Blog Posts tagged with "USACE"

EUCOM recently renovated a three story school in the northern mountain village of Kalivac, Albania. The school director, Ms.Ditra Gjoni, was so overwhelmed with joy to cut the ribbon on the $590K renovation, a woman fluent in English and Albanian was left speechless. She attended the school as a girl and has been teaching there for the past 17 years. To see the newly painted exterior, 33 refurbished classrooms, new water well and sewage system left her feeling the words, “Thank you”, were just inadequate but she could find no others.

For the past few years, the American Embassy in Tirana Office of Defense Cooperation has focused on Humanitarian Assistance projects in some of the more remote villages. These projects build partner capacity by helping Albania provide essential services. Kalivac is located in a northern prefecture where 30% of the schools have no access to clean water, indoor plumbing and have broken doors and windows without any means to repair them. The Kalivac School serves a population of 12,000 from three different districts. Previously the school served 250 children, but now many more children are expected to attend this local school because of the vastly improved learning environment. The repairs are valued at over $500,000 and were completed in just over a year by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

I joined Major Kevin Bosch and Mr. Artian Dautaj from the Office of Defense Cooperation as well as Mr. Paul Poletes, the Acting Deputy Chief of Mission for the U.S. Embassy in Albania for the Kalivac School ribbon cutting. What Ms Gjoni struggled to express was evident everywhere on the faces of the children and parents as they combed through their new school for the first time and realized they had new windows, doors and working bathrooms for the first time in many years.

In the future we expect to do more regional projects for Albania and the Balkans by investing in Disaster Preparedness and Telemedicine, but I’m sure the occasional school renovations will remain on our schedule. There really is no better grass roots opportunity for us to reach out and impact the next generation.

For me, it is always an honor to represent EUCOM at events designed to further U.S. priorities such as helping our partner provide sustainable education. However, when you consider Albania’s contribution to ISAF, recent end to conscription and many other great strides in becoming a valued NATO partner, this school renovation becomes our expression of “thank you”.

Lt. Col. Amy McCall
Civic Engagement Branch
ECJ4, Logistics Directorate