Written by U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Bart Lomont
3-19th Agribusiness Development Team
Khowst Province, Afghanistan – Female members of the 3-19th Agribusiness Development Team visited a girls school in Khowst City November 3rd, marking the first visit by International Security Assistance Forces to the school in a year and a half.
The Women’s Outreach Team of the ADT made the trip from Forward Operating Base Salerno to the Khowst girls school.
“Our main goal for the day was to conduct a basic needs assessment for the school,” said U.S. Army National Guard Lt. Col. Pamela Moody, 3-19th ADT WOT’s officer in charge and resident of Indianapolis.
The school’s principal, Hasina Akhmad Ziy, was encouraged to see the female members of the ADT eager to help her schoolchildren.“The passion she feels for these girls was evident with the delight in her eyes,” said Moody as she described how the principal “nearly teared up as some of the female Soldiers worked with the schoolgirls.”
The Khowst girls school provides education to nearly 4,000 young women ages 7 to 18 in the Khowst Province. Because of classroom size limitations and the small number of instructors, the school day is split in half with two separate waves of students coming in the morning and afternoon for basic instruction, said Ziy.
The 3-19th ADT WOT is already at work with plans to return to the school to assist in the areas of knitting, agricultural education and leadership development for these young women.
The 3-19th ADT is made up of Soldiers and Airmen from the Indiana National Guard. These servicemembers are stationed at FOB Salerno for a one-year assignment. This is the third rotation of Indiana Guardsmen to work toward strengthening the Afghan economy through agribusiness development.