AFGHANASTAN: HOPE WON BY HEROES

By Ian Kirby

We see how the courage of our troops is giving Afgan children a better future

IN A dusty classroom in the bleak, war-shattered town of Gereshk a young girl opens her exercise book and reads aloud. Just one small voice of hope. But it's echoed right across Helmand province as thousands of Afghan children start school for the first time after a decade of Taliban tyranny.

The few benches are stuffed with eager young faces and precious books are excitedly passed from hand to hand.

This simple white-painted room is a potent symbol of the vital changes now being wrought here. For only two years ago it was being used to store opium and weapons for the Taliban.

But the Helmand youngsters' chance of a new life has only been possible because of the dedication, bravery and sacrifice of British troops. In six years 95 of our soldiers have died in Afghanistan. More will be killed this summer.

It's taken two years of hard fighting to make Gereshk safe enough to open the school. And today the battle for hearts and minds rages in earnest.

Last year the town was a no-go area. British bases were rocketed on a daily basis. Regeneration was impossible.

It's still a dangerous place. Dirt tracks conceal massive landmines and improvised bombs. Our boys patrol in armoured Land Rovers, staying just minutes in any one place.

As soon as a patrol arrives, a Taliban biker appears, checks them out and races off to fix an attack. The Brits are quickly on the move, before the enemy can send a suicide bomber.

But, even under this pressure, change IS happening— projects like the school, a daycare centre and safe drinking water, are all starting under the watchful eye of 23 Engineer Regiment's Sergeant Chris Needham.

The pace of progress may seem painfully slow to an outsider. Most local workers disappeared last week to get in the poppy harvest which will be turned into opium—raw material for the world's heroin trade.

Last year no native builder would work for the British after one was found dead with a knife in his chest and a warning note from the Taliban.

Dozens more have disappeared. But others are now coming forward to take their places because they know these are increasingly safe and secure jobs.

Sgt Needham explains: "They are keen to get the job done, even if it is at their own pace."

It's a whole new way of thinking. The only concerns for most Afghans in Helmand have been keeping safe and getting food to survive. Now they are learning to build roads, schools and hospitals. After the painful lessons of Iraq, the British are teaching the Afghans to do things for themselves.

The school in Gereshk is one of 11, set up by the Brits' Provincial Reconstruction Team but built by local Afghans, being opened this spring. In Lashkar Gah, a 20-minute helicopter ride away, the Dosti School is a striking vision of Afghanistan's new future. In 2001 it was the region's main Taliban school, indoctrinating and radicalising thousands of boys.

Today its classrooms are once again full with 1,300 children. But now there are girls' faces too. And lessons include English, physics and maths. Girls were once destined for a life of domestic slavery, never allowed out. But, after reciting her times tables, 11-year-old Ehsanullah proudly declares: "I'm the first girl in my family to go to school. Now I'll get a job instead of staying home. I want to be a teacher or doctor, things I never thought possible."

Upstairs 18-year-old Issurat, 18, is finishing her teacher-training course. Her elder sister married at 12 and died aged just 16, giving birth to her THIRD child. Issurat says: "I knew nothing outside my village. Now I want to serve my country and teach other children."

Headmaster Hajiabdul Razaq welcomes the new deal and is quick to acknowledge Britain's role. He says: "Two years ago the school was to close because of the lack of security. People were shooting on the street, coming in with guns to steal food and books, kidnapping teachers and children.

"The Taliban would not let us teach anything and would close a class down. Now for the first time we are looking ahead. The help of the British is inestimable. We are given promises and they ARE fulfilled."And the good news is spreading. Graduating pupils will go back to their villages and open more schools, seeding belief there IS life beyond the family compound.

Soon they will be joined by midwives and doctors being trained at Lashkar Gah hospital. In 2002 only one in 10 Afghans had access to basic healthcare. Now nine out of 10 can reach a doctor. Thanks to improved security from British forces, Afghan workers—funded by the Department for International Dev-elopment—built a wall around the hospital compound to keep thieves out. And the place was kitted out by us with everything from scalpels to computers.

Now—with one in four women dying in childbirth—Helmand's first midwives are being trained here. They will go back into Taliban areas—saving lives and spreading the message that the Afghan government, and the Brits, are rebuilding for the long term.

Clean water is one of the huge changes. They may live in a war zone but the most likely cause of death for an Afghan child is disease from dirty water. Britain has already funded 780 wells in Helmand, with another 270 set to be built. More than 176,000 people now have clean drinking water for the first time. All these projects have been completed in defiance of Taliban bombs and rockets. But British commander in Lashkar Gah, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, now waits to see the Taliban's next move, after they lost 6,000 lives and every battle with our boys last year.

"The Taliban are not going to try to outfight us," he says confidently.

But the biggest challenge in Afghanistan is dealing with the enormous poppy crop which funds the Taliban and local drug barons' private armies.

It's been good business for the local farmers. The drug bosses provide seeds and a guaranteed price, then return after harvest for the opium. The task for the government is to replace that system with a legal equivalent. And that's where the heavily fortified Bolan Ministry Farm, right inside Taliban territory, comes in.

More than 5,000 farmers have already passed through, learning to grow chilli, paprika, onions, wheat and grapes. One of the foreign instructors tells us: "If we persuade a farmer to plant vines it becomes a permanent crop. That means they WON'T grow poppy next year."

With 10,000 farmers ready to agree contracts switching to legal crops, British Ambassador Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles says: "This year for the first time poppy cultivation has levelled off. That's good for Year Two in a campaign of at least 10 years."

In a country where everything is broken it looks like the Afghans are finally getting it fixed.