Articles:
New Afghan Program Supports Community-based Approach to Security | |
Panjshir Empowerment Program helps educate community
Written by Air Force Capt. Stacie N. Shafran, Panjshir PRT Public Affairs Office BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan
(March 27, 2009) - In Panjshir’s Anaba District, a classroom of 10 women, all teachers, practiced a lesson plan to teach their future students about numbers.
The women are enrolled in a two-year U.S. Agency for International Development-funded program called “Learning for Community Empowerment.”
The program is designed to increase literacy and numeracy education, while also providing vocational training. Currently more than 5,700 of the Panjshir Valley’s men and women participate.
“The goal is to educate and provide vocational skills to those who have not previously had the chance to attend school because of social reasons or because of the war-time environment,” said Jeremy Richart, the USAID field officer assigned to the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction team. As such,
students tend to be older, ranging in age from high teens to 30 years old.
During the first six months of the training, the students are provided with literacy and numeracy training. Then, they select their vocational tract and ultimately become more competitive in the job market.
After villages are identified for the program, up to 25 men and 25 women are selected as students. Additionally, the program trains the teachers who will go on to teach the students selected for the program around Panjshir.
During a visit on March 24 to the Anaba classroom, Army Sgt. Amanda Cutler, a member of the PRT’s civil affairs team and also a women’s affairs liaison, visited with the female students.
Cultural sensitivity prevented Richart, the overall activity manager, from checking the women’s classroom progress, but it allowed Cutler the opportunity to interact with and learn more about the Afghan women.
“The class was an extraordinary site. The women were so happy about being in the class and it was obvious in their eyes and the way they took in the information,” said Cutler.
The women were also excited to talk about the program. When one woman stopped talking, the next woman started, explained Cutler.
“The women are ready and enthusiastic to start teaching others,” she said.
As students graduate from the program, their success is shared through word of mouth, encouraging others to participate.
“At first we had problems getting women to the classes because the families were scared that the women becoming educated might hurt the family,” said Roh Afza, the female student’s trainer.
“Now that the families are seeing the benefits to the class, there are women waiting left and right for the classes. The support from the villages is growing at a rapid rate.”
On her own time, Afza also travels to the village of Tawakh to train a woman who can’t leave the village because her family does not permit her too. Afza says she does this so the women in that village are able to receive the same opportunities the other villages receive.
New Afghan Program Supports Community-based Approach to Security |
American Forces Press Service
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 27, 2009 – More than 240 Wardak province residents became the first to graduate from the new Afghan Public Protection Force program designed to enhance security throughout Afghanistan.
After a rigorous, three-week training program, the graduates proudly accepted their certificates of completion yesterday in front of an audience that included high-level officials from the Afghan government, Wardak province elders, Army Gen. David D. McKiernan, commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, and other distinguished guests.
The Afghan Public Protection Force is an Afghan-led program that is designed to provide enhanced security to designated districts in key provinces, bringing greater stability and strengthened community development, training advisors said.
The ceremony, held at Camp Mether Lam, an Afghan National Police facility in eastern Afghanistan, officially welcomed the men to their new life of community service.
“This is purely an Afghan initiative to develop a bottom-up approach, a community-based approach, to improve security, and to give a voice to the provincial government,” McKiernan said. “We are very optimistic in our support of this program.”
The recruiting process began with nominations by community leaders in Wardak province. Those selected had to meet specific requirements for the duty. Participants must be an Afghan civilian between the ages of 25 and 45, be physically fit, drug-free, without a criminal record, and live in or be from the district in which they are selected to work. Leaders also take into consideration whether or not the participant is trustworthy and respected by the community.
Protection force members will work closely with Afghan National Army, Police and coalition forces to protect their local community. They will maintain security on approaches to highways within their district, protect key government facilities and personnel, disrupt militant attacks and deny insurgent safe havens. Additionally, the force will provide crisis response to natural disasters and facilitate economic development in their district.
Wardak greatly needs the added protection, Abuzer Beheshti, a graduate of the program, said. The 19-year-old said he’s ready to go back and make a difference.
“I want to help my own people,” he explained. “There are a lot of Taliban in Wardak, and they take our young boys and make them join up. We have to make the situation better. We need schools for our children and hospitals; and I want to do what I can.”
McKiernan offered encouragement to the graduating class, noting that the new force can rely on the support of the country’s security assets.
“I applaud the courage of these men to step forward in representing the community; but they know that if they run into problems, they can call the Afghan National Police, Afghan National Army or international forces that are out there. So they’re not on their own.”
U.S. Forces Afghanistan provides logistical funding, complementary community projects, and mentors for the course trainers. Ultimate responsibility for the force rests with the Afghan Ministry of the Interior, McKiernan said.
(From a U.S. Forces Afghanistan news release.) | |
Biographies:
Army Gen. David D. McKiernan
Related Sites:
U.S. Forces Afghanistan Defense Link |
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