It was the last day of May. Little boys and girls beamed with mischievous smiles as they ran about the school courtyard. Their slightly older and more aloof teenage counterparts huddled in small packs – boys exchanging glances with girls, and girls laughing amongst...

Earlier this year we told you about one of our projects in rural Tajikistan. In February, the Army Civil Affairs team in country had identified to SoA a need for student desks at a newly built school in the Garm District in rural Tajikistan. Coordinating closely with...

Hello everyone, It’s been a full week for SoA here in Iraqi Kurdistan. We’ve been meeting up with Department of State officers and forward deployed members of our military. These engagements are crucial to our mission: they allow us to follow through on ongoing...

The drive out of Dushanbe started with little fanfare, as our two-vehicle convoy navigated the unruly city traffic. Quickly, the humdrum of Tajikistan’s capital, a hodgepodge of tree-lined avenues, Soviet-style apartment blocks (known as Khrushchyovka), and...

The soldiers of the female Peshmerga unit being trained at a Sulamaniyah Military Training School in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq are made of hardy stuff. Sitting cross-legged on a lush green field, the soldiers watched intently as Coalition Forces trainers first...

Earlier last month, SoA’s Middle East manager, Zack Bazzi, was invited by the U.S. military to visit northern Syria to conduct a humanitarian assessment of the region. While the military, working through on-the-ground partners, has achieved extraordinary progress in...

Greetings from Lebanon, I’m here for a couple of days of meetings with the U.S. Army Civil Affairs Team to explore potential project ideas. As the Middle East manager for SoA, my work includes countries that fall under the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) footprint. The...