Girls Facility In Salman Pak Repaired
Soldiers from the 15th Infantry Regiment worked recently to assist the community of Salman Pak, working to fix a school that was nearly destroyed from repeated incidents of fighting. The Girls school of Zarqua Al Yamama has been out of service for a number of months due to its damage, and it has joined the list of several schools rendered useless by the war.
Other schools nearby in Salman Pak have began to be repaired, and the soldiers of 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry were taken to the school by locals to show how badly it was in need of repair.
“This school was in some of the worst condition of any school I have ever seen,” said Captain Matthew Givens. Captain Givens is the civil operations officer for the 1-15th infantry regiment. “We have looked at over 40 schools over the recent months, helping out schools in need of repair, but this school is by far the worst and badly needing help. It is in sad shape cosmetically as well as structurally, it is literally falling apart,” said Captain Givens.
Using funds from the Commanders Relief Emergency program, the leaders of the 1-15 infantry regiment worked behind the scenes to hire a local Iraqi contractor. The contractor has been on the job now for a number of weeks, and is one that has been employed by the battalion on other reconstruction efforts. The damage is so great and the need for repairs so high that the cost of this one school rebuilding alone will be close to $220,000 dollars. “They are about three quarters of the way done on the ground floor, but there is still a large amount of work to be done,” said Captain Givens.
“The headmaster of the girls school is thrilled with our progress, and very thankful to have her school selected for repair,” said Captain Givens.