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Blackanthem Military News
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Last Updated:
Jan 5, 2009 - 8:24:33 PM |
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Blackanthem Military News
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| First Lt. Stephanie Flowers, 11th Signal Brigade, plays with kids on a swing during a troop scout meeting in southern Baghdad Nov. 22. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michel Sauret) |
CAMP VICTORY, Iraq - The scouting movement in Iraq was revitalized in 2004 by the Green Zone Council, a group of Coalition forces in Baghdad who saw value in having Iraqi children involved with their communities.
Today, service members continue to work with the youth of Iraq on Saturday afternoons at a small community just outside the Victory Base Complex.
"You can look around and, if nothing else, you are doing something good here because you are creating a positive impact for Iraqi families and the children," said Lt. Cmdr. Eric Fretz, who is helping bring the scouting program back to life after almost two decades of neglect in Iraq.
Fretz and other passionate service members decided to start their own Victory Base Council, which brings Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen together with schoolchildren from areas in southern Baghdad. The group began with just a few dedicated volunteers, plus a few other service members who helped out whenever possible.
"We can work together and create this great program for these kids, and then they get all kinds of good life skills out of it," said Fretz, a signal officer with Multi-National Corps - Iraq.
"I was like the lens that focused everybody else's energies, so you know, yeah, the lens is important, but without those thousands beams of light of those other people's energy to focus, I've got nothing," he said.
The council is now nearly 200 members strong with more than 120 volunteers from Victory Base Complex. More than 60 of those members are active on a monthly basis.
"My personal reason (for being involved is) I'm a scout master back home and so I have a small troop back home, and I thought I'd like to get involved and help out with the children here in Iraq," said Sgt. 1st Class Nevin Gordner, 398th Command Sustainment Support Battalion.
"That's where we're going to rebuild Iraq, is with the children. It's with the children where you're going to start," he said.
The service members volunteer their time every Saturday to teach up to 80 children valuable scouting lessons and new sport activities. They organize at least one scout craft, a team-building exercise and rotate between sports, including soccer, football, ultimate Frisbee and even archery.
"They don't really have the same setup as we do in terms of handbooks and whatnot," Fretz said. "We bring in the American knowledge of scouting and how we do things, and we blend that with the Iraqi ideas … So we create sort of a hybrid program."
Iraq had a scouting program up until the 1980s, but the World Organization Scouting Movement decertified the program after they realized Saddam Hussein was using it to train children as paramilitary youths.
For roughly 20 years following decertification, the scouting movement simply didn't exist in Iraq. Now, it's back to the beginning stages of a project; a project that is steadily moving forward. The council members are also working with scouting adults so they may continue the project once Coalition forces withdraw from the country.
"I think my biggest mission for the next eight months is probably to get the Iraqi adults more involved so that they're actually teaching and running the program," said Maj. Cheryl Hanke, a scout pack leader from St. Louis, who will replace Fretz when he redeploys soon.
It took several months of multiple meetings and socializing and trust building with Iraqi leaders and schoolteachers before the council began working. They worked together to find a suitable site for the scouting activities; a junkyard previously filled with tires and scrap metal.
When an Iraqi counterpart told Fretz this place would become their scout camp one day, Fretz originally scoffed. Now, he says he's astounded by everyone's collaboration to make scouting a possibility.
"If you told me that I had to sacrifice five years off my life in order to preserve what we've done here, I would do it in a heartbeat. It's that important to me," Fretz said.
To support this scouting program in southern Baghdad, please visit: www.victorybasecouncil.org
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:
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| Sgt. Shannon LeMaster, 301st Military Intelligence Battalion, pushes a girl on a swing during a troop scout meeting in southern Baghdad Nov. 22. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michel Sauret) |
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| A group of boy scouts salute and sing the Iraqi national anthem during a troop scout meeting in southern Baghdad Nov. 22. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michel Sauret) |
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| Sgt. Shannon LeMaster, 301st Military Intelligence Battalion, helps a young Iraqi girl with her craft during a troop scout meeting in southern Baghdad Nov. 22. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michel Sauret) |
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| Sgt. 1st Class Nevin Gordner, 398th Command Sustainment Support Battalion, teaches boy archery during a troop scout meeting in southern Baghdad Nov. 22. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michel Sauret) |
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| Sgt. Keith Gibson, 3rd Regiment, 142nd Attack Helicopter Battalion, teaches an Iraqi scout archery during a troop scout meeting in southern Baghdad Nov. 22. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michel Sauret) |
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| Staff Sgt. Kelly Greene, a supply sergeant for the 18th Airborne Corps, offers a snack to a girl scout during a troop scout meeting in southern Baghdad Nov. 22. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michel Sauret) |
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| Gunnery Sgt. Kevin Weintraub, a foreign disclosure officer with Multi-National Force - Iraq, points to a boy who was hit "out" during a dodge ball game at a troop scout meeting in southern Baghdad Nov. 22. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michel Sauret) |
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