Press Releases 2009
Assistant Chief of Mission Joseph Mussomeli's trip to Takhar Province
"In Kabul, we talk frequently about the need to improve the economy and to revive agriculture production throughout Afghanistan. Here in Takhar, you are doing that, and your success at building up your farming sector should serve as an inspiration for other provinces where similar successes have been slower in coming."
October 13, 2009
-- Ambassador Joseph A. Mussomeli, October 13 in Takhar
U.S. Embassy Assistant Chief of Mission Ambassador Joseph A. Mussomeli traveled today to Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province, to attend the Good Performers Initiative ceremony and hand over tractors worth $1 million to approximately 30 farmers associations around the province. Ambassador Mussomeli was joined by Takhar Governor Abdul Latif Ibrahimi and Minister of Counter-Narcotics General Khodaidad at a ceremony that praised the counter-narcotics efforts of the government and people of Takhar, a province that has been poppy free since 2008.
"The Good Performers Initiative," said Ambassador Mussomeli at the ceremony, "is an important way for the Ministry of Counternarcotics to assist provinces that are in the lead in reducing or eliminating poppy cultivation, as Takhar is." The objective of the Good Performers Initiative (GPI) is to support provinces that achieve sustained progress towards poppy elimination or remain poppy free by providing financial support for their agreed priority development projects. Takhar became poppy free in 2008, and for that was awarded $1.09 million in GPI funds. According to the UNODC report released last month, Takhar remained poppy free in 2009, and will be entitled to another $1 million in GPI funds to awarded later this year. Since it inception in 2007, the United States has pledged $44 million for GPI, and will pledge another $38.7 million in 2009
While in Taloqan, Ambassador Mussomeli also met privately with Governor Ibrahimi and had a chance to tour a local drug rehabilitation clinic in the city run by Shahamat Health& Rehabilitation Organization (SHRO), an Afghan NGO; at that 40-bed residential treatment facility for men, the Ambassador distributed 80 pairs of winter socks to patients on behalf of the U.S. Embassy.