AL ANBAR, Iraq - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region District, Al Anbar Resident Office, recently turned over the first of nine schools it is building of in the Al Anbar region of western Iraq. And although USACE has managed construction of more than 1,100 schools in Iraq, the Al Farabi School in Haditha is special in that it will serve as a teacher's academy to train the next generation of teachers, according to Maj. Joseph Geary, officer in charge of the Al Anbar office.
"Al Farabi School meets Haditha's desperate need for a suitable learning facility, as the existing school building was structurally unsound and much too small to handle its current enrollment," Geary said. "The Haditha City Education Department was so pleased with the new facility that it made the decision to utilize the building as a teacher's academy."
Site plans for the school included the construction of a 12-classroom two-story schoolhouse, administration building, playground and guardhouse. Geary says the school was a "turn-key" project that included all the required school supplies and administrative equipment to ensure immediate occupancy.
Geary gives credit for the success of the project to his engineer staff and its commitment to building Iraq's technical capacity. "Project Engineer Bob Player worked closely with engineer Mohammad Maulood and quality assurance representative Natheer Hamid, who spent countless hours at the site to ensure a quality product would be delivered," Geary said. "In addition to their technical expertise, the Iraqi engineers' ability to liaise directly with the local education department representatives made the project handover quick and simple."
The Iraqi owned Altayf Al-Abiad Enterprise served as the general contractor for the school project. The $928,000 facility was funded through the Economic Support Fund.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq has completed thousands of reconstruction projects in partnership with the U.S. Government and the Government of Iraq. Since 2004, USACE has completed 5,257 projects throughout Iraq valued at more than $9.1 billion, and has more than 350 projects ongoing. The overall reconstruction effort in Iraq currently provides jobs for more than 20,000 Iraqis.
| Date Taken: | 05.24.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 05.24.2010 04:37 |
| Story ID: | 50146 |
| Location: | HADITHA, IQ |
| Web Views: | 281 |
| Downloads: | 239 |
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