Military

Camp Pendleton Marine Works With Afghan Woman

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published July 12, 2010 at 3:00 AM PDT

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

Major Nina D'Amato from Camp Pendleton works with women in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Camp Pendleton Marine Works With Afghan Woman

13,000 Marines from Camp Pendleton are currently deployed in Afghanistan, but not all of them are engaged in combat missions. Major Nina D'Amato is working to promote education and entrepreneurial opportunities for women in Helmand province.

Thirteen-thousand Marines from Camp Pendleton are currently deployed in Afghanistan, but not all of them are engaged in combat missions. Major Nina D'Amato is working to promote education and entrepreneurial opportunities for women in Helmand province.

D'Amato is a Marine reservist who, in her civilian life, is an assistant principal at a middle school. She trained with weapons systems at Camp Pendleton but her mission in Afghanistan is to help the Afghan government fulfill its educational goals.

D'Amato said she's seeing progress in the effort to get more girls and women into schools, and also involved in local government.

Advertisement

Become a KPBS sponsor

"Today I sat in on the Helmand provincial council meeting,"she said, "and there were three council members who were women of the 15 who showed up, and that's very exciting to see women represented at the provincial governance level."

D'Amato said her group is working to build home-based businesses so that women who are not allowed out of the home can make money.

She said even if the U.S. military withdraws combat forces next year, these kinds of development initiatives will continue.

Camp Pendleton Marine Works With Afghan Woman

13,000 Marines from Camp Pendleton are currently deployed in Afghanistan, but not all of them are engaged in combat missions. Major Nina D'Amato is working to promote education and entrepreneurial opportunities for women in Helmand province.

Military

Alison St John

twitter

Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.