CIR Continues Training in Iraq

The Center for International Rehabilitation (CIR), based in Chicago, Illinois, announced that it has formed an alliance with the Iraqi Ministry of Health, funded by the World Bank, to provide medical training in Bosnia through December 2007. The medical training will be offered to 110 Iraqi physical therapists, rehabilitation center managers, and hospital-based physicians who provide care to the civilian war wounded in Iraq. The CIR is the only U.S. non-governmental organization (NGO) working directly with the Iraqi Ministry of Health and World Bank to assist the Iraqi war wounded.

The program, which is part of the Ministry's Emergency Disability Project (EDP) subsidized by the World Bank, combines academic course work with hands-on training. Course materials were developed in collaboration with professionals at the Northwestern University Department of Physical Therapy and the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Instruction is being provided by professionals affiliated with CIR and University Klinical Center (UKC) in Tuzla, Bosnia, which holds the six training sessions. In all, 110 Iraqi medical professionals will receive comprehensive instruction by the end of the year. The CIR and UKC, which previously worked together to help rehabilitate victims of the Balkans war in the 1990s, covered all travel, lodging, food and session costs for the Iraqis.

"The Iraq war has taken a terrible toll on the country's civilian population and left many people with significant disabilities," said CIR President William Kennedy Smith, PhD. "As an organization founded to help people and counties rebuild after conflict, we are dedicated to working with Iraqi healthcare professionals and the Ministry of Health to deliver the best possible care to the civilian war wounded in Iraq. We feel it is important to do this. Important for the Iraqis and important as well as for ourselves and for our country."

Courses still in session include:

One two-week training session for 20 rehabilitation center managers in community-based rehabilitation; health systems (politics, economics, financing), change management; human resource management; planning and needs assessment; integrative leadership; and standard operating procedures. Two two-week sessions for 20 hospital-based physicians on specialized content areas of rehabilitation including spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, amputee, and medical rehabilitation. Goals of the Iraqi Ministry of Health's Emergency Disability Project (EDP) include improving services at 14 Iraqi rehabilitation centers, fostering legal protections, and creating a social framework of inclusion for people with disabilities. The EDP program, which calls for strengthening partnerships with NGOs, is subsidized by the World Bank, an essential source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world.

For more information on the programs of the CIR, visit: www.cirnetwork.org

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CIR Continues Training in Iraq

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