Marines survey Garmsir for new vocational school

Photo By Cpl. Jeremy Fasci | Officers from the I Marine Expeditionary Force (FWD) and 1st Marine Division (FWD) staff came to Hazer Joft, May 25, to look at the site as a possible location for a new vocational school to be built. The school would allow the residents of southern Helmand province the ability to receive secondary education opportunities. These buildings were once part of the vocational high school that was in use before the Taliban took over.  

GARMSIR DISTRICT, AFGHANISTAN

05.28.2010

Story by Lance Cpl. Jeremy Fasci 

I Marine Expeditionary Force

GARMSIR DISTRICT, Afghanistan – Civil-military operations officers from the I Marine Expeditionary Force (FWD) and 1st Marine Division (FWD) staff visited the Garmsir District Center, May 25, to survey a possible site for the construction of an agricultural vocational school in support of the ongoing effort to educate the local populace.

The buildings surveyed for the possible project are being used as one of the many seed distribution centers in the Helmand province. Prior to the Taliban control of the region, the location was a vocational high school.

The new school will allow the people of southern Helmand province to have a vocational school to send their children for secondary education opportunities.

A lack of students qualified to attend the school is another consideration. The literacy rate in Afghanistan is roughly 18 percent and for females in the Helmand province it is about seven percent. Starting from the bottom and working up is the only possible course of action for these types of educational processes.

"Education is the only thing that is going to save this country," said Maj. Nina D'Amato, the I MEF (FWD) education officer, who is also a middle school principal in San Francisco. "Formal schooling and public health systems are integral to the success of this region and this country."

An effort to infuse money into the Afghan economy is a short-term solution to the problem. As coalition forces help train the Afghan National Army and police forces to provide security, the necessity to build their educational system is just as important.

Having the ability to build the infrastructure necessary to sustain progress in the country will allow the economy and the people of Afghanistan to reach new milestones.

"If you think about back home, we are very lucky we have lots of infrastructure and government departments that oversee that infrastructure," said Capt. Thomas A. McAvoy, 31, the civil affairs team leader for 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, from Philadelphia.

Helmand province is the Afghanistan's main agricultural region. During the Taliban rule, poppy fields covered much of the area, and now the progression into cash crops such as wheat helps the people not only support their families and their country, but will soon allow them to push their products to the world markets.

"Any kind of educational system is a testament to progress in a socio-economic area," said Capt. Dina Poma-Barnes, 31, the I MEF (FWD) agricultural officer, from Sterling Heights, Mich. "If the harvests are going well and the city is getting money, a good symbol is that a school will go up to provide for higher education as a sustainment to the society."

Sustainment of security and progression in the region will be helped by the push to educate people. Projects like this vocational school are one of the ways to help the Afghan people continue to sustain and build their infrastructure.

• Date Taken: 05.28.2010
• Date Posted: 05.28.2010 10:13
• Story ID: 50441
• Location: GARMSIR DISTRICT, AF