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November 2004: Update From Bahgdad
Plans for a December installation of the 17 Centers has been delayed because of increasing violence in and around Baghdad and other cities. Pre-election assaults on the population and on government officials have has made transportation and installation of the equipment very difficult everywhere and impossible in some regions. WiRED will persist in its efforts, and we expect completion of the remaining 17 Centers as soon as conditions permit."
In mid-November, WiRED expanded its Medical Information Center program into the Kurdish region of Iraq with the installation of nine new medical e-libraries. WiRED also made provisions for 17 additional facilities to be installed in early December in the central and southern areas of the country. With ten Centers already up and running, this brings to 36 the number of WiRED Medical Information Centers in Iraq. By year's end, every medical school in Iraq and some 20 key teaching hospitals will have been outfitted with a Medical Information Center. Collectively, these Centers will serve more than 65,000 medical professionals.
A Medical Information Center is a network of six to 10 computers and a CD-ROM collection of medical information designed to provide doctors, medical students and other medical professionals with ready access to the latest books, journals, databases and tutorials. As soon as the Internet becomes locally available, WiRED facilitates access of these Centers to proprietary medical Websites including the World Health Organization's HINARI collection of more than 2,500 biomedical journals. The Internet is becoming indispensable to medical professionals everywhere, and the WiRED Centers put information access for Iraqi physicians on a par with their Western counterparts.
In this Iraqi effort, WiRED works in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and partners with the Iraqi Ministries of Health and Higher Education for installation of the Centers in medical schools and teaching hospitals. This $160,000 project is funded by generous grants from the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Education and Cultural Exchange, Medtronic Foundation, Pfizer Inc., Affinity Internet, Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation and individual donors with an abiding concern for the Iraqi people.
WiRED is also works in cooperation with the Marian Wright Edelman Institute at San Francisco State University. Preparations are underway to pilot a quick-start nurse's training program for Iraqi nurses. Details of this project will be announced soon on WiRED's Website.
The Iraqi medical community had been isolated and denied access to medical developments beyond its borders, and year-by-year during Saddam's regime, it fell further behind. By providing doctors and medical students with updated information, WiRED enables the Iraqi medical community to improve its knowledge base and integrate outside developments into its current medical practices. Updating doctors has a positive effect across the population as the medical profession, in due course, touches everyone in the country.
WiRED plans to install 14 additional facilities early in 2005 as funding becomes available. The organization also plans to outfit as many medical schools and teaching hospitals as possible with satellite communication to allow Internet access. Equipment and monthly access fees cost approximately $9,000 per year. WiRED is currently seeking funds for the additional Centers and the satellite communication program.
WiRED's work in Iraq, as elsewhere, is accomplished by unpaid volunteers. This organization, nearing its eighth year of operation, is staffed by dedicated people who give freely of their time to help serve disadvantaged people around the world.
WiRED provides HIV/AIDS specific public access Community Health Information Centers in Kenya, and Medical Information Centers for professionals in Central Europe and Central America.
WiRED is a registered non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization which invests 95 percent of all donations directly to program activities; 5 percent is spent on administrative needs. WiRED's financial accounts are audited annually by Carey and Hanna, CPA.
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