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About Us
Mission
Books For Baghdad seeks to facilitate higher education in Iraq by
providing books, supplies and training while promoting partnerships
with educational institutions in the United States.
Books for Baghdad has no religious or political affiliations and is a
project of Jacksonville State University Foundation in Jacksonville,
Alabama.
Accomplishments
Since 2004, Books for Baghdad has been a non-profit project fiscally
sponsored by Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama.
Due to our continued success and likelihood of future achievements; we
have decided to continue this humanitarian effort. We have shipped to
Baghdad University more than 55,000 books, computers and school
supplies.
Education in Iraq
Prior to 1991, Iraq had one of the most advanced education systems in
the Middle East. As a result of wars, repression and thirteen years of
international sanctions imposed by the United Nations, most of the
universities and technical colleges were stripped from basic
educational resources. Due to the continuous unrest in Iraq, the
education sector has been largely neglected and it needs the help of
all those who believe in the importance of education.
Information about Iraq:
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_iraq.html
Background: Books for Baghdad
Books for Baghdad is the brainchild of Safaa Al-Hamdani, a 1977
graduate of Baghdad University and currently an American citizen
teaching biology at Jacksonville State University. In 2002, Dr.
Al-Hamdani was a Fulbright scholar at Yarmouk University in Jordan
where he met many of the Iraqi educators and became familiar with the
unacceptable status of the education system in Iraq. When word of the
massive destruction of the libraries began to circulate, Safaa
contacted them and asked how he could help. Not surprisingly, they
wanted books, so he began a small, local book drive with the help of
the faculty, students and staff at Jacksonville State University. Over
the next year, books came in from all over the nation, and by January
2005, they had collected 11,000 books and $6,500 dollars worth of
school supplies. It was so successful that another drive was held
earlier this year (2006) and within 4 months, another 20,000 books were
collected and where delivered to the University of Baghdad, courtesy of
International Relief and Development.
Our Current Situation
The fact is that we are a small
organization
and we have absolutely no extended funds to support the activity of
this
project. As a result, we are not able to satisfy the increasing demands
and we
cannot promise anything we can’t deliver. We would love to continue
this
project because we believe in it and we consider it a labor of love. We
are
waiting for the opportunity to come to allow us to restart book
collections in
the near future. However, other objectives of this project will
continue,
specifically helping the faculty in Iraq
to establish collaborative work with the counterpart in the US.
Books for Baghdad will continue to
assist undergraduate and graduate
students in finding a scholarship to come to the US
and promoting partnerships with educational institutions in the United States.
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