America's North Shore Journal

Iraqi girls per­form a skit for Iraqi offi­cials and Sol­diers dur­ing a re-opening cer­e­mony at Yas­samin School, Nov. 5. The project was a joint effort between Gov­ern­ment of Iraq offi­cials and U.S. forces. Photo by Sgt. Joshua Risner

Edu­ca­tion is essen­tial for a child grow­ing up in the world today. That is no less true in Iraq, where schools are a build­ing block for a child's future.

Three schools were offi­cially re-opened here, Nov. 5, thanks to Multi-National Divi­sion Bagh­dad Soldiers.

The Shab Female School, Yas­samin School and Monte Tenaybo Schools were in sham­bles before they came to the atten­tion of Army civil affairs Sol­diers, accord­ing to Staff Sgt. Frank Hal­stead, from Brook­lyn, N.Y.

"All three schools had to be com­pletely redone because they were a mess," he said. "They had to be painted and cleaned, the wiring had to be redone and the walls on the out­side needed repair. Basi­cally they were just the shells of buildings."

So Hal­stead and his fel­low civil affairs Sol­diers took up the con­tracts and set to work. They arranged for the repairs to be made and peri­od­i­cally checked the work to make sure things were being done to their specifications.

"We had to make sure they were done up to stan­dard," said Hal­stead. "Finally it all came together and the peo­ple have schools now."

On open­ing day, the stu­dents gath­ered to sing songs and per­form skits for the Sol­diers and offi­cials who came to see the work come to fruition.

"It feels pretty good because today you actu­ally get to see the kids' reac­tions – it's not just a bunch of older peo­ple stand­ing around talk­ing to each other," said Hal­stead. "The kids were happy, they looked like they wanted to be in school, to me that's a good thing."

1^st Lt. Lacey Rec­tor (right), from Willoughby Hills, Ohio, talks with stu­dents and teach­ers at the reopen­ing cer­e­mony for the Shab Female School, Nov. 5. Photo by Sgt. Joshua Risner

For 1^st Lt. Lacey Rec­tor, from Willoughby Hills, Ohio, assigned 1^st Brigade Com­bat Team, 1^st Cav­alry Divi­sion, the girls at Shab Female School were a wel­come sight.

"It's nice to see females because you don't see them very often over here," she said. "It's nice to see that they are being edu­cated as well."

The project is another exam­ple of the con­tin­ued com­mit­ment of U.S. forces to help­ing the Iraqi peo­ple, accord­ing to Halstead.

"We're there to help them not to hurt them," he said. "They know if their chil­dren are being edu­cated then that's going to help them in the long run. They appre­ci­ate it."

With three more schools oper­a­tional in the Bagh­dad area, more chil­dren are get­ting the chance to bet­ter them­selves and their com­mu­ni­ties by get­ting an edu­ca­tion. It is one more thing that U.S. forces are doing to make Iraq a bet­ter place.

Col. Maria Zumwalt (left), a native of Baya­mon, Puerto Rico, chats with stu­dents of the Shab Female School, Nov. 5. Zumwalt is the com­man­der of Brigade Spe­cial Troops Bat­tal­ion, 1^st Brigade Com­bat Team, 1^st Cav­alry Divi­sion. Photo by Sgt. Joshua Risner

DVIDS
Story by Sgt. Joshua Risner