Photo By Staff Sgt. Lyndsey Prax | Capt. Zach Mills, a native of Golden, Colo., who serves as a senior veterinarian...... read more read more
By Pfc. Lyndsey R. Dransfield
Multi-National Division - Baghdad
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq - U.S. Army veterinarians organized and met with a veterinarian professor from Texas A&M University and the faculty from the University of Baghdad College at the Abu Ghraib Campus, June 15, to discuss a plan to advance veterinary medicine and higher education in Iraq.
The University of Baghdad College of Veterinary Medicine has suffered severely since 2003. Due to fear of kidnappings and hostage taking of students, most students dropped out of the college and moved away. As a result the campus was closed.
The Republican Guard Soldiers took over the facilities using them as a fighting position and although they were never bombed, the fighting caused extreme damage.
The United States military helped renovate the school and the doors were reopened in October 2003. Since then the school has been struggling to educate their students with modern resources to meet their educational needs.
"Because of the lack of security we are unable to take our students off campus and people are unable to bring their animals here. Our students are not getting enough of the hands on experience they need," said Dr. Emad Jaweed Khammus, department head of Pathology at the university.
Dr. William Moyer, department head of the Large Animal Clinical Science at Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences was asked to visit the college as a member of the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, an institute that was designed to employ agricultural science to feed the world's hungry and in this situation, rejuvenate veterinary medicine to improve Iraq.
"Veterinary medicine is very important and we need to start somewhere with it," said Capt. Zach Mills, senior veterinarian advisor, 432 Civil Affairs Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division - Baghdad. "Being able to improve the curriculum and get the professors what they need to teach their classes so these students become working veterinarians, will help improve the animal food quality and the overall health of the herb population. It will also help the people in general to be self sustaining so they will produce food themselves and improve the livestock quality and their public health."
The meeting lasted more then three hours, which included a tour of the school's facilities allowing the personnel to see for themselves the various obstacles the university is struggling with.
"Having the opportunity to walk through this school has been an eye opening experience of what is really going on in Iraq," said Dr. Moyer.
Although the school facilities and the country it resides in have many obstacles to overcome, all involved with the meeting felt that it was a giant step in the right direction of getting the education and agriculture needs up to par and yet another small step in the rebuilding process of this war torn country.
"It is not an easy process to get these experts here. This is a big step and I'm glad we could make it happen," said Mills. "We must continue the relationship between these colleges and follow through with our plans. By doing so we can continue to help Iraqi's build their capacity and make a better country."
| Date Taken: | 06.15.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 06.17.2008 08:26 |
| Story ID: | 20548 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 108 |
| Downloads: | 81 |
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