Donation provides fun for Djibouti boy's orphanage

  • Published
  • By Maj. Kristi Beckman
  • Combined JTF - Horn of Africa Public Affairs
CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti (AFPN) --  Country desk officers don't normally get away from their desks to assist with the humanitarian aid work that occurs on a daily basis at Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa. Sept. 13 was a unique day for a couple of them as they spent some time kicking donated soccer balls around with children from a local boy's orphanage.

Maj. Bryan Dunn is the CDO for Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia. Capt. Andy McQuade is CDO for Kenya and Uganda. 

They are responsible for keeping the joint task force informed on the political, economic, military and social issues involving those countries. They also plan, normally from their desks, the strategic and operational levels of civil military operations and military-to-military training the task force performs. 

However, Sept. 13 proved to be a different mission for the CDOs, as they got out to boy's orphanage to drop off more than 40 soccer balls.

"I love the fact that I was able to put a smile on the children's faces," said Major Dunn. "Something so simple, like donated soccer balls, something that Americans take for granted, was an amazing experience for me. We played with the children for a couple hours and they really have got some great skills."

The soccer balls came from many different places throughout the United States.

"This whole process started when I was asked by my family what I wanted for my birthday in June," said Major Dunn. "I told them I had everything I needed, but knew there were people here in Africa who really needed their hearts and spirits uplifted, so I asked them to send me soccer balls to hand out within Djibouti and throughout our area of operations. When word spread around in Colorado of what I was doing, more and more people got involved with the project."

The major received donations of more than 80 soccer balls from soccer clubs in Georgia and Colorado and from several collegiate programs across the country and he says more are on the way.

Mohamed Hassan Daoud, a volunteer at the orphanage who teaches the boys English, said the boys were very happy to get such a wonderful gift. He said they love when the Americans come to visit.

"I have had a long relationship with many of the U.S. Airmen," said Mr. Daoud. "I still keep in touch with a couple Americans who have gone back home."

The orphanage is home to about 25 boys, ages 12 to 20 years old. Their home consists of several long white cement buildings where the children live and learn skills such as masonry, woodworking, auto-repair and plumbing.

Donations have gone a long way to help improve living conditions there. A tin shack houses their kitchen where they used to cook off of charcoal on the floor in the corner. The Navy Seabees assigned to CJTF-HOA recently built a grill from scratch so they wouldn't have to cook on the floor anymore.

This type of assistance and teaching goes along with the task force's main mission throughout the Horn of Africa of helping Africans help themselves.

The mission is accomplished through civil military operations, medical and veterinary education, school construction and mil-mil training. The purpose behind helping the Africans develop these tools is to ultimately prevent conflict, promote regional stability and protect coalition interests in order to prevail against extremism.

"Anytime you're able to engage with the people or government of a country and demonstrate, by your actions and attitudes, that you are there to help them help themselves, then you are preventing extremist viewpoints and rhetoric to affect them," Major Dunn said. "Extremism roots easily into a populous that believes all hope is lost. Our actions here demonstrate to all we engage with that hope is what you make it and that they deserve and are more than capable of great things."

Captain McQuade said even the smallest contribution goes a long way.

"I had no idea what to expect when we took the soccer balls to the boy's orphanage," he said. "I was all smiles when I saw all the boys running out of the orphanage to get their own soccer ball."

As a rugby coach for the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Captain McQuade was quite impressed by the boy's skills.

"They likely have had little formal soccer instruction, but when we gave them the soccer balls it was if they knew exactly what to do with them," Captain McQuade said. "It was exciting for me to see these boys running around and competing with each other in the most basic sense of sport."

The CDOs will redeploy home soon, but said they will not soon forget the people they've met or what they have learned in Africa.

"I had little prior knowledge about how Africans would perceive the U.S. military operating in their sovereign nations," said Captain McQuade. "I found them to be very interested in what I, as an American, was all about. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the people here and what they are trying to accomplish for Africa and their countries. 

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