Monroe Marine uses light touch to break tension with Afghans

Published 12:01 am Monday, August 8, 2011

There she was, sitting in the room in Afghanistan without a translator or any real way to communicate with the women and children around her.

Marine Lance Cpl. Chandra Francsico pulled out a bottle of soap bubbles and started blowing them toward the children. It didn’t help with the conversation, but it cut the tension.

“It made people more relaxed,” Francisco said by phone from her post in Afghanistan.

The 22-year-old Monroe woman, is one of 45 female Marines in the Female Engagement Team in Afghanistan. The unit is charged with building relationships with women in Afghanistan, helping with their needs and even getting information from them about issues in the region.

Because of custom in Afghanistan, only women are allowed close access with Afghan women and children. Francisco — a Monroe High School graduate — has been working in southwest Afghanistan since March.

Along with the soap bubbles, she brings toys and candy to villages.

“The goal is to build strong relationships so they can trust us more,” Francisco said.

The female Marines perform varied jobs in Afghanistan, including driving trucks, working as mechanics and managing supplies, said 1st Lt. Melissa Blyleven, officer in charge of the Female Engagement Team.

“The Female Engagement Team is focused on finding women to talk to, so we can get a better sense of needs for the entire population,” Blyleven said in an email. The U.S. Army and British forces have similar teams as well.

In Iraq, the Marines had a similar program called Lioness, but its focus was on security, searching Iraqi women as they came through checkpoints, she said.

Francisco enlisted with the Marines in September 2009. She describes her time in Afghanistan as a “great experience.”

As part of her duties, she’s had to help out with the medical needs of villagers. She has taken care of a girl who had been hit by a car, another child who suffered an electric shock and several people who have suffered burns. She also gives classes about nutrition and first aid.

There’s always the dangers of an explosive device, suicide bomber or a sniper, but Francisco has not been in any firefights.

“We don’t go searching for firefights. We go searching for connections,” Francisco said.

At home in Monroe, her parents worry about her safety when they know she is on a mission.

“I don’t like it, but she chose to do this,” her mother, Katrina Francisco said.

The family keeps in touch through Facebook messages and with twice-monthly phone calls at 3 a.m. local time. Her mother also sends the Marine packages with food and the books she likes to read, mainly political autobiographies.

Chandra Francisco likes to draw, write poetry and hang out with friends and her 4-year old sister Caylen, her mother said. She also has an older brother.

Both parents are proud of their daughter’s work. She joined a cause greater than herself and will get the discipline and life experience she did not have before, said Gregg Francisco, her father.

“I am concerned about her safety, but I have all the confidence in the world that the Marine Corps are making all the efforts they can to have their people safe, including my daughter,” he said.

After the Marines, Chandra Francisco is considering a career in the medical field.

Chandra Francisco has grown and changed, but she hasn’t changed for her mother.

“She’s still my princess,” Katrina Francisco said.

Alejandro Dominguez: 425-339-3422; adominguez@heraldnet.com.