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Improving basic living conditions one school and generator at a time

Jul-29-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

by Spc. Gretel Sharpee

MOSUL, Iraq- Among the mountains and valleys in northern Iraq lays numerous small villages that do without some of the basic comforts of life, such as electricity and access to primary schools. However that thanks to Army Civil Affairs teams, quality of life improvement projects are being initiated with funds from multinational forces and the former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).

1st Lt. Tim Hilfiger, 416th Civil Affairs Team (CAT) leader, and team member Spc. Adam Mednick, visited most of the 18 villages that are scheduled within the next two months to receive generators funded by the former CPA for the amount of $254,000. Some of the villages are also in the process of building schools funded by multinational forces.

“Schools and electricity are just basic things that are going to change this country,” said Hilfiger.

Most of the villages are still in the planning or early construction phases of projects, but all leaders know exactly where they plan to put their new generator.

The mayors of the districts identified the villages when Hilfiger and his team met with them earlier in the year.

“When you sit down and build a face-to-face relationship with the leaders you work with and let them tell you what they need and let them go through the process of identifying what their people need, which is when real progress is made,” said Hilfiger, from Middletown, Pa.

The generators vary from 25 to 250 kilowatts and will be distributed over the next few weeks by the 133rd Engineer Battalion from Belfast, Maine.

“As a Muktar, I try to serve the people in my village by telling the mayor and soldiers what my people need,” said Kasim Sa-Eed, Muktar in the village Sarkere in northern Iraq. “This school and this generator will improve the daily lives of everyone in my village.”

At each village, Muktars and other village leaders greet Hilfiger, Mednick and their translator like old friends, offering drinks and food for the traveling soldiers. By the end of the day, this Civil Affairs Team has visited six of the 18 villages that will receive generators or school projects and has made relations that are invaluable to the progress of Iraq as free and democratic country.

(via DVIDS)


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