CJTF-HOA helps provide education to Pemba Island children

22 July 07
by Maj. Kristi Beckman
CJTF-HOA Public Affairs.

CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti – “Asalaam aleikum,” (may God’s peace be upon you) and “karibu,” (welcome) are common words you will hear on Pemba Island of Zanzibar, Tanzania, in East Africa, which was the site of a primary school dedication by Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa on July 16.

A dedication is an event the coalition of Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa holds when they complete a civil-military project. The dedication symbolizes turning over the completed project to the local community. So far this year, CJTF-HOA has dedicated 22 projects throughout the Horn of Africa.

Through building wells, constructing schools and conducting numerous other Civil-Military Operations, CJTF-HOA is building capacity throughout the Horn of Africa to prevent conflict, promote regional stability and protect coalition interests in order to prevail against extremism.

The construction of this dedication project was the result of a combined effort of the U.S. military, U.S. State Department, United States Agency for International Development, the Government of Tanzania and the Zanzibari Department of Education. The delegation consisted of the U.S. Ambassador to the United Republic of Tanzania, Michael L. Retzer; Zanzibari Minister of Education, Honorable Haroun Ali Suleiman; Country Director for USAID, Pamela White; Director of Strategic Communication for CJTF-HOA, Navy Capt. Robert Wright as well as numerous other U.S. and Tanzanian government officials.

The U.S. military delegation traveled to the island to dedicate the Matale Village Primary School to the people of the village. The village is home to about 3,000 people. A winding dirt road, which runs through the village, intertwines through a lush green jungle of thick palms and banana plants where women are dressed in colorful scarves and children stare at the passersby with big brown, curious eyes as the men wave from the doorsteps of their homes.

As the party pulled up to the school, they were greeted by several hundred children singing and dancing at the top of their lungs. “Leo twashangiria shule ku fungui wa.” Translated, it means, “Today we are celebrating because our school is opening.” The school, built by a local contractor, TRADETECH, Limited, and funded by the U.S. Government, will become a learning center for more than 250 children, ages 7-13. Until now, the children walked between three and five kilometers (one-way) to go to school. This walking distance contributed to a high drop out rate and ultimately a higher illiteracy rate in this rural area.

After cutting the inaugural ribbon and unveiling two new dedication plaques in English and Kiswahili, Minister Suleiman praised the children for their excellent academic marks and called the new Matale Village Primary School the “number one” school in all of Zanzibar. He thanked the U.S. government for working in close partnership with the government of Tanzania on this and other important assistance projects.

The plaques state “Matale Village School is a gift from the people of the United States of America to the people of the United Republic of Tanzania. Dedicated July 2007 by Ambassador Michael L. Retzer.” The $210,000 invested by the U.S. government in building and outfitting Matale Village Primary School are part of a total U.S. government assistance program in Tanzania totaling over $540,000,000 in 2007.

“On behalf of the American people, I wish to congratulate the Matale community, and I would like to encourage the children of Matale to study hard in the classroom,” said Retzer. “Your future will be brighter indeed.”

The party toured the new school, which is one of the only schools on the island with electricity. In the spacious classrooms were long wooden bench desks furnished by USAID. They were designed to fit three children each and the tops of the desks held school supplies of notebooks, coloring books, pens, pencils, glue, calculators and athletic equipment. The school supplies were donated by Mrs. Waldrop’s class at Rhodes Elementary School in Milton, Fla. The relationship between the two schools was established by Chief Petty Officer Shane Peterson, Country Coordination Element Senior Noncommissioned Officer in Charge.

“I explained to my wife what we were doing for the children of Matale village and she decided to contact my children's teachers at Rhodes Elementary and propose a sort of school partnership; not only to help the children and teachers of Matale, but to educate the children at Rhodes about the culture of the Island of Pemba.”

The dedication of the Matale Village School was a significant event for CJTF-HOA and its interagency partners, exemplifying U.S. capacity building efforts in Africa, said Wright. He was overwhelmed by the day’s events. As he spoke to the children, he said, “I have never seen so many beautiful children and so much hope. While we celebrate these beautiful new buildings today, we also celebrate the friendship and partnership between the people of the United States and Tanzania.”

Adding to the comments during the dedication, Minister Suleiman recognized the significance of the contribution to the lives of the children of Matale Village and to the future of education in Tanzania. “Mister Ambassador, you did a good job” said Minister Suleiman, who followed with similar praise for CJTF-HOA’s effort saying “Captain Bob, you and your team did a good job”.

Summing up the dedication, Captain Wright said the Matale School was a huge collaborative success. “The project results exceeded everyone's expectations and will undoubtedly contribute to increased quality of life and opportunity for the children of Pemba,” he said.

Pemba Island is the world's leading clove producer boasting more than three million clove trees. More than 350,000 people inhabit Pemba, also known as “Al Jazeera Al Khadra” (the green island, in Arabic). Pemba forms part of the Zanzibar archipelago, lying off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean.

Photo - U.S. Ambassador Michael Retzer, Director of USAID Pamela White; Zanzibar Minister of Education Honorable Haroun Suleiman, and Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa representative Navy Capt. Bob Wright dedicates a Matale Village Primary School, to the village of Matale, Pemba Island, Tanzania July 16. Photo by MC1(AW/SW) Clinton C. Beaird.

Ice and Fire: Eskimos in Kuwait

16 July 07
By Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
National Guard Bureau News.

CAMP BUERHING, Kuwait - Hot like a giant hairdryer; like standing under a giant magnifying glass; or like turning an oven to 127 degrees, jumping in and closing the door. These are ways Eskimo members of the Alaska National Guard's 3rd Battalion, 297th Infantry Regiment explain the Kuwait heat to family and friends back home.

The hottest weather that many of them experienced before the Alaska Guard's largest deployment since World War II brought them to the desert was 70 degrees, depending on the part of Alaska they're from, since the state has a wide range of temperatures over an area more than twice the size of Texas. Unit members claim the heat has approached 150 degrees in Kuwait during their deployment.

"Big difference for us; horrible," said Pfc. Darin Olanna, 23, from the Alaskan coast near Nome where the record high is 86 and the record low is minus 54. "As soon as I smell the ocean, it feels like home. I miss the mountain tundra. The wilderness is right out your back door."

A wilderness is right out the back door of Camp Buerhing, too – a sparsely populated flat desert. The coldest temperature on record in Kuwait? In January 1964, 21.2 degrees, according to the country's United Nations representatives. No "minus" in front of that number.

Drinking water, increasing food intake, seeking shade and – perhaps counter-intuitively – increased exercise regimens have helped the Alaskans cope with the heat, they say. Some douse themselves in cold water, as they would during peak heat back home.

"To me, it's the same survival techniques as being in the Alaskan winter," said Master Sgt. John Flynn, 40, a Yup'ik Eskimo. The extreme cold presents similar challenges to extreme heat, including dehydration, he said. Blinding sandstorms remind him of blinding snowstorms. "The only difference is when it's cold you put more layers on, but here even when it's hot you cannot take layers off," he said.

Near Nome, a "polar bear swim" is an annual tradition, swimmers diving into the water in May, when there is still ice. "If I could do that now, I wouldn't hesitate," Olanna said.

More than 80 Alaska communities are represented in the 3rd Battalion. "There's people from all over the state," Olanna said. "From Barrow to Dillingham to Nome to Sitka. You've got Athabascan Indian, Yup'ik Eskimo, Haidan Tlingit Indians from southeast. All walks of life."

Their mission in Kuwait, where they arrived in October 2006 and which they expect to leave this fall, includes providing security, including quick reaction forces that can cross the Iraqi border, and performing infrastructure vulnerability assessments.

In their civilian lives, the Eskimos hunt and fish for a smorgasbord of walrus, whales, Canada geese, moose, reindeer, bear, caribou, salmon, white fish, trout and pike. Some are full-time Guardmembers back home or have other jobs such as working in a halfway house counseling petty criminals, but their roots are in a way of life as radically different from most of their colleagues as is the lifestyle of Kuwait's desert nomads.

"The way I grew up, until I joined the Guard, was surviving off the land," Flynn said. "You need a little bit of money, but money will not make you survive where I'm from. The land will. Mammals, geese, wild flowers, berries, that's the way of life I grew up with – hunting and fishing." In Kuwait, rifles are the tools for personal protection. Back home, rifles are the tools for hunting.

"I miss the food from back home," said Spc. Reuben Olanna, 27. Darin Olanna's cousin fantasizes about a filet of salmon cooked within minutes of being caught. Darin Olanna missed corralling his friend's reindeer herd this year. The Olanna cousins are Inupiaq Eskimos from Brevig Mission and Nome.

For some, military service is the only reason they have ever left Alaska – to attend basic combat training in Georgia or South Carolina, pre-mobilization training in New Jersey, professional development in Arkansas. They have never previously deployed outside the state, which was exempt from overseas deployments during the Cold War because Alaska Guardmembers were considered forward deployed against the Soviet Union. "I have uncles that were in World War II and Vietnam," said Sgt. 1st Class Homer Nunooruk, 38. "Relatives that were in the first Gulf War and Afghanistan. It brings a deep pride in me."

Nunooruk, an Inupiaq from Nome, Alaska's northernmost town, said many Eskimos choose the National Guard for the educational opportunities, training and discipline. "A lot of my relatives that I talk to from other communities, they do it so that they have an alternative income and training and education," he said.

For Flynn, the National Guard was a life-changing opportunity. Orphaned at 13, inspired by the camaraderie he witnessed at a military funeral, reminiscent of an Eskimo extended family, the 19-year-old enlisted to turn his life around. Twelve of Nunooruk's relatives deployed with him. Another died in a vehicle accident during their pre-deployment training at Camp Shelby, Miss.

"Every once in a while, I'll pull them aside and we'll talk," he said. "We'll just talk about what's going on back home. Things that we miss. Hunting and fishing. Being outdoors. The biggest consensus is we miss being in the outdoors in Alaska, especially wintertime."

It has been a deployment of firsts – first exposure to such extreme heat, to a sand desert, to overseas travel, to separation from extended families. "Being away from home," Reuben Olanna said. "I can depend on no one else but all these other guys I've been training with."

Nunooruk said the deployment has helped him follow his parents' advice. "They always said 'See what's outside of Nome, '" he said. "When I went to Anchorage, they said, 'See what's outside of Alaska.' One thing they always wanted me to experience was different cultures and lifestyles. I always loved meeting new people and trying new foods."

Nunooruk moved his family to Palmer, where it reaches the 80s, before the deployment. "It's so hot at night, I can't sleep," his wife told him during one call home. "It's 123 degrees here," he replied. "80 is pretty cold here." He wondered if he would feel cold back home on leave.

The Eskimos say extended families are a blessing for a deployment. "I'm getting a lot of support from them, from all my cousins and friends. They've been telling me to hang in here," Reuben Olanna said. "I tell them I am enjoying it."

Unit members say they will miss something about their deployment in Kuwait – but it's not the heat. "Being around all these guys on a daily basis," Darin Olanna said. "It wouldn't be a bad place," Flynn said, "if it wasn't so hot."

Photo- The Alaska National Guard's 3rd Battalion, 297th Infantry Regiment has left its mark at Camp Buerhing, Kuwait. Photo by Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill.

Dhi Qar PRT successes showing through

14 May 2007
Spc. Chris Erickson
U.S. Central Command Public Affairs.

Security authority for Dhi Qar has been under Provincial Iraqi Control for almost six months now, and many successes in the province are starting to show through.

The Iraqis who live in Dhi Qar province are now finding opportunities they never had under Saddam. The Provincial Reconstruction Team, which was set up last year, has been acting as advisers to the Iraqis, helping them determine which steps will best suit them to get Iraq to stand up on its own. To accomplish that goal, the PRT has been working with many different groups in the area, from U.S. and Coalition military to foreign civilian and Iraqi nationals.

Dhi Qar PRT team leader Dr. Anna Prouse, who has been in Iraq since 2003, spoke about what her team was doing to help ensure the Iraqis have a better future.

"'Reconstruction' is sort of [a] misleading word, because I'm not actually here to rebuild," she said. "I'm not here to do the 'brick and mortar' thing. Iraqis can do it, and they probably can do it much better than I. I'm here to build capacity, build this country from the roots, and the roots is the minds, the roots is the education, the health system. Not just put in a clinic, and don't care whether doctors, whether nurses exist, [but] whether they actually know how to maintain a hospital.

"The same thing could be adopted for the education system," she continued. "No one can ever complain or criticize us for building schools. They're not expensive. My point is I build the schools and now I go for the educational system. Now I start checking out 'Do girls go to school? Do girls go to school with boys? And OK, now I gave you the school but now you have to listen to me and have my advisers come in there and advise you on how to have a school running.'"

Richard Riley, the deputy team leader of Dhi Qar PRT, said there were four areas in particular from the President's New Way Forward plan that the PRTs were focusing on to establish capacity within the Iraqis themselves.

"[We need to] bolster the moderates in government of the provinces where we work," he said. "Another is foster reconciliation across the political lines around the province. Develop the economy to the degree that we can by advising the government in economic development. The fourth is to develop the capacity of the government in the province to perform its functions as a government.

"We accomplish those four key objectives in two main programatic ways," Riley continued. "The first is through capacity building programs. The second is with reconstruction programs.

"We are advising the government in drafting their provincial development strategy, which is the comprehensive strategy that will guide this province for the next three years, to decide what are the reconstruction priorities for the government, where should they put their money that they're getting from Baghdad, [and] helping them organize their thoughts around what this program should consist of," he said. "We're also helping to build the capacity to execute their budget. Governments run on budgets, they need the money to get the jobs done, to deliver services to the people of the province. We are helping to build the architecture of their budgeting process, getting them connected with Baghdad, getting them to use the money appropriately."

Riley added that they were also getting a web site built that will connect public administration groups from around the province, to make it easier for those groups to communicate. In addition, there are also a lot of different training programs springing up that will help train Iraqis.

"They do not know how to use computers, let's teach them how to use computers," said Prouse. "They have good engineers, but they do not have good architectural skills. Let's bring in advisers who are architects and teach those engineers how to bring in architectural skills, together with their engineering skills. Doctors are pretty good, but they're not updated. So, how to update doctors? Nurses don't even exist, so we train nurses here on the field."

She explained that, until now, they did a lot of training in Italy. She felt that to really achieve progress, Iraqis had to be trained in Iraq.

"I have a good province, a safe province, still Iraq ... but its' a safer Iraq, so I want Italian experts, American experts to come over here and teach the Iraqis on how to do it. So the first big project we are doing on that, the first capacity building project is we're building a ward, a theater, an operation theater at Camp Ur," she said "They already have a clinic, so we put in a ward, and that's where ... they will go in there and have surgery for two weeks, and have surgeries on facial reconstruction, on Iraqi children," she continued. "Iraqi doctors will assist in the surgeries, learn from those surgeries and then go out there and do the same thing on their patients in Iraqi hospitals."

Prouse spoke about the PRTs main role as advisers.

"The Iraqi government should start seeing us as good advisers, advisers with huge skills," she said. "My team, they have been all over the world. They know what they are talking about. Right now I have two agriculture advisers who are doing an assessment of the entire province."

"It absolutely adds a diversity of ideas," Riley added. "We have a lot of people here with a lot of experience," he said, referring to engineers, architects, water resource managers, and the different specialists who worked with the PRTs to help accomplish their goals.

"The last year, the province only spent 20 percent of its budget. This year they received $140 million," said Prouse. "I'm here to help you decide where best to spend your money, how to set up a budget. Last years budget looked like a high school budget. And it's not because they are incapable. They have never ever done it before. We have done it for centuries, so we know what we're talking about. This starts being accepted in their mentality," she said, referring to how her team now had a very good relationship with the Iraqi authorities and members of the local government.

Prouse said to accomplish her team's goals, they worked closely with the other groups in the area: the U.S., Australian and Romanian militaries. She said for Iraq to succeed in the end, all groups must maintain a joint effort, and that was something which was being achieved, as every group benefited from the experiences of the others.

"We have a different goal, but in the end we both want the same thing," she said. "It's fantastic group work. I haven't seen this anywhere else, it's not all about Coalition, it's about civilians and military just getting along together."

Prouse said it was challenging at first when no one from the provincial government wanted to meet. She said that as time went on, however, the local officials began to trust them and now they were having the Provincial Reconstruction Development Council at least once a week.

"Iraq is small steps, it's relationships," she said. "If the governor does not believe in me, if the chief of police tries to blow me up every time I get out of that gate, then I will never be able to build anything. So the first months were just, work hard and show them that you really have enthusiasm, and that the whole team really believes in this."

Prouse said it was important for PRT members to believe in a better future for Iraq so much that they would be willing to work here for more than half a year.

"Iraqis need one face, they can't have too many people running around them, and they can't have people who come in for six months and then leave," she said. "Because after six months, you don't even understand what's going on here. So six months gives you the idea of what's going on, you start building relationships, and then you leave. And then there's a new face coming in? And that's what I asked my government: not less than one year. I don't want anyone to show up and leave after a few months."

"It takes time to build trust and engagement with the Iraqi provincial governments," Riley said. "There are two things happening at one time. First, they themselves are building up their own capacity to be a government, and do the things they're meant to do under the Iraqi constitution. Second, we as the Coalition are attempting, at the same time they are building up, we are trying to integrate and become trusted advisers in that process.

"You cannot do a reconstruction, you cannot carry forward the president's program in this country, unless you have that level of trust," he added.

Prouse said that the PRT program was good in certain places, but it wasn't something that could work everywhere, for different reasons.

"This is a successful PRT, the team is very good, but there is a combination of factors [that] helps it being a good place to work," said Prouse. "There are other places in the country where it is impossible to get out, if you get out you get killed. PRT is all about interacting with Iraqis, if you don't meet the Iraqis honestly you might as well go home.

"I don't think we should just keep on perceiving it stubbornly in every single province thinking that it is a success story," she said. "Here, my goal, my long term goal, is making it a small success so that private investors come in, the UN comes in.

"I want this to be a place where the UN starts thinking 'lets start putting a couple of our people embedded in the PRT'," she continued. "I asked for a private investment expert, just come here and analyze what companies are around, what SOEs are around, and then I can start calling up companies and saying 'Listen, come over here and look at this company, I will make sure that you get there safely, [and] come back safely'," she said. "People have to start coming out here and seeing Iraq is not the same all over the place, it changes a lot."

"They are getting excited," said Prouse, referring to the Iraqis. "There is a big difference between Baghdad and here. It's hard to ask them to be enthusiastic when the main goal is to stay alive until the end of the day. Asking them to fight for capacity building programs is a little far-fetched," she continued. "When I said that in Baghdad, I could see people rolling their eyes. Here, it clicked. I told them what it was about, and they are an enthusiastic bunch. That makes my life, our life, that much easier to go out there and have an enthusiastic PRDC. Have people who actually want to see us because they believe that we could make the difference together with them."