Update: Sad to report the following

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two airmen who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died May 26 near Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device.

Killed were:

Lt. Col. Mark E. Stratton II, 39, of Houston. He was assigned to the Joint Staff, Pentagon, Washington, D.C.

Senior Airman Ashton L. M. Goodman, 21, of Indianapolis. She was assigned to the 43rd Logistics Readiness Squadron, Pope Air Force Base, N.C.

God bless them and their families.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Mark Stratton, Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team commander, talks to villagers, March 4, about a Micro hydro pump provided by the Panjshir in Afghanistan. The micro hydro uses water to create power for the village. Photo by Staff Sgt. James L. Harper Jr.

For more than eight years, the government of Afghanistan has been building from the ground up, using millions of dollars in aid from foreign governments and private organizations. These funds impact both the central government in Kabul and the country’s 34 provinces.

Due to the unique relationships the men and women of the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team have with the people of the Panjshir province and the region’s local government, progress is not measured merely in dollar signs and projects completed – they are using these capabilities to teach the Panjshir people the ability to take care of themselves.

The PRT’s commander breaks his organization’s mission into three different areas to accomplish this, each reliant upon the other: development of roads allowing access to some of the more isolated villages in the province, ensuring the work within the Panjshir Valley is a ‘home-grown effort’ and creating conditions that make investment in the area sustainable.

“The people here want and need development,” said Lt. Col. Mark Stratton. “We really work with the local provincial government to help build these opportunities that will lead to private re-investment. One way we’re doing this is by paving the road to Badakshan and planning for the ‘rib roads,’ which will connect the people to the rich natural resource supply [that exists in the province].”

U.S. Army Sgt. Ramon Guzman, Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team Civil Affairs, walks past villagers during a site visit in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley March 5, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Photo by Staff Sgt. James L. Harper Jr.

In addition to developing plans to connect some of the more isolated areas within Panjshir with the ‘rib roads,’ the team also is working to increase production and efficiency in what the Panjshir people know and do best – agriculture.

As the majority of the province is dependent on agriculture, with some 95 percent of economy dedicated, the PRT works significantly within that area with the Panjshir government as well as in-house representatives from U.S. AID, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Luckily for the group, the Panjshir is recognized as a ‘model’ province, “with effective and legitimate governance capable of providing essential services to the people,” Stratton said.

As a result of the area’s significant security, the government and the PRT are free to work unhindered from threats that impact reconstruction work within other provinces.

“We work within the local government to teach self-sufficiency, as we are not going to be here forever,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steve Lancaster, chief of the Panjshir PRT’s Civil Affairs section.

One part of that effort is the team’s work with a local non-profit organization, the Massoud foundation, to donate $25,000 in micro-loans to the people of the Panjshir valley at $500 per family with zero interest.

“This will allow a person to buy a cow, start a business, whatever they want to do to take care of their families,” said Lancaster.

The program is managed with the Panjshir Valley’s Massoud group, which has an office in every province in Afghanistan and is named after one of the nation’s most celebrated heroes, who coincidentally is from the Panjshir region.

A Mujahadeen guard walks with U.S. military members of the Afghanistan Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team during a site visit March 5, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Photo by Staff Sgt. James L. Harper Jr.

“This is all about putting money in the hands of the people,” said Sadiqi, the Panjshir Valley Massoud foundation director. “It’s really a small investment that people can use to start their own businesses – there is no set payment plan, but after six months, they should be able to bring back the $500, we don’t charge them interest and we’ll loan the money back out to the next applicant.”

Other projects to enhance the region’s economic future include the development of chicken-raising programs, which allows women to receive 12 chickens to produce eggs that they will then be able to sell to their neighbors. Lancaster is also working with local officials and his U.S. Department of Agriculture counterpart to develop a series of crop projects that use dynamic growing techniques such as row cropping and drip irrigation to improve the survivability and validity of various fruit trees and wheat fields that can then be transplanted around the province to provide more crops, and thus, more income.

“The governor [Haji Bahlol]‘s main focus for this year was agriculture,” Lancaster said. “We are hoping that we will be able to teach them to grow enough crops to not only sell to neighboring countries for money, but also be able to keep some of what they grow for their own uses.”

For U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Kelly, who serves on Lancaster’s Civil Affairs team and is deployed from Riverside, Calif., the opportunity to take part in these unique projects has been a great experience.

“It is very fulfilling to me to help people in their time of need and during emergencies,” said Sgt. Kelly, who also serves as a humanitarian aid requisition, distribution and storage NCO. “Agriculture is a priority of what we do here and it’s been an extremely unique experience working here when you look at some of the other things I have done in the Army.”

“Saving lives is a part of what we do.”

DVIDS
Story by Staff Sgt. Zachary Wilson

One hundred fifty bee boxes were delivered to Bazarak District Sept. 17 as part of an overall $180,000 province-wide project conducted by the local government and the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team to help both the local economy and boost agricultural production.

Seventy-five families in each of the six lower districts throughout Panjshir will receive two of the $200 bee boxes, training, a centrifuge and protective equipment. Bazarak is the fourth district to receive the bees.

“We worked together and were successful in bringing the bee project to Panjshir,” said Hashmat-Ullah Enyat, the Provincial Director of Agriculture. “We’ve already delivered the bees to Anaba, Rokha, and Shotul districts, today we do Bazarak and we’ll do the last two districts soon.”

“In agriculture, the bees are most necessary. They help all of the agriculture grow faster,” said Mir Weis, the beekeeper overseeing the distribution of the bees. “The bees are the main ingredient in the pollination process and they are always good to have around the crops. Successful and plentiful pollination is crucial to getting a good strong crop.”

Mr. Gregory Schlenz, a U.S. Department of Agriculture representative with the Panjshir PRT, said he agrees with Weis and has been working hand-in-hand with the PRT’s civil affairs team and the province’s director of agriculture to get the bees into the province.

“In my travels I have not seen many native bees in Panjshir. Just today I was standing in a field of clover that should have been abuzz with bees—yet there were none, and that’s not good,” said Schlenz. “These bees will provide better pollination for all of the crops in Panjshir to include the vegetables and the numerous fruit orchards that the Panjshir Province is famous for.”

The main requirement was that the boxes went to the neediest people in each district, said Enyat.

“Many of the provincial line directors and district governors worked together to make a list of the 75 most needy families in each district capable of maintaining the bees,” he said

“We hope that these families were trained well, and hopefully this project will encourage them to do more for themselves and also for the growth of the economy,” said Ihnsaanullah, the head of Panjshir’s Provincial Council

Each colony is expected to produce approximately 10 kg. of honey after the first year. This means that Bazarak District could possibly see 1,500 kilos of honey once they start to produce.

During the first year there will be no product because the bees are still building their colony, said Schlenz.

“In the second year the beekeeping families will start to get the benefit of the extra honey to either eat or sell,” he said. “and that’s when the economic impact of the bees will start to be seen.”

The average price of a kilogram of honey in Panjshiri shops runs anywhere from 10 to 15 dollars. This means that there is the possibility of bringing anywhere from $15,000 to $22,000 per year into a district’s economy once the hives start to produce.

“This is just the beginning of a profitable new industry in Panjshir that will have an immediate impact on the families … and [have] a continuous tangible impact on the local economy,” said Capt. Jayson Stewart, Panjshir PRT’s director of operations who represented the PRT at the event.

The continuous tangible impact is what government officials are hoping for.

Four hundred and fifty families throughout the province will receive the 900 bee boxes. But the director of agriculture hopes that the benefit will not end with those 450.

“Once these families have worked with the bees for a year, they will be able to teach others how to work with them as well,” said Enyat. “This a great success story for both the agriculture sector and the economy in Panjshir.”

CJTF-101
Written by Air Force Capt. Jillian Torango