DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Marines and sailors with U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, and III Marine Expeditionary Force donated more than $300 and a soccer ball to the National Christian Fellowship of Bangladesh July 18 here.
The NCFB is a charity organization designed to provide educational and medical relief to poverty-stricken Bangladesh nationals.
Moved by the living conditions surrounding their training site, the Marines and sailors felt compelled to help.
The service members are part of Non-Lethal Weapons Executive Seminar 2008, a bilateral exercise headed by MARFORPAC, and conducted by III MEF's Special Operations Training Group to teach Bangladeshi service members non-lethal weapons’ tactics.
“Going through the city we’ve seen kids without clothes, people starving,” said Sgt. Kevin Parish, the primary Rope Suspension Techniques instructor for SOTG. “We could obviously tell they lived in poor conditions and I felt that we should help, even if it was just a little.”
James S. Karmoker, the assistant general secretary for the organization, said the money will be used to provide books to elementary school students who are other wise too poor to receive an education, and the ball will be given to a charity-run preschool for impoverished children.
“Even if you gave us only a dollar, I would be happy,” Karmoker said. “Thank you for showing love to the Bangladesh people and their children. We appreciate it and will never forget it.”