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Iraq -- Health, Social Services
& Micro Economic Development
The Iraqi people have been virtually cut off from the outside world for
a generation, during which investment in human capital has been minimal.
Millennium's objectives in Iraq are to provide hope for a people traumatized
for decades, improve the lives of the people, and foster self-sufficiency.
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Water and Sanitation
Systems
Work continues on major
reconstruction of Kirkuk’s water and sanitation system. MRDS received
the contract after completing the first water survey of its kind in
Iraq.
Initial evaluations of
the water system are being conducted in another city where
typhoid is a major problem. Workers are compiling data based
following meetings with local water authorities and preliminary
inspections of water sources.
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An existing water system is being improved
through engineering work done by MRDS. |
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Nurses practice new techniques they are learning through the MRDS sponsored clinical mentoring program. |
Maternal Health
There are different levels of training
for midwives in Iraq. The traditional midwives, who are usually illiterate,
are not considered adequately trained to provide complete care to pregnant
and birthing women. MRDS is exploring answers for improving the training
and education for all levels of midwives.
MRDS is collaborating with Azadi Hospital in providing a
clinical mentoring program designed to give practical training to labor
and delivery nurses and midwives. Nurses and midwives are provided with
a professional American midwife as a mentor for the 6 weeks of training.
The program includes a two-month training/mentoring segment and is followed
up with an evaluation.
This hospital is responsible for 10,000 deliveries per year (covering a governorate of at least 850,000 people). That produces an average of more than one birth per hour. At any given time there are 10-11 nurses assigned to Labor and Delivery. Because of the understaffing, a nurse may be responsible for handling an average of 700 or more deliveries a year.
Other efforts include child malnutrition prevention programs
using volunteer health workers and plans for improving the health care
for mothers and newborns. Nurses tend to have significantly substandard
training, and the maternal health services suffer from shortages of equipment,
supplies, and personnel.
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Health Projects
A two-day seminar for physicians on rural health issues
was coordinated by MRDS with the Directorate of Health, the University
of Dohuk and the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada.
MRDS is seeking funding to create a physical therapy association
to improve educational and clinical standards in Iraq and to provide training
and help develop regulatory standards. Thousands of Iraqis suffer from
disabilities because of poor medical care and the results of decades of
war, but current physical therapy is well below international standards.
Earlier this month the newest office in Iraq participated
in the nationwide Polio vaccination project. This governmental project
is aimed at vaccinating every child under five in Iraq. MRDS staff, along
with trained volunteers, traveled door-to-door assisting in administering
oral vaccinations and recording names and ages. The MRDS Director of Health
Programs has met with both hospitals and governmental officials to survey
the health needs of the community. She has also participated in multiple
radio interviews about causes and preventive steps in diseases like Typhoid
and AIDS.
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MRDS staff went door-to-door to assist in administering oral Polio
vaccinations. |
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One of the new skills being taught through the Women's Program is quilting. |
Women's Development Center
MRDS is expanding the
Women's Project and is in the process of building a complex specifically
for women. The structure itself provides more than a meeting place, it
is also a model for an alternative energy efficient building. This complex
will offer a number of educational programs to women, including Nutritional
and Agricultural Development, Health and Medicine, Technological classes,
as well as an Income Generating Division offering vocational training
in produce production and marketing.
The original program has been expanded to teach girls between the ages
of 12 and 17, many of whom are daughters or other relatives of the original
participants. In addition to sewing and handicrafts, the women are now learning quilting as well.
The young women are not in school, many because their families are concerned
about protecting the girls' "honor" and "reputation".
The Women's Project in Northern Iraq is respected in the community and
is staffed only by women, so the families allow the girls to participate.
The combination of skill training, literacy and basic health information
helps the families understand the value of education. The program also
serves to delay marriages in a culture where children as young as 12 years
old marry. This provides time and opportunity for these girls to develop
physically and mentally.
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Education and TOEFL Preparation
Millennium completed its first Conversation English program in Iraq. 400 university students came to registration day and MRDS registered 282 of the students for a total of 14 classes every week. Classes were held for 10 weeks with each class lasting 4-6 hours. The students responded positively to the interactive teaching style. A part-time program in another city had 118 students.
One MRDS staff member also taught two TOEFL prep classes (TOEFL is a test students must pass to be accepted in US educational institutions). The presidents of two universities have shown interest in hiring native English speakers to teach in their English Language Learning Centers and were extremely grateful for Millennium’s program and interest in community development.
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Students in this co-ed class
learn through an interactive
manner of teaching. |
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Women carry water from
the river for use in their
homes. |
Reconstruction
The village of Zahraa, just north of Basra, has
no running water, no sewers, no school and only a little electricity.
Women carry water to their homes from the river, about 1,500 feet away.
MRDS is helping the village of 400 homes to put in a piped water system
so the women won't have to walk so far to get water.
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Relief Effort
More than 50,000 internally
displaced (IDP) Kurdish and Turkomen people are living in tents,
mud houses or vacant buildings, including an abandoned soccer
field, in 40 sites around Kirkuk. Forced out of their homes under
Saddam Hussein, they have returned to their hometown to find their
homes were destroyed or given to others during Hussein's regime.
Most of their children born after 1991 have lived their entire
lives as refugees.
MRDS assessed needs in villages with representatives
from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and distributed
blankets, kerosene heaters and food to families. MRDS also assisted
doctors from the U.S. providing medical care to IDPs in seven
villages through mobile medical clinics.
Most of the 40 IDP sites have no running water,
sewage systems, schools or medical care.
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Blankets, kerosene heaters and food were
distributed to displaced people living near Kirkuk. More than
50,000 people who returned to their hometown after the fall of
Saddam are living in
mud houses, tents or abandoned buildings.
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Copyright © 2006 Millennium Relief and Development Services
Last Modified: July 12, 2006
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