European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 30, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                              Page 4 stars and stripes Mideast edition june 2007 american legion to open Iraq Post by Joseph Giordono stars and stripes the american legion plans to open its first Post in hoping to draw both service members currently stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan and eligible veterans who want to show their support for troops by joining the new the new Post will be established in Erbil and known As Post an auxiliary of Post which is in As of last american legion officials in Washington said that some is people had signed but expected Well Over a thousand More once word got out about the new the Opportunity to join the first american legion Post in Iraq is kind of special and the Chance to become a charter member of the first american legion Post in Iraq is very Spe Tom who founded the new said in an email to stars and membership is expected to grow to Well Over a thousand when veterans around the world learn of the Opportunity to show their support for the troops by joining the Post in Erbil was officials in part because it is relatively Safe compared to the rest of Huff himself will be leading an veterans Trade delegation to Erbil later this and has ties to officials in the Kurdistan regional gov Erbil is a place from which to we will later open in Huff the american legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 As a wartime veterans organi there Are some 3 million members in nearly american legion posts around the according to the groups web according to any ser Vic member or Veteran who served Between these dates is eligible for the Post april cessation of hostilities As determined by government 1990 1982july 1984 june 1955 april 1918 merchant marines for More visit an afghan doctor checks the blood pressure of an elderly villager in Kuz Kha Rokhel during a recent Mobile medical Monte Morin stars and stripes afghans flock t b by Monte Morin stars and stripes Kuz Afghani Stan from the Dusty Center of this tiny mud walled a roundtrip journey to the nearest medical clinic takes roughly four its not just the distance that prevents Many Village Moth ers from seeking medical care for themselves or their ailing Chil intimidation from Taliban insurgents and deeply held cultural attitudes detract from Good health As much As bad poor drinking water and such was the Case recently when afghan doctors and medical officers with the Ghazi provisional reconstruction team visited this agricultural Village some 100 Miles Southwest of Kabul and set up a on Day health More than 175 villagers flocked to the Mobile clinic and crowded beneath Blue tarps to collect Hygiene attend health lectures and consult doctors and very few of those who attended the event were adult to part this phenomenon spoke volumes about the Overall health of afghan women and the state of the insurgency you can see How much influence the Taliban has on a Village when very few adult women show said Diana an army nurse and a civil affairs you can see that there waterborne Dis intestinal parasites and poor Hygiene Are among the main threats to women and childrens health each roughly children die of diarrhoea a and Afghanistan still maintains one of the highest in Fant mortality rates in the in a Village like Kuz which has roughly 300 inhabit about 75 percent of women give birth to children without Ever seeing a medical professional and an even greater percentage of women suffer from were seeing that theres not enough protein and not enough food in Hay a Little they while a report several months ago by the Center for strategic and International studies found that women health care was among those few aspects of afghan life that had improved noticeably Over the last women and children in Afghani stans Rural Southern and Eastern provinces were still hard pressed to find proper medical not those Are the same areas now struggling with a resurgent Taliban among other efforts at undermining Afghanistan struggling gov insurgents Here have targeted women for interacting with nato or for just Leav ing their in the last troops with task Force 2 fury and the afghan National army and police have conducted operations aimed at Clearing Ghazi provinces most troubled the Andar mondays medical civil affairs or was intended to reinforce tactical gains by showing residents Good will and filling a Gap in the re Gions medical its frustrating because theres 1 i arts recent visit to Kuz Hay and Navy Keith Hoekman separated Villag ers into groups of males and females and lectured them on Good Hygiene and then provided them with deform ing medications and Hoekman said that poor nutrition and intestinal parasites were responsible for much of the ill Nesses found in this and similar improving nutrition through the use of bet Ter diet or the elimination of intes tinal Worms at least for promote higher As Well As better health in the availability of drinking water was an Issue As he particularly in a nation As poor As water from deep Wells is fairly Good for but most Wells Arent dug deep said of people will also use standing water and but they often dont have the Means to purify the theres not a lot of Wood available to build a and it can be very expensive to actually boil the among those people who participated in the medical clinic was a representative from Afghani stans health villagers Here have requested a permanent health clinic closer to their Vil Lage and the ministry official was researching this offic ers Hay said also that Ghazi hos Pital had recently opened a nutrition but the facility was still far from Kuz id like to see us do More to help moms and Hay email Monte Morin at  save 10 with promo code