Saturday, May 7, 2011

'Red Bulls' have helping hand in building of all-girls school in Afghanistan

Abdul Rahman Kabiri (left), Panjshir Province deputy governor, Air Force Lt. Col. Joseph Blevins (center), commander of the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team, a part of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, Task Force Red Bulls, and Abdul Mohammad, the Panjshir director of education, cut the ribbon across the entrance of the Baba Ali Girls School in Dara District, Afghanistan May 1, 2011. The PRT contracted the local Raz Tanha Construction Company to build the school in a remote district of Panjshir. (Photo by Spc. James Wilton, Task Force Red Bulls)


By Army Spc. James Wilton
Task Force Red Bulls
Fri, 06 May 2011

PANJSHIR PROVINCE, Afghanistan (5/6/11) – Members of the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team attended the grand opening ceremony of the Baba Ali Girls School in Dara District, Afghanistan, May 1.

The school can host more than 150 Afghan female students and is a part of a three-school complex which includes a boy’s school.

The Dara Community Development Council, a group of Afghans who address the needs of their community, proposed the school to their local government, but there was no money to fund the project.

Hearing this, the PRT decided to take on the endeavour.

“I am very excited and happy that the Panjshir PRT opened the Baba Ali Girls School in this remote district of the Panjshir valley,” said Abdul Matin Mubashe, a math and sciences teacher for the Baba Ali School, through an interpreter. “The young girls of the Dara District now have a place to study and learn.”

The PRT contracted a local village contractor, the Raz Tanha Construction, Road Building and Production Company, to build the 8-classroom school.

“We have an Afghan-first or Panjshir-first policy, if we can find someone capable of doing a project within that community, then we use them to do the work,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Joseph Blevins, the Panjshir PRT commander. “The communities really tie in with the PRTs....



Much more on this great story here.

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