View Gallery

Gallery contains 2 images

×

Photo 1 of 2

Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa Image

A student and her mother work on lessons together outside a school in Dikhil, Djibouti, Sept. 27, 2016. A new schoolhouse addition is scheduled to open later this year that will provide additional classrooms to accommodate a growing Dikhil population and local nomadic tribes that also send their children to Dikhil schools. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Benjamin Raughton)

Download image

Photo by: Staff Sgt. Benjamin Raughton 

Photo 2 of 2

Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa Image

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Sean Boyle, 411th Civil Affairs Battalion, center, speaks to village elders in Dikhil, Djibouti, Sept. 27, 2016. Boyle met with the village elders to learn about the Dikhil community, the challenges they face, and how U.S. forces can help build closer relationships with the Djiboutians living throughout the country. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Benjamin Raughton)

Download image

Photo by: Staff Sgt. Benjamin Raughton 

A team from the 403rd and 411th Civil Affairs Battalions, assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, traveled to Dikhil, Djibouti, and met with village elders and community members Sept. 27, 2016, to learn about the education and general welfare of an existing school system in the village.

During their visit, the CA BN team gauged the community’s response to a new schoolhouse being built as part of a humanitarian assistance project.

“We go out there and try to gather general information about the village to determine what projects are needed, how they’re progressing, and whether or not those projects are meeting their desired effects and intent,” said U.S. Army Capt. Cory Meyers, team chief assigned to the 403rd CA BN. “Our mission is to establish a relationship with the population of not just Dikhil, but Djibouti at large.”

Meyers said a major benefit of having an additional schoolhouse is more classrooms. This provides additional space for the nomadic population to educate their children.

“We have a lot of children, and every year they increase,” said Yasin Koumeneh, a Dhikil village elder with five children, two of whom are students. “For this area, it’s normal for [children] to come to school from three or four kilometers early in the morning.”

Facilitating education and literacy in Djibouti will promote an atmosphere of more skilled and prepared students, creating better opportunities for jobs upon graduation, Meyers said.

Dikhil’s current school buildings can hold around 450 children a day, and Koumeneh hopes the new facility will provide education for 300 more students. Dikhil schools are more than 30 years old, and many students attend classes in the same buildings their parents once did, Koumeneh said.

“I hope this gives the new generation a new chance,” he said. “They have a chance to get a new [building], and I hope our children will feel it’s a good thing, too.”