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Last year, the Afghan government and religious officials
approached Coalition Forces about building a religious education school.
The project got a green light, and a year later,
a Provincial Reconstruction Team and the US Army Corps of Engineers
are on the verge of completing the facility.
Hank Heusinkveld reports.
[Heusinkveld] These young boys are two
of about 500 other boys who will live and receive an education here
once the school is completed.
Workers are putting the finishing touches on various rooms that will house and feed them,
and US Army Corps of Engineers officials and Provincial Reconstruction Team members
check for quality assurance to ensure that it's built to standard.
The goal of the school is simple:
Parents don't want their sons shipped off to Pakistan
with the chance of them being educated by potential radicals.
That's their fear.
Many families want their young men
to have good, proper Islamic education,
and this is from--in Western terms--K through 12.
But they have no say and no control over what's in Pakistan.
Here they know their government will regulate the curricula
and monitor their boys while they're gone from home.
[Heusinkveld] The school is just one of dozens of projects
that Provincial Reconstruction Teams work on to help stabilize the Afghan government.
The PRTs mentor the government through provincial councils and district development
to learn how to properly prioritize budgets
and to learn how to rebuild their own country.
The US Army Corps of Engineers embeds a few of its members on a PRT
to help coordinate construction efforts.
Schools are a huge piece of what the PRTs do.
They're out there making sure
that children that used to go to school
underneath a tree have a building where they can go and learn.
[Heusinkveld] When the school is completed, it will signal a new beginning
for the slow process of rebuilding Afghanistan.
Future leaders might be groomed at the school,
and there's reassurance that the country is on the right path for stability.
The 8-year-old boy--it may be 10 years before he graduates
and becomes a part of their government or their citizenry--a voting citizen here--
but the people that he influences just by being able to attend that school
is a lot larger than the population of the school.
Hank Heusinkveld, Metherlam, Afghanistan.