Improving the standards of living of the Afghan people is a priority for the ISAF mission. To this end, the HDF Kabul International Airport Force Protection Contingent (HDF KAIA FPC) recently gave donation to a school in the area of the base, in order to contribute to the security of the civilians and international military coalition forces working at the airport.

The number of people living around the airport is on the rise. At the earlier held Malek-meetings, local community leaders stated that they also gave priority to supporting disadvantaged families and the youth.

Supporting the school of Khawaja Rawash district, which is close to a checkpoint operated by Hungarian soldiers is a priority, since there are some schoolchildren in every family who attend this school, which has 6700 students. Therefore, raising the standards of education may be considered a medium-term investment. The construction of the school building recently stopped for various reasons, so several tents were put up and converted into “classrooms”, but unfortunately the weather conditions – hot sunshine and cold winters – have wrecked them. Thus the children are forced to attend school under very difficult circumstances, in heat and dust.

For this reason, the Malek responsible for the area requested the Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) cell to find a solution to this problem, as even a little shade would be a great help to the schoolchildren. Col. Zoltán Apáti, the commander of the second rotation of the HDF KAIA FPC recently handed over the last one of the 19 tents made available to the school to the leader of the Shura council (a body comprising Maleks) of the areas lying east and south of the airport, the Malek responsible for the district, Dr. Ahmad Zia Amiry and the principal of the school, Abdul Mohammad Shafi, a representative of the teaching staff.

Besides education, the children must be provided opportunity for entertainment and doing sports, so the commander of the contingent handed over the principal of the school a significant amount of the available school equipment, which include some 2000 exercise books, stationery and sport kits.

Lt. Tamás Cs., the chief of the CIMIC cell stressed that “Supporting the youth, the children of school age is a top priority for ISAF and the civil-military cooperation. Through them, we can reach out to their parents and the whole community, which makes it easier for us to influence the perception of the people in favor of the military.

(HDF KAIA FPC-2 PAO)