FORWARD OPERATING BASE PASAB, Afghanistan - Even on the other side of the world, the Kentucky National Guard is helping people. In the case of the Arghandab District in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar Province, Kentucky's Agribusiness Development Team 4 is helping empower local leaders to provide sustainable agriculture and business teaching to the area's residents.
ADT 4's mission is the first of its type to teach agriculture and business development in the Kandahar Province of southern Afghanistan.
"If we can make a small difference, it's still going to make a huge impact here," said Army Chief Warrant Officer Scott Goode, the Arghandab District team leader, after returning from a preliminary visit with local Arghandab officials March 25-29.
"The primary focus of the initial meetings…was to make sure that … the [Director of Agriculture, Livestock, and Irrigation] understands that we're transitioning now to help him be a better government official," Goode said.
"Having [Afghan government officials] prepared for us to leave, making sure that whatever we do is sustainable by them is probably the key to everything that we do here," Goode said. "So if it has to be small and sustainable, it's better than huge and unsustainable."
"It was very successful," said Army Sgt. 1st Class Crystal Dunn of the initial meeting. Dunn is a project manager for the Arghandab District's team and a member of ADT 4.
"We were able to somewhat outline their priorities to projects that may need to be assessed first, second, third, fourth, and so forth," she said.
"Every meeting we go into brings us more opportunity for projects and more opportunity for education," said Army 1st Lt. Wesley Newton, a liaison officer for the Arghandab District's team, coordinating between ADT 4, other military units, and various nongovernmental organizations, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development.
"Our biggest goal here is that when we leave, to be able to get the Afghans, the DAIL, the local government, and all the people that we work with to be able [to] sustain those projects," Newton said. "That way, when we leave, our job's done."
"That is something that we do take seriously," Dunn said. "We want to make sure that when we leave and they don't have the U.S. to support them, that they are able to maintain it themselves. We're headed in the right direction."
According to Dunn, approximately 70 percent of the Arghandab District's population relies on agriculture as a means of survival.
Being the first extended visit to the Arghandab district, ADT 4's advisors each offered different insight into their first impressions.
"Meeting the people face-to-face was tremendous, because putting a face with a name and having that rapport on the initial visit is, as we go and visit more, it's going to be more of a comfortable atmosphere," Dunn said.
"You kind of see their passion and how much they need our help," Newton remembered.
"The language barrier was the only problem we really had," he said. "It wasn't that bad, but there were some cases where we weren't quite sure what they were trying to say to us [and vice versa]."
"I think that we were successful in getting the message out to the staff and the DAIL himself that we're not here to just pour money into stuff and leave," Goode said. "It's more of an educate, train and do small projects that are demonstration level projects so they can learn the techniques…maybe even eventually set up a small education and training center."
"Here, I'm starting to meet people and understand that there are people out there that need our help and genuinely want our help," he said. "And I'm starting to understand their culture is pretty friendly.
"I really believe that our leadership here is trying...to make sure that when we do something here, we do it right."