At barely 39 degrees Fahrenheit outside, the two women of Female Engagement Team 6 warmed their red, sniffling noses by drinking hot chocolate out of canteen cups. It was early morning and they had little sleep from the cold night before. The Marines began dressing in their body armor, preparing for their upcoming day of work.

Sergeants Jessica Lugo and Autumn Sekely were getting ready to go out in support of Marines with Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, and the Afghan National Civil Order Police during a recent security patrol through their area of Sangin district, Helmand province.

Sergeants Jessica Lugo -left- and Autumn Sekely -right-, of Female Engagement Team 6, walk into a village leader’s compound in Sangin district, Helmand province. Sekely, of Pittsburgh, and Lugo, of San Pedro, Calif., are assigned to support 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, by engaging with the local women and children, building trust and rapport between local residents and the Afghan National Security Forces and coalition forces. Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Katherine Keleher

The purpose of the day was to familiarize Marines new to the unit with the area, while also giving Lugo and Sekely the opportunity to interact with local women and children.
While supporting the infantry Marines with 2nd Marine Division (Forward), FET socialized with local children passing by, handing out candy and pencils while sharing smiling faces through the language barrier.

“Establishing a good relationship with the children and their families is very important, and it’s one of our primary tasks here,” said Sekely, a reservist from Pittsburgh. “It helps build trust and rapport. They really appreciate that the Marines make an effort to respect their culture by having FET out here.”
When wrapping up the introduction of the area to the new Marines, 1st Squad made a pit stop at one of the village leader’s compounds while on its way back to the patrol base.

The village leader opened the doors to his home with open arms, allowing FET inside to talk with his wife and children.

“The women, they stay in the compounds while the men are in the bazaars and farming fields working,” explained Lugo, also a reservist who is from San Pedro, Calif. “They hear a lot of things from the people who come in and out of their compounds. So when we get there, these women are just aching to talk. They’re just like we are, and they want their voices to be heard.”

Sergeants Jessica Lugo and Autumn Sekely, of Female Engagement Team 6, walk into a village leader’s compound in Sangin district, Helmand province. Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Katherine Keleher

During their visit with the village leader and his family, the Marines and Afghans used an interpreter to discuss the possibility of building a water well in the village, as well as raising money to build a mosque.

“Things like this take a lot of money and time,” Lugo, the FET 6 team leader, told them.

While carrying on the conversation with the adults, Lugo and Sekley played with the children, giving them crayons and paper, showing them how to color.

“We have the capability of talking to one-hundred percent of the population,” Lugo, a military policewoman by trade, explained. “It’s not only engaging the women of Afghanistan for us, it’s engaging with everyone. Like today, the village leader talked to us. You would think in (this culture) the men wouldn’t want to talk to us, but they do. They’re kind of intrigued by having women in military clothing around.

“The (local residents) are very intrigued by us. They see us, the color of our skin, the color of our eyes, us carrying a rifle walking alongside the males. They see that we’re equal,” Lugo added.

Working side-by-side, FET and 3/7 have until spring to continue working together, winning over hearts and minds and helping the Afghan people toward a brighter tomorrow.

By Cpl. Katherine Keleher
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Female Engagement Team 13 member Lance Cpl. Jacqueline Veres smiles as she gives a backpack full of school supplies to an Afghan girl at the closing of the Sangin Youth Outreach Shura at Forward Operating Base Jackson, Aug 17. With a literacy rate of seven percent in Sangin, District Governor Mohammad Sherrif has recognized the need for education here. Through his outreach shuras to the community he impresses on the people the need for the children of Sangin to become educated so one day they will be able to assume leadership roles within the up and coming Sangin government. Sherrif realizes and tells the people “children are the future of Sangin.” Veres is from Canton, Ga.

More than 85 children from around Sangin attended the Sangin Youth Outreach Shura held by Female Engagement Teams assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, at Forward Operating Base Jackson, Aug. 17.

“It is important to work with the youth of Sangin because just like the kids in the U.S., they want to grow up to be something,” said Sgt. Juanita Towns, the FET 13 team leader. “So it is just best that we try to start them off on the right path at a young age vice letting them join the (insurgency) now.”

When on patrol with the battalion’s infantry squads the team members spread the word about the youth shuras and have recently had Afghan Uniformed Police officers help them in their endeavor to reach out to the children of Sangin.

The children, ages 1-14, were split into three groups in which they participated in age-appropriate informative stations and activities. This enabled the FETs to reach out to each age group more effectively, and is modeled after the cultural breakdown the children often gravitate towards on their own.

“It’s the first activity in Sangin for the kids, focused on the kids,” said FET member Lance Cpl. Jacqueline Veres. “So we are just trying to get them to see that we are here to help them, they can come to us and they can trust us.”

“The first one we had was a hygiene shura. The shura that we just had was a healthcare, education and activities shura,” said Towns, a Richmond, Va., native. “They played soccer, they did their time tables and the smaller kids just played with educational toys.”

With a literacy rate of seven percent in Sangin, District Governor Mohammad Sherrif has recognized the need for education here. Through his outreach shuras to the community he impresses on the people the need for the children of Sangin to become educated so one day they will be able to assume leadership roles within the up and coming Sangin government. Sherrif realizes and tells the people “children are the future of Sangin.”

“Children are the innocent ones in most cases,” said Towns, a parent herself. “If they are not educated there is just a repetitive cycle of insurgency and drugs. If you educate them when they are small there is an opportunity for them to be better than that and do positive things.”

Until last year, these children had not been afforded opportunities to break the trend and reach new levels. However teaching children how to do this is a challenging task since they lack the focus levels of adults. So the team had to mix things up to captivate their young audience and keep them interested in the shura.

“We know that they have a short attention span and if we talk to them for an hour like we do with the women then we are not going to get anything accomplished,” explained Towns. “If we have different activities and different things for them to do, they are going to participate, we are going to hold their attention longer and they are going to come back.”

Sometimes when the children do come back to the gates of the base they are looking for free hand outs and naturally are not interested in discussion of long term solutions. Other times the children show up wanting just to spend time with the teams. This requires the engagement teams to improvise and make the best of each situation.

“Even in between shuras we go to the gate and have 20 to 30 kids wanting to just come and talk to us,” said Veres a Canton, Ga., native. “We don’t really have anything planned sometimes, but we will just sit down and hold a mini-shura.”

The youth shuras in Sangin will continue to further expand their horizons to a new way of life that breaks the trend that plagues the region. In short, the activities give the youth something better, which is important to developing and educating the next generation of citizens and leaders in Sangin.

Youth shuras take place in several locations across Helmand province including the districts of Musa Qal’eh, Now Zad, Garmsir and Marjah.

“I think as soon as we stop having youth shuras we will see more insurgent activity, because we have actually given them something to look forward to every two weeks,” said Towns. “If they didn’t have that outreach on life then they would just do something bad that we are not ready to take the fall for.”

First Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, is currently assigned to Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division (Forward), which heads Task Force Leatherneck. The task force serves as the ground combat element of Regional Command (Southwest) and works in partnership with the Afghan National Security Forces and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to conduct counterinsurgency operations. The unit is dedicated to securing the Afghan people, defeating insurgent forces, and enabling ANSF assumption of security responsibilities within its area of operations in order to support the expansion of stability, development and legitimate governance.

Story by Cpl. Benjamin Crilly
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Spc. Christina Alvarado and Sgt. Shanequa Cardona, members of the Female Engagement Team with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, talk to some local women with the help of their interpreter Hayda Azizi, in Subdistrict 6, Aug. 4. “The women have a lot of concerns about their children’s education and medical needs,” Alvarado said.

The Female Engagement Team with 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, is enhancing the ability to gain intelligence from an untapped resource: Afghan women.

“Our mission is to go where the men can’t,” said Sgt. Shanequa Cardona, a team leader with the FET of 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment. “Because of their customs, it is seen as inappropriate for women to talk with men who live outside their home.”

“Without the FET we would have no way to engage the female populace,” said Capt. John Intile, the commander of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment. “In some cases we get different perspectives and points of view on things.”

Spc. Christina Alvarado, a Female Engagement Team member with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, passes out pencils to local children in Diwatiano, Aug. 5.

“The women have a lot of concerns about their children’s education and medical needs,” said Spc. Christina Alvarado, a FET member with 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment

Not only do the Afghan women have different points of view on things but sometimes they are more willing to talk.

“The men are targets of intimidation tactics; the women might talk because they don’t have those pressures,” Intile said.

The job isn’t as easy as just going in to talk to the women. An Afghan Uniformed Police officer will go in and secure the premises, then tell the women to all go into one room and if there are men in the home the AUP will question them.

“The men don’t want the females to talk to us,” Alvarado said, “sometimes they will hover around and try to take over the conversation and that can be frustrating.”

Sallamjn, an officer with Police Sub Station 15, Hayda Azizi, an interpreter and Sgt. Shanequa Cardona, a Female Engagement Team member with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, wait at the door of a family in Subdistrict 6, Aug 4. The Afghan Uniformed Police always go into the homes first to secure a location so that the FET may be able to enter and talk with the women of the house.

“It’s challenging to try to get the women to feel comfortable with us and trust us enough to give us good information,” Cardona said.

It’s important to gain a good rapport with the women because they are more likely to confide real information instead of the bland answer that everything is fine within the community, said Hayda Azizi, an interpreter who works with the FET.

“I try and show them that I’m a wife and mother, just like them,” Cardona said. “I carry a family photo that I pass around for them to see.”

“Our interpreter plays a huge role; we would be useless without her,” Alvarado said. “She really knows how to get in and talk to the women and make them feel more comfortable.”

Even with some difficulties, the FETs have proven their effectiveness.

“We have seen great success when we use FETs; they are like any other enabler, you just have to realize how to utilize them properly,” Intile said.

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Photos and Story by Sgt. Ruth Pagan

GARMSIR DISTRICT, Helmand Province, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan — Sgt. Kimberly Nalepka, a Coral Springs, Fla., native, speaks to a teacher about the day’s lesson plan at a local school April 30. Nalepka is the team leader of the Female Engagement Team in Garmsir, where 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment operates. Nalepka and her team regularly visit medical clinics and schools on the area. The FET’s purpose is to interact with the female population in the local community and help identify the needs of the women in the area. The FET supports Regimental Combat Team 1, 2nd Marine Division (Forward), which is heading the ground combat element in Helmand province. Photo by Cpl. Colby Brown

She has long brown hair, but it’s coiled into a tight bun. Her glare burns through tactical sunglasses but somehow doesn’t betray the femininity in her mahogany colored eyes. Her M-4 rifle is slung loosely over her shoulder, and an M-9 pistol hangs from her hip.

Sergeant Kimberly Nalepka and the rest of her Female Engagement Team squad play an integral role in counterinsurgency operations here.

Nalepka, a Coral Springs, Fla., native, is a squad leader with the FET in Garmsir, the district where 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, operates.

“I have a passion for what I am doing,” Nalepka said. “We’re here to help the people, and it’s exciting because being able to have a deeper impact on the Marine Corps’ mission is something I have always wanted to do. Interacting with the people is an amazing opportunity, and being able to see the smiles on their faces makes everything worthwhile, because a smile is universal no matter what language you speak.”

In some of the local communities, a woman can’t interact with men outside her family. This is where Nalepka and her squad come into the equation.

“We’re here to build up the local community and improve the people’s trust in the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,” the 28-year-old sergeant said. “The Female Engagement Team is able to reach the part of the population that male Marines (can’t). In order to build a community, you have to build both the male and female side.”

Throughout Afghanistan, FET squads like this assist infantry battalions by supporting the counterinsurgency mission, but this is the first time 1/3 has worked with a FET.

The advantage of reaching out to Middle Eastern women was first realized in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In 2009, the first team was established with 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, during their deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Now, the FET is a necessary asset to every Marine battalion.

“It makes me (proud) as a female and a Marine to be able to work alongside an infantry battalion,” Nalepka said. “I think it is great women are being employed in this kind of role in Afghanistan, and [it] gives me a positive feeling about how far a female’s role has come in the U.S. military and the Marine Corps.”

Each FET member volunteered for the duty and received the same pre-deployment training as the 1/3 infantrymen. They received Pashtu language and cultural training so they can be confident when interacting with the Afghan people.

When Lance Cpl. Victoria Rogers patrolled to a local school with her team leader, Cpl. Julie Buskirk, April 26, children stopped in the middle of the street and whispered to each other, and the men glanced blankly at the team. The children’s curiosity soon took control and they swarmed the team, asking about their gear or for a piece of candy.

For some of the local residents, this was the first time interacting with a woman from the United States. For others, it was the first time seeing a woman of different ethnic descent.

Rogers, a native of Splendora, Texas, said these engagements motivate her.

“Getting to know the local residents and gaining their trust helps the battalion with their mission,” Rogers said, “because (we find more friends) to tell us when to be more watchful in an area if they know something bad might happen. It’s a once- in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a part of the Female Engagement Team.”

Although their primary mission is to engage females in Garmsir, the FET finds many other ways to help the local people. Currently in Garmsir, the squad regularly visits medical clinics and schools. These visits help the FET gain acceptance from the local community, which increases the likelihood of meeting more women.

The cultural difference is a challenge, said Rogers, but being able to help the Afghans is rewarding.

“The mission is going smoother in Afghanistan, and maybe employing females is the key,” the 22-year-old lance corporal said. “It’s obviously a combination of learning from our experience in Iraq and applying new ideas, but having the Female Engagement Team provides a different perspective of what can be done to help the local people of Afghanistan.”

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Story by Cpl. Colby Brown

Lance Cpl. Kathryn Mannion speaks to an Afghan woman while assigned to the Female Engagement team with Regimental Combat Team 7 in Marjah, Afghanistan, July 7, 2010. Mannion, originally a military policeman, volunteered to participate in the Marine Corps' newest program, designed to engage with Afghan women. Mannion, 24, is from Coatesville, Pa. Photo by Cpl. Megan Sindelar

Marines with the Regional Command Southwest Female Engagement Team conducted reset training here Jan 11-12.

The Marines are required to return to Camp Leatherneck every 45 days to conduct reset training to give them a break from their respective units and share lessons learned before returning to their assigned districts.

Lance Cpl. Kathryn Mannion takes down information while assigned to the female engagement team with Regimental Combat Team 7 in Marjah, Afghanistan, July 7, 2010. Mannion, originally a military policeman, volunteered to participate in the Marine Corps' newest program, designed to engage with Afghan women. Photo by Cpl. Megan Sindelar

“During this reset, we wanted to focus on some of the projects they have been doing,” said Master Sgt. Cherelle L. Peters-Williams, from Ithica, N.Y., and FET staff noncommissioned officer in charge.

Peters-Williams added that because the Marines are getting close to returning home, they are receiving finance and operational security classes.

Sgt. Meredith N. Burns from West Pitteston, Pa., FET squad leader, took part in what is called a “District Deep-Dive.” The forum explains in-depth information in each district the Marines represent.

“We just found out that our district used to have women’s shuras, and we had thought that we just had the first one,” said Burns. “The District Deep-Dive is very helpful because it gives us an insight to why my district is the way it is.”

Not only is the reset training good for exchanging information, it’s also a morale booster because the FET members do not get to see each other very often.

“They have the opportunity to talk about lessons learned, what they saw and what they could have done better,” said Peters-Williams. “This gives them a chance to bounce ideas off one another.”

Peters-Williams said the FET Marines’ mission is to talk to the female population and see what their needs are. If it wasn’t for the FET, the command would not really see the whole picture. They give local women a voice and impress upon them they can be leaders in their communities.

“The FET Marines are doing a great job; we continue to be proud of everything that they are doing,” she said.

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Story by Cpl. Megan Sindelar