faesal said one of the biggest problems in the schools is the lack of technology available.
"Other schools in bigger cities have computers, but these schools don't," Faesal said. "Because of satellites, the children can see what others have and know what they are missing."
It will be many years before these small villages see the technology that schools in larger cities have, he said. For now, they will concentrate on the necessities.
Faesal has been working with the civil affairs section of 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry Division, to bring supplies to the schools.
Sergeant Billy Carrillo, civil military operations noncommissioned officer-in-charge for the unit, said that helping the IA organize these visits with local schools will help them to establish better relationships with the villagers.
"It also allows [the IA] to build their own confidence," Carrillo said. The more confidence these Soldiers have with their own communities, the faster they will be able to stand on their own.
"Before, the Iraqi Army [in this area] was very disorganized. Structure was lacking at best," Carrillo said. "Now they are a functional unit, to the point of completing their own missions. They've made leaps and bounds over the last year."
| Date Taken: | 12.21.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 12.21.2005 10:47 |
| Story ID: | 4157 |
| Location: | YETHRIB, IQ |
| Web Views: | 132 |
| Downloads: | 26 |
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