Soldiers Offer Micro-Grants to Struggling Store Owners in Husseiniya

After the customer left the store with his purchases, the vendor proceeded to tell the visitor, 1st Lt. Otis Ingram, that he did not need monetary aid for his business, as it was doing well; the businessman did, however, inform Ingram of businesses a few blocks down that needed the micro-grants that were available.

Upon leaving his initial stop, Ingram, a Colorado Springs, Colo., native, who serves as the platoon leader for 3rd Platoon, Company B, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, went with his platoon to the area the shop owner directed them.

During their day-long venture, the Soldiers visited several small businesses in Husseiniya to assess their needs for monetary aid in the form of U.S. Army and government of Iraq funded micro-grants.

“We know this operational area and the people in it, so we can find out who needs the money,” said Sgt. Luke Groeninger, a Colorado Springs, Colo., native, who serves as squad leader with 3rd Pltn., Co. B.

The micro-grants offered must be used to improve the business. They are a one-time grant designed to boost the business’ productivity. With the grants requested often being much smaller than the $2,500 maximum amount – approximately $400 – the Soldiers can offer the aid to several businesses in the area, said Ingram.

“We’re giving them a grant that [will] make their business better so that [the community] is more economically stable,” he explained.

The money requested can be used for a variety of purposes. The owners are frequently looking for money for small, low-cost improvements.

“All of [the ‘mom-and-pop’ corner shops] want new paint,” said Ingram. “They want new racks for their groceries. Sometimes, they want a new refrigerator. A lot of [the refrigerators here] are really old.”

During the mission, two shop owners the Soldiers visited applied for micro-grants on the spot.

“We helped them fill out the paperwork and submitted the request for approval,” Groeninger said.

Sometimes, store owners choose not to accept the help. They do so for a variety of reasons.

“Some of [the business owners] won’t take [the micro-grants] because they feel that they’re really not that poor – they’re really not that bad off,” said Ingram. “Their business is doing pretty [well], and they know hundreds of other businesses or people who have it way worse than they do.”

While unexpected, the refusal of some to accept the grants indicates the residents are proud of their hard work and want to be successful on their own. They are also using the program correctly.

“[It’s] kind of refreshing … because you see people who are actually hoping that the help goes to those who need it,” Ingram added. “It’s also eye opening. You think everybody just wants a handout – and sometimes they don’t.”

Like the man at the first stop, those who do not want the grants often guide the Soldiers to those who do need them.

After they arrived at the stores they were told about at their first stop, Ingram and his Soldiers helped two different shop owners apply for the grant.

ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq - Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch is a West Point graduate with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from MIT. In Iraq, he’s also a fish farmer.

Violence in the region Lynch commands, including the so-called “Triangle of Death” south of Baghdad, has dropped nearly 80 percent from a year ago. That, Lynch says, allows him and his troops to spend less effort chasing insurgents and more on helping the citizens rebuild their economy.
“I used to go to patrol bases and plan military operations. Now I walk around and talk to people,” Lynch said on a visit to this city 30 miles south of Baghdad.

It was during one of those trips that the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division said he had “a life-changing experience.” Local farmers said they needed jobs. “And I thought about how to teach them fish farming.”
Whole fish, split open and then grilled upright, is a signature dish in Baghdad restaurants. Demand has been rising as security has improved and more people venture out.

But pollution, dams and years of mismanagement of the waters in past decades cut the once abundant stocks.

Lynch saw an opportunity. Fish farming is not unknown in Iraq and creating new farms there is relatively simple. Pools are dug near the existing system of irrigation canals and the farmer fills them with fresh water. Carp or other stillwater species are introduced and, when they’re grown, farmers harvest them easily by draining the pools.

The fish farms are just part of what Lynch and his soldiers call “sustainable security.” Once fighting in an area has been suppressed and Iraqi military and police take over, the U.S. troops look for ways to make it last.
“It’s about how do we give these people a means to a job, so they are less likely to resort to the old ways of planting IED’s,” Lynch said, referring to roadside bombs. As he flew over the region in a helicopter recently, numerous large fish ponds could be seen glinting in the sunlight.

The military has given out more than 200 micro-grants worth about $750,000 to small startup businesses in the region. They have also pumped about $140 million into the local economy, assisting existing industries and rebuilding infrastructure.

As Lynch travels the region, the need for new jobs is easily seen.
Sprawling over the desert on the edge of Iskandariyah is a state-owned complex that had more than 4,000 employees and lucrative government contracts for building buses and other vehicles under Saddam’s regime. The business collapsed in the chaos that ensued after the U.S. invasion.
Although its products are competitively priced and of good quality, it has had trouble finding customers. Managers who had a guaranteed buyer before the invasion lack the knowledge to compete in Iraq’s new freewheeling marketplace.

To help turn the situation around, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jeffrey McKone has become a close adviser to plant director Sabbah al-Khaffaji.
A reservist who was a district sales manager for the Laboratory Corporation of America in Burlington, NC, one of the world’s largest clinical medical laboratoriesMcKone is teaching al-Kaffaji and his staff how to market and sell and link directly with customers on the Internet.

“In the past two months we have done so much with Lt. Col. McKone that we have not been able to absorb it all,” said Nassir Abbas, leader of the vocational training school on the complex.

The school has become a focus for Lynch because it can train Iraqis from across the area. He hopes over time many of factories now idle will once again employ thousands.

Fear of violence once kept students away, and only about two dozen attended last year. But now there are about 450 and the school is planning for 1,000 by June. Al-Kaffaji said the school has had up to 10,000 applications.

Many of the trainees will be young men who have been part of the ethnic warfare in the region. And some once were insurgents who once fought against the U.S. forces in the region.

“We can’t deny some Sons of Iraq (a Sunni group) were insurgents in the past and could be in the future,” Lynch said. But “I am convinced the people of Iraq will return to their old ways if we don’t give them jobs.”

(AP)

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