Letter From Sheldon Chatman

Ms. Watkins,

Thank you so much for what you have done for the children of Afghanistan. I actually know about your organization. I was doing some research online a few weeks ago and stumbled across your website. The first thing that I thought about when I first received this assignment was that if I have to be here for a year, I'm going to get involved with the community as best as I can. The HA missions that we have been on have been the highpoints of my deployment thus far. We recently went on 2 HA visits to local schools where we handed out packages to nearly 500 students. As a result of this unusually large turnout, our supply of HA supplies was nearly wiped out. Your offer of assistance couldn't have come at a better time for us.

It is our plan to go on one HA mission per month to one of the 3 schools in the immediate vicinity of our base to deliver school supplies. We are also developing a plan to have wells dug and shaded facilities built on the school grounds. Currently, there is no easy access to drinking water on either of the campuses. If the children are thirsty, they have to walk nearly a half a mile to the nearest well. Since the classrooms are not air conditioned, the teachers typically bring the children outside and find a tree to sit under to go over their lessons.

In the short time that I've been here, I've found Afghanistan to be a beautiful country and the Afghan people to be some of the friendliest people that I've ever met. At the same time it is also a very dangerous place with a small percentage of very bad people. These HA missions that we go on play a vital role in winning over the hearts and minds of the average every day person that we meet. These missions also play an important role in making this cruel land just a little bit safer for the US soldiers and sailors currently working here. Over the past couple of weeks we have received several tips from local citizens alerting us of the presence of a weapons stash. In one case we got advanced warning about a rocket attack on our base. We strongly believe that reaching out to the community and being good neighbors encourages good will from our neighbors.

Thank you for considering my project here in Eastern Afghanistan for your support. I would be honored to be a contact person for your organization. In reading thru the information on your website as well as your literature, I can tell that you and your group are the kind of people with whom I would want to be associated.

Very Respectfully,

Sheldon Chatman
LCDR USN

8/2/06

Would you like to send supplies to Sheldon Chatman? His address and what to send are available in How it Works.