Courtesy Photo | BAGHDAD -- An Iraqi woman demonstrates her skill behind one of a dozen sewing machines...... read more read more
2nd Brigade Combat Team PAO
BAGHDAD -- Although many people in Mashtal, a small suburb in east Baghdad, have had had to battle unemployment, a new job center is poised to alleviate at least some of the problem.
The facility, the brainchild of the Tissa Nissan District Council and Mashtal Neighborhood Council, boasts an internet café, computer instruction center, an instructional sewing shop, a small store and a cafeteria. The center hopes to add an instructional rug-making shop in the near future.
The employment center is expected to encourage other small businesses to spring to life in the area.
Dr. Kareem Alambar, a member of the Tissa Nissan District Council, said the new facility should be a great help to his community: "The use of the facility is free for all residents. People can come here and learn about computers and use the internet; and the women can learn tailoring skills, too."
The facility has more than a dozen computers available for public use and training.
Alambar believes the new facility could help up to 1,000 people a month.
The employment center is a rehabilitated bomb shelter that supposedly had been built by a Swedish contractor during the former regime. It is a huge complex with plenty of room for expansion.
The rehabilitation of the bomb shelter into an employment center cost about $62,000 and more than 20 Iraqi workers were involved in the project which took about 30 days to complete.
The business center manager, Gusun Nagi, a software engineer who graduated from El Rafidian College, said anyone who wants to learn about the internet and computers should come in.
"We will be glad to teach anyone," she said.
She wants to highlight the center and encourage foreign investors by showing the potential of the Iraqi people.
One of the computer/internet instructors, Wamid Saad, said it's good to expose the Iraqi people to cyberspace.
"First of all, the Iraqi people do not know much about computers so we need to let them know what computers can do," Saad said. "Then they might be able to work in a job where the skills they learned here will benefit themselves and a company, too."
Saad, who has a Bachelor's Degree in computers, expects the internet café will be very popular with all members in the community.
Nader Abduel Hammeed, a physics teacher, from a nearby boys" school went to the center to learn about computers.
"The teachers here are very good," Hammeed said. "In the beginning, it was very hard to learn, but it is getting easier. Yes, this place will help people to get jobs.
"I want to learn some things about physics in the world," he added. "Now I can be in contact with physics instructors in other countries."
The facility has more than a dozen modern sewing machines. Tailoring classes"where students receive instruction on how to sew traditional clothing"are popular with the women in the community, but they will also provide a outlet to generate additional funding for the facility.
Buthaina Sadiq, of Mashtal, said the facility will be able to sell its wares on the open market.
"First of all ,this thing (Deshdesha, the black dress most women wear in Iraq) will be very inexpensive and we will make and sell a lot of them"probably more than 100 dozen of them each month," Sadiq said.
Samera Kalef Al-Ka"by, a member of the Tissa Nissan DAC, did a lot of work on getting this project completed and believes the sewing classes will help people get jobs.
"There are many jobs for tailors in the community, and the goal here is to get jobs for people and make them work," Al-Ka"by said.
| Date Taken: | 12.13.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 12.13.2005 14:41 |
| Story ID: | 4057 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 249 |
| Downloads: | 45 |
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